Buzz

Baltimore Sun tech reporter Gus Sentementes is used to writing profiles of emerging tech companies. 

But this time, Sentementes is the subject of a profile himself in Fast Company after creating an iPhone app called NestPix. The app allows homeowners to track how much money they are spending on renovations. 

"'People are looking for ways to protect the value of their home,'" Sentementes tells Fast Company. "'This can give them some kind of comfort.'"

You can read the rest of the story here. 

U.S. News & World Report has come out with its ranking of the best high schools in the nation and Maryland schools made the grade. 

High schools in Potomac, Bethesda and Rockville made the top 100. A total of 62 high schools in Maryland made the list, writes the Washington Post.

Schools were assessed on how well they meet state proficiency standards and prepared students for college. You can see the complete ranking here. 

Sean Lennon, the son of late music legend John Legend, recently paid a visit to a Hampden store Charlotte Elliott. 

Lennon was accompanied by his model/actress/musician girlfriend Charlotte Kemp Muhl, writes Baltimore Fishbowl.

"The pair showed interest in an antique rug, on which [Owner Charlotte] Hays Murray’s father Fred Hays, her co-owner, offered the young man a great deal," Fishbowl writes. "His girlfriend picked up a cookbook penned by Vincent Price."

You can read the rest of the story here. 

A subsidiary of growing Cardinal Financial of McLean, Va., has opened a Lutherville office, reports American Banker.

It's the third office it has opened in Maryland in the past month  as it tries to win business from larger banks that have scaled back their home lending. 

You can read the rest of the story here. 

Baltimore startup Parking Panda is shifting into high gear. 

The company, which rents out parking spaces in private garages and driveways and was highlighted in a Bmore Media feature in November, got some good ink in the Wall Street Journal.

"While some high-tech companies got their start in garages, a new crop of business founders, including Nick Miller of Baltimore, is giving fresh meaning to the term 'garage entrepreneur,'" the Wall Street Journal writes. Parking Panda is expanding to San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia after having closed $250,000 in funding from angel investors. 

You can read the rest of the story here. 

Charm City residents know that Baltimore gets a bad rap on the small and silver screens. 

But someone who writes for a national newspaper and doesn't ?live in Baltimore has come to the city's defense. 

Joe Queenan cites numerous examples of Baltimore's harsh treatment, starting with the most recent, The Raven. Starring John Cusack Edgar Allen Poe, the movie depicts innocent Baltimoreans getting murdered in the most gruesome manner. 

"Can the entertainment industry please stop picking on Baltimore?" Joe Queenan writes. 

Shows like the Wire and Homicide didn't do the city any favors either. In fact, the only time the city ever gets a break is when John Waters shows off the city's quirky characters, Queenan writes. 

The writer takes a yearly day trip Baltimore to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the National Museum of Dentistry (hey, wait, we've never even been there) and other sites. You can read Queenan's entire ode to Baltimore here. 

Open Table has selected 100 best brunch spots in the country. And on that list is Gertrude's, John Shields restaurant at the Baltimore Museum of Art. 

It's one of two Maryland restaurants on the list. The other is Mrs. K's Toll House in Silver Spring. 

You can see the entire list here. 

Facebook took its investor pitch on the road and made a pit stop in Baltimore, according to the New York Times. 

It also hit Boston, San Francisco and Chicago prior to its prepares to go public May 17 or 18. It's on track to raise nearly $11 billion with a market valuation of $86 billion, the Times writes. 

You can read the rest of the story here. 

Baltimore isn't a bad place to be if you're a woman in America. 

That's according to a report from the Measure of America, a project that analyzes the distribution of opportunity in the U.S.

The report ranks Baltimore No. 8 on a list of the top places for females. Women's Well Being: Ranking America's Top 25 Metro Areas measures life expectancy, education and earnings. 

Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Boston are listed in the top three. You can see the full report here. 

The Boys of Baraka, a movie about inner-city kids in Baltimore sent to a boarding school in Kenya, played at the Maryland Film Festival seven years ago.

It once again is in the spotlight, however, as the filmmakers are featured in a New York Times story on the creative tension between documentary film partners.

""Disagreements are an inherent, and productive, part of their working relationship," Grady tells the Times. “You’ve got creativity, money and ego involved.”

The two will feature their work again at the Maryland Film Festival this year with their movie Detropia. 

Is John Cusack really the best person to play Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven? 

We have no idea. Go read Entertainment Weekly. 

But we do know that the macabre Hollywood flick is set in 19th century Baltimore and it says so in all the movie reviews you read about the movie. 

Nice PR for Baltimore from a dead author!

The movie opened nationwide last weekend and is now No. 7 at the box office, according to the Internet Movie Database. It pulled in $7.25 million. 

Maryland's largest slots casino, developed by the Cordish Co., has set a June 6 opening date. Restaurants at the 4,750-slot-machine venue will include Bobby Flay's Burger Palace, the Prime Rib and Philips Seafood.

"State analysts project that Maryland Live!, once it is fully operational, will generate more than $400 million a year in slots revenue — nearly half of which would flow to state education programs under current law," writes the Washington Post. You can read the rest of the story here. 

US President Barack Obama? Check. That British crooner who swept the Grammy awards this year. Check.

Not surprising finds on Time's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World. 

There's one that Baltimoreans can be proud of. Freeman A Hrabowski III, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, made the list that even Mark Zuckerberg was left out of. 

"But perhaps the most envied science program in the country is at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County," Time writes. "That's where Freeman A. Hrabowski III, 61, has spent 20 years as president turning a humble commuter school into one of the nation's leading sources of African Americans who get Ph.D.s in science and engineering." 

You can read more about him here.  

Baltimore's Constellation Energy Group Inc. has nabbed a spot on a list of 100 socially responsible US companies. 

Corporate Responsibility Magazine placed in the No. 51 on its ranking. The magazine says it chose companies that take steps to address the environment, human rights, philanthropy and diversity. Read more about its methodology. 

Starbucks Corp., 3M Co., Walt Disney Co. and Darden Restaurants Inc. also made the cut. 

Chicago's Exelon Corp. recently acquired Constellation in a $7.9 billion deal. 

An old-time Baltimore beer's revival was featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Tim Miller of Easton bought the trademark rights for National Premium beer in 2010 and plans to produce as many as 100,000 cases in the next couple of years. 

His story, along with those of other entrepreneurs looking to bring back old brands, was highlighted in the April 18 issue of the Wall Street Journal. 

Miller tells the paper that he has lined up two distributors and hopes to start selling the beer later this year. You can read the story here.