In a filing in the foreclosure case of Spacey’s harborfront home in Baltimore’s Federal Hill, the actor asked the court to revoke the sale to a Potomac real estate investor. Trustees mishandled the auction, leading to an inadequate price of $3.24 million, and the buyer should be disqualified because of harassment, the document says.

A representative of buyer Sam Asgari called the claims “frivolous” and without merit.

“This is still the house of cards,” said Sam Sheibani, a Compass real estate agent who is representing Asgari, on Monday, referring to the popular Netflix TV series filmed in Baltimore in which Spacey starred.

Asgari is preparing a response to the latest filings in Baltimore City Circuit Court and plans to pursue eviction, Sheibani said.

Attorneys for Spacey, listed as Kevin Spacey Fowler, principal of home owner Clear Toaster LLC, accused Asgari of acting in bad faith.

“Mr. Asgari has continuously harassed Clear Toaster’s principal, Kevin Spacey Fowler, and has published false and defamatory statements and accusations against Clear Toaster’s principal, Kevin Spacey Fowler, who occupies the property as his home,” said Spacey’s attorney, Edward U. Lee III, in a motion Friday.

Spacey purchased the two-unit condo in the gated The Pier Homes at Harborview for $5.7 million in 2017. His friend and manager Evan Lowenstein owned the home, but the former “House of Cards” star recently laid claim to it, Lowenstein previously told The Sun.

The Oscar-winning Spacey, who has said he was left with millions of dollars of debt from fighting several lawsuits in the U.S. and Britain alleging sexual misconduct, owed back payments for the home.

Last summer, a city Circuit Court judge approved a foreclosure sale.

Spacey’s attorneys are arguing the court should revoke the July sale, which took place outside Baltimore Circuit Court and require trustees to resell the property.

They say trustees failed in their obligations to maximize the home’s price. They advertised it as a dwelling, the filing said, but left out details such as its size, 9,000 square feet on five levels, and amenities, such as seven full baths, a sauna, elevator, home theaters, a rooftop terrace and four-car garage.

The price at auction fell well below both the property’s assessed value of more than $5.4 million in July, and the outstanding principal balance of more than $3.8 million, the court document said.

It says Asgari should be disqualified, in part because he threatened eviction before the auction sale had been ratified and before he had possession of the home, placing a “notice about eviction” on the home Spacey has occupied as his primary residence. The sale is not final, the filing says, until an exception period expires and the court ratifies the sale.

Yet, Spacey’s filing says, the notice placed on the property on the day of the auction gave anyone residing in the home 15 days to notify Asgari, or the property would be considered abandoned and the locks changed, without a court order.

Asgari knew the home was not abandoned and intended only to “harass and coerce [Spacey] to leave his home when he was in no way obligated to do so,” the filing said. “In Mr. Asgari’s wrongful demand to have [Spacey] vacate the property, he threatened to pursue eviction as a result of the property being ‘abandoned.'”

Lee said Asgari contacted him in mid-August, “threatening to proceed with interviews with Inside Edition and CBS News that same day unless an immediate response was provided regarding the vacancy date and further threatening to start eviction proceedings the following Monday.”

Asgari views the chain of events differently, Sheibani said. Spacey simply won’t return something that no longer belongs to him, he said.

He is taking advantage of “my client’s generosity, requesting a large sum of money and a long time to vacate the property,” Sheibani said. “We simply want the property that rightly belongs to my client to be vacated and handed over.”

Lee, Spacey’s attorney, countered in the filing that Spacey has never “refused or threatened to refuse” to leave the home.

The document said Lee spoke with Asgari’s attorney Aug. 6 and proposed that Spacey be allowed to stay until about Feb. 1 in exchange for giving Asgari early entry to the home to begin planning to sell to an investor and agreeing not to file an objection to ratification of the sale.

But then a week later, Asgari offered $50,000 if Spacey would leave by Sept. 15, the filing says.

Interest rates on personal loans have steadily increased since early 2022, coinciding with the Federal Reserve’s efforts to curb inflation by raising the federal funds rate.

But anticipated Fed rate cuts before the end of this year may not bring personal loan rates down right away.

“Typically, we don’t see personal loan rates drop as a result of those rates dropping,” said Jean Hopkins, director of consumer lending at WeStreet Credit Union in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Changes to the federal funds rate have a greater impact on variable-rate credit products, such as credit cards or home equity lines of credit, she said. Personal loan rates, on the other hand, are driven by larger economic factors, such as inflation and unemployment.

Your exact personal loan rate is most influenced by your creditworthiness and income. If you’re planning to borrow this year, here are a few things you can do to get a low rate on a personal loan.

Maintain a high credit score

Lenders rely heavily on credit scores to determine how likely an applicant is to repay a loan. Generally, those with high scores get the lowest rates.

“If you have a high credit score, banks think that you’re a good risk to take,” says Spencer Betts, certified financial planner at Massachusetts-based Bickling Financial Services.

He says borrowers should check their credit report before applying for a personal loan and take note of any past-due credit accounts or accounts you don’t recognize, which could indicate identity theft.

You can access free weekly credit reports at AnnualCreditReport.com.

Potential borrowers looking to maintain or boost their credit scores should make on-time payments toward credit cards and other loans, Hopkins says, because payment history is the most important factor in your credit score calculation. She also says borrowers should maintain a low credit utilization, which is the percentage of available credit you’ve used on revolving accounts like credit cards.

“Make sure if you’re borrowing money on credit cards that you’re not borrowing more than, say, 30% or 40% of your balance on that line of credit,” she says.

Keep a low debt-to-income ratio

Another factor lenders consider when underwriting a personal loan is the percentage of your monthly income that goes toward debt payments.

“You want to make sure your debt-to-income ratio is low,” says Jen Hemphill, a Kansas-based accredited financial counselor and host of the Her Dinero Matters podcast. “The lower it is, you’re going to have a better chance of a lower interest rate.”

Debt-to-income ratio, or DTI, is calculated by dividing your total monthly debt payments by your monthly income. Multiply that figure by 100 to get the ratio expressed as a percentage. Hemphill suggests keeping your DTI around 30% or less, though some lenders will accept higher ratios.

If your DTI is high, consider paying down debt before applying for a personal loan for a chance at a better rate.

Hopkins suggests paying off smaller debts first to quickly eliminate those monthly payments and consequently lower your DTI.

Raising your income — which would also lower your DTI — may be a difficult task, but be sure to include all sources of income on a loan application. Many lenders count alimony, child support and Social Security payments when calculating DTI. You might even be able to include a partner’s salary as household income.

Compare offers to find the best deal

When you’re preparing to apply for a personal loan, it pays to compare offers from multiple lenders. Each lender has its own qualification requirements and underwriting process, so you could get a different APR from one lender to the next.

You can compare costs by pre-qualifying online. This process lets you preview your potential APR, monthly payment, loan amount and repayment term with only a soft credit pull, so your credit scores won’t be affected.

Pre-qualifying gives you “an idea of what interest rates are available for you based on your own situation,” Hemphill says. “That helps you shop around.”

She suggests paying special attention to the repayment terms you’re offered and how they affect the amount of interest you’ll pay over the life of the loan. Long terms may be appealing because they lower your monthly payment, she says, but they increase the total cost of the loan.

You can use a personal loan calculator to see how the given loan amount, term and interest rate affect monthly payments and interest costs.

If you have two competitive loan offers, compare perks and features to determine which is the right fit for your plans, Hemphill says. For example, some lenders provide a rate discount for setting up autopay or for having the lender directly pay off your other debts when you get a debt consolidation loan. Others may provide credit-building assistance so you can boost your score while you repay the loan.

Nicole Dow writes for NerdWallet. Email: articles@nerdwallet.com.

The article How to Score a Low Personal Loan Rate in 2024 originally appeared on NerdWallet.

According to Seattle-based real estate company Redfin, teachers nationwide can afford about 48% of rentals near their schools. That’s up from 41% last year.

“I’m optimistic this could be a trend instead of just a blip because Seattle has been moving in the right direction when it comes to adding housing supply to the market,” Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, said.

The bad news is this is still significantly below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, which were closer to 58%.

Redfin looked at 33 cities and found that new leases are sluggish because there are many units on the market.

Teacher salaries are also up almost 4% from last year. The numbers are even better in Seattle.

“In Seattle in particular, there was an 8% rise in median teacher salaries, so that also adds to teacher buying power when it comes to a rental,” Fairweather said.

In Portland, Oregon, teachers can afford 91% of rentals within commuting distance from their school.

In Miami, it’s less than 1%.

The news isn’t so great for teachers who want to buy homes.

Nationwide, teachers can only afford about 14% of homes near their schools. That number hasn’t changed since last year, but it’s down from 39% in 2019.

More teachers may be able to break into the housing market if interest rates start to drop.

Content from The National Desk is provided by Sinclair, the parent company of FOX45 News.

We all have floors, and they all get dirty. How you clean them will depend on what’s on those floors — are they hard surfaces or carpeted?

I’ve used plenty of vacuums, both traditional and robot vacuums, and they all have their advantages and disadvantages.

Today we’re looking at three vacuums. Two require work from you and one will take care of things by itself.

Yeedi M12 PRO+ Robot Vacuum

This is the most full-featured robot vacuum I’ve ever used.

The Yeedi M12 PRO+ ($899.99, yeedi.com) does a great job vacuuming and mopping.

It has a mop head system that can extend out into edges and corners (TruEdge Deep Mopping). The vacuum knows if it is moving over carpet or hard flooring. It will raise the mop heads to keep them from dragging on your carpets.

It has 11,000Pa suction power with a special V-shaped brush with ZeroTangle technology, which is handy for cleaning up after your shedding pets. It also has AI on-board to help with obstacle avoidance and 3D mapping of your rooms.

The vacuum has a home base all-in-one station that serves to charge the battery, offload dirt from the dustbin and clean the mop heads (with heated water and hot air drying). There’s enough room in the base station that you only have to empty the dirt from the base station every few months.

The 5,200 milliamp-hour battery can run the vacuum for up to 290 minutes of cleaning before it needs a recharge. It will return to the base for recharging when necessary, then it will continue on with cleaning if it is not finished.

Ultenic U16 Flex Cordless Vacuum

I’ve had a cordless vacuum in the house for several years and it gets way more use than our upright model. They are just handy to grab and go. Take it where you need it, pop on whatever attachment will work best and get to cleaning.

The Ultenic U16 Flex Cordless ($179.99, ultenic.com) has the usual attachments and it has a trick up its sleeve.

The extension tube that lets you vacuum floors has a hinged action to let you reach under tables and other furniture without getting down on your knees. The tube is also adjustable for length.

The powerful motor has 45,000Pa of suction with a battery that can last for up to 60 minutes in ECO mode, 40 minutes in standard mode and 20 minutes in turbo mode. It features a two-stage HEPA filter to clean the air as you vacuum. The dust bin empties easily and holds one liter.

There is a color LED display to show the modes plus how much time remains on the charge.

The brush for floors is anti-static and tangle free, so pet hair should not slow you down. It features a floor-level bright green light that really shows you where dust is hiding on your floors.

The vacuum head has a built-in brush that can be used without any other attachments. It also includes a crevice tool and the flexible floor brush. There are other attachments available for purchase.

It includes a wall-mounted charging rack for convenient storage/charging.

The Ultenic U16 is a good vacuum that is priced competitively.

Vactidy Blitz V9

The Vactidy Blitz V9 ($79.99, vactidy.com) is a cordless vacuum that did a great job on my hardwood floors.

It has a battery with a 45-minutes runtime in low-power mode. The motor has 25,000Pa of suction and a one-liter dustbin that empties with the push of a button.

There is a small LED display to show the motor speed (there are two speeds) and the amount of battery charge remaining.

The floor-cleaning brush head swivels up to 180-degrees to let you reach under beds or low furniture.

Attachments include the floor brush, crevice nozzle, 2-in-1 brush and extension tube with an adjustable length.

The motor has a two-stage HEPA filter.

The Vactidy Blitz V9 is the cheapest vacuum I’ve tested, but it performed really well on hard surfaces and low pile carpets. Longer pile carpeting gave the vacuum a harder time. I had to go slow and go slow over dirty areas more than once, but it did finish the job.

Jim Rossman is a tech columnist for Tribune News Service. He may be reached at jrossmantechadviser@gmail.com.

©2024 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Some days plumbers and electricians arrived. Construction crews carried in stainless steel sinks. Ovens and ranges showed up. No one noticed the concrete finishers. Then came the moving vans and the pickup trucks.

But word quietly spread that something amazing was working away at Hooper House, a reconditioned 1886 residence that once housed one of Baltimore’s cotton and canvas sailcloth barons.

For years, Hooper House sat at the corner of Saint Paul and 23rd Streets like that big, obsolete antique sideboard or china closet that no one really wanted. Yes, this boldly Victorian house had a substantial presence, with 77 mostly huge windows and 33 rooms, a dumbwaiter and a set of servants’ stairs hidden behind old plasterboard.

While there are grand staircases worthy of a private club, what do you do with this remarkable but problematic residential relic of Baltimore’s 19th century manufacturing elite? It’s so big, and how do you make economic sense of oversized fireplaces and chimneys that could accommodate two Santas?

Then, two years ago, a fire broke out on its upper floors, and though the damage was contained, the water used to fight the blaze created its own set of preservation issues — plaster damage and warped floors.

A developer and creative partner rolled up their sleeves, determined to make the place into a working space with a restaurant and bar. The result of this summer’s transformation is an unexpected knockout.

On a recent morning, dozens of diverse young persons brought their laptops to Mama Koko’s, what might just be Baltimore’s most elegant new eating and cocktail establishment.

The grand old Hooper family parlor has been transformed into a breakfast bar — and later in the day, a full cocktail setting. Customers were having ham and eggs at 9 a.m., but by evening, the scene changes. It’s no longer latte and tea, but rum, citrus and herbs.

“Small businesses wanted to operate in a setting that is singular in the city,” said Matt Oppenheim, a developer who commutes to Baltimore from Washington, D.C. “We are able to offer something unique and special in Old Goucher. We provide a space where clients and customers are going to be inspired.”

Oppenheim’s business partner is Michael Haskins Jr., the proprietor of the fashion clothing brand Currency Studio, who lives nearby in a renovated East 20th Street home in the Barclay community.

“There’s an experience of coming here, walking in the front door, up the steps and seeing this interior,” said Haskins as he gestured toward the high ceilings and unhurried, stylish decor. It’s all reminiscent of a first class ocean liner lounge, or at least the drawing room of some merchant prince and princess.

“We collaborated heavily with Ayo Hogans, an owner of Mama Koko’s, who is a professional fashion stylist,” said Oppenheim.

There’s a new outdoor patio with teakwood tables. And on a cool September morning, what better place to catch up on your emails?

So the question has to be asked, what is Hooper House?

Just inside the front door is a proper office directory, listing its business tenants who occupy the former bedrooms and library on the upper floors. They range from a hair salon, to fashion designers and a candle maker.

Haskins says that despite the business uses, the old house still retains its residential atmosphere within the collection of old Goucher College buildings and 1880s rowhouses in midtown Baltimore.

“It never really feels like it’s booming here. It’s just Baltimore,” Haskins said. “As you move through the city, you can miss what is going on inside this preserved place and the architecture we have preserved. It was important to welcome these businesses — to put the creative class in one place.”

“Glyn was a great guy. Hardworking and reliable,” said E. Ray Lichty, a retired CSX executive, longtime colleague and friend. “Tough but fair.”

Glyndon Leslie Bailey, son of Leslie Bailey, an A&P grocery store manager, and Catherine Bailey, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville.

He began his lengthy railroad career with the B&O Railroad in 1940 in the freight office at Camden Station after graduating from Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington.

During World War II, he served in an Army ordnance unit from 1943 to 1945 and obtained the rank of sergeant.

Mr. Bailey, who was known as Glyn, was promoted to traveling auditor in 1951, and from 1954 to 1956, he was assigned to Columbus, Ohio, before returning to Baltimore and settling in Catonsville.

He was a traveling auditor responsible for covering the B&O’s eastern territory, and in 1962, he was named chief traveling auditor.

After all freight accounting offices were consolidated into zone accounting offices, Mr. Bailey was put in charge as auditor of all the bureaus.

“As a traveling auditor back in the 1940s and 1950s, he would ride steam-powered trains all over his territory to check the records and ensure all was well and the cash was properly handled,” Mr. Lichty explained in an email. “One day it might be a train to Oakland for a few days and then off to Aberdeen for another review.”

At the time, Mr. Bailey didn’t own a car and commuted to work at the B&O’s headquarters in downtown Baltimore by streetcar.

“When they did audits for a large station, such as the ticket office in the B&O Building, a team would arrive after the office closed for the day and work all night checking the paperwork and the handling of cash and tickets, finishing up in time to open the next morning,” Mr. Lichty wrote.

“When I came to the B&O in 1954, I met him on my first day. Glyn was my assistant director,” said Diane Homburg.

“He was a true gentleman who never spoke a harsh word,” she said. “He was a great boss and fair, and he never played favorites, but fair bosses can’t always be popular,” said Ms. Homburg, who retired in 2009 from CSX where she was a computer programmer. “We became great friends and I was so glad to have known him.”

In 1975, Mr. Bailey was promoted again to auditor-accounts receivable, and finally to director of customer accounting, a position he held until retiring in 1980.

After undergoing bypass surgery in 1990, Mr. Bailey joined The Mended Hearts Inc., a support group for those who had undergone heart surgery.

In retirement, he and his wife, Mary Jeanne Bailey, whom he married in 1943, moved to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and then returned to Maryland in 1999.

He later became assistant regional director of Mended Hearts and established chapters in hospitals in Baltimore; Wilmington, Delaware; Myrtle Beach and Orangeburg, South Carolina. He also volunteered at LifeBridge Health Sinai Hospital.

He was a member and past president of RABO, a CSX retirees organization.

He was an avid model railroader.

His wife of 72 years died in 2015.

Mr. Bailey was a communicant of the Roman Catholic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Towson, where a Mass of Christian Burial was offered Aug. 28.

He is survived by a son, Thomas M. Bailey of Louisville; a daughter, Mary Jo Rodney of Towson; four grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Traveling during peak season can be a drag. Visiting Europe in the summer, for example, means contending with higher prices, tight availability and throngs of fellow travelers.

That’s why many savvy travelers choose to vacation during “shoulder seasons” that lie between peak season and low season — spring and autumn for many destinations. Yet remote work and overcrowded peak seasons have increased the popularity of these shoulder seasons.

Take the Jersey Shore, a popular seaside destination in New Jersey, for example. This coastal region has seen a significant increase in visitors during the fall months, with October through December occupancy rates in 2023 up by as much as 50% compared to pre-pandemic levels, according to a 2024 report from AirDNA, a short-term rental analytics firm. And it’s not the only place that’s getting more visitors outside of peak season.

As many destinations see more tourists spill into the shoulders, what’s the best way to avoid these offseason crowds?

Avoid trendy destinations

If everyone is zagging their travel plans, maybe it’s a good time to zig.

For example, Japan saw a huge influx of travelers this spring. The number of U.S. citizens departing for Japan in March through May of 2024 rose 17% compared with the same months in 2023, and jumped a whopping 41% compared with the same months in 2019, according to the International Trade Administration. Similarly, Greece saw nearly three times as many U.S. visitors from March through May in 2024 compared to the same period in 2019.

Closer to home, popular national parks have seen a surge in shoulder season crowds.

In Maine, “Acadia National Park, which was once highly seasonal with peak demand only in July and August, now sees high demand stretching from June through October,” Chloé Garlaschi, a communications manager for AirDNA, said in an email. “This trend is part of a broader shift where national park destinations are attracting visitors outside of their traditional peak periods.”

If everyone you know is talking about visiting Tokyo or Athens, Greece, maybe it’s worth researching locales that have seen fewer tourists in recent years. For example, Australia saw 27% fewer U.S. visitors in the spring months of 2024 compared with the same months in 2019. China, which has seen much less U.S. tourism since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, had 78% fewer U.S. visitors this spring compared with 2019.

Embrace the offbeat

Even within popular destinations, it’s possible to venture to offbeat locales with far fewer tourists. Most travelers to Japan visit the Eastern cities of Tokyo and Kyoto, but fewer venture inland to mountain towns such as Takayama, which boasts impressive temples and a quiet, quaint atmosphere. And few foreign tourists visit the island prefecture of Okinawa in Japan’s south, despite its warm weather and distinct culture from the mainland.

In the U.S., well-known national parks like Acadia (in Maine) and Yosemite (in California) may be popular during shoulder season. But lesser-known parks such as Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado or California’s Channel Islands National Park may see smaller crowds.

Avoid high prices

When demand for travel to a destination peaks, so do prices for airfare, accommodations and ground transportation. So looking for deals can save you money and help you avoid the most crowded spots.

According to data provided by Hopper, a travel booking platform, these destinations in the U.S. are seeing the biggest spike in flight booking demand this autumn:

• Seattle.
• Portland, Ore.
• Salt Lake City.
• San Jose, Calif.
• Hawaii Island, Hawaii.
• Spokane, Washington.
• Lihue, Hawaii.
• Indianapolis.
• Portland, Maine.
• Asheville, N.C.

Meanwhile, these international destinations are seeing the biggest price spikes:

• Seoul, South Korea.
• Shanghai.
• Athens, Greece.
• Frankfurt, Germany.
• Venice, Italy.
• Zurich.
• Lima, Peru.
• Brussels.
• Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
• Bangalore, India.

Of course, just because a flight is expensive doesn’t mean the destination will be crowded, but it does provide a proxy for demand. These lists give a sense of which spots are hot even when the weather isn’t.

Know thy shoulder

Not all shoulder seasons follow the same pattern, so knowing the right time to travel to avoid crowds means more than just leaving in the spring or fall.

“In Phoenix and Scottsdale, [Arizona], we see an unconventional seasonal pattern,” Garlaschi said. “The peak season actually falls in February and March due to the mild winter climate.”

And keep in mind that, even though travel data show shoulder seasons getting more popular, crowds (and prices) will still be much lower during these off-peak periods. You don’t have to travel to the North Pole in winter to avoid overtourism.

Sam Kemmis writes for NerdWallet. Email: skemmis@nerdwallet.com. Twitter: @samsambutdif.

The article How to Avoid the New ‘Shoulder Season’ Crowds originally appeared on NerdWallet.

The restaurant group confirmed plans to put a restaurant in the space; however, a name and concept are not “ready to be released,” according to a Thursday news release. While details are sparse, the group is “dedicated to honoring the historical significance of the location while bringing an exciting option to the residents and visitors of Annapolis,” according to the release.

“We greatly respect the rich history of Annapolis and the Stevens Hardware building, and while we are excited to bring an Atlas concept to this iconic location, we have no plans to alter the building’s historic facade,” Joe Sweeney, spokesperson for Atlas, wrote in an email Friday.

Stevens Hardware, at 142 Dock St., closed its doors in December 2012 after decades of operation. The space was occupied by Mission BBQ from 2016 until it closed in January. 

Dock Street will be the restaurant group’s fourth location in the downtown area. In addition to the Choptank on Compromise Street, the Baltimore-based group plans on opening two  establishments in the Annapolis Waterfront Hotel space that will be left vacant by Pusser’s Caribbean Grille after it closes later this year. A tequila bar called Armada and an Italian chophouse, Marmo, are expected to open next summer.

Atlas Restaurant Group was founded in 2012 by President and CEO Alex Smith. Smith and his brother Eric Smith, a co-owner of Atlas Restaurant Group, are nephews of Baltimore Sun owner David D. Smith.

“We are thrilled to expand our presence in Annapolis and to be a part of the vibrant community here,” Alex Smith said in the Thursday statement. “The historic nature of 142 Dock Street provides a unique opportunity to blend the past and the future, and we look forward to sharing more details about our plans in the coming months.”

“His body gave out and he died of natural causes,” said his daughter Shelly Himmelrich.

Born in Rejowiec, Poland, he was the son of Max Pechter and Sara Bittner. Beginning in 1939, as a 5-year-old, he and his family fled the Nazi occupation of Poland. They moved east and reached the Russian border on horse and buggy, then rode cattle cars with other refugees. They lived in Siberian and Uzbekistan displaced persons camps before reaching Baltimore in 1949.

His father burned all his personal documents to hide their Orthodox Jewish background.

Mr. Pechter’s mother told the family: “Tomorrow will be better. Tomorrow will be better.” She also advised her son to take care of other people throughout his life and planted the seeds of his philanthropic endeavors.

He attended Talmudical Academy and Forest Park High School, where he met his future wife, Marilyn Bernstein. He studied at the University of Maryland, College Park and served two years in the Army.

“My father dove into real estate, first as a laborer, then a broker and quickly scraping a few dollars from friends and family to become an investor and developer,” his daughter said.

He built homes along Route 40 West, along York Road and in Parkville and White Marsh. He also owned the Timonium and Perry Hall shopping centers and the old Enchanted Forest property in Howard County.

In a 1999 Sun story, Mr. Pechter said he believed the power of hate can be diminished only through education. At that time he was the largest private donor to the then-new Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem.

She said her father was inspired by his parents and his journey to help the less fortunate.

“He truly had a rare kindness in him that was inherited straight from his mother. He did all of the things, and worked a lot professionally and in service to others,” said his daughter Shelly.

Named Tau Epsilon Phi’s 1989 Man of the Year, he was a founder of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s Endowment Fund. He was honored by the Midtown Churches of Baltimore, a group based in the Old Goucher neighborhood, for his work for the homeless.

Mr. Pechter was also honored by the Jewish National Fund in 1995 for a lifetime of work.

He was active in the Associated Jewish Charities and Welfare Fund and the State of Israel Bonds. He also supported the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

He was a Sinai Hospital board member, and a cafe there is named in his parents’ honor.

Survivors include his wife of 68 years, Marilyn Bernstein Pechter; two sons, Martin Pechter, of Boca Raton, and Jeffrey Pechter, of Delray Beach, Florida; two daughters, Shelly Himmelrich, of Delray Beach, and Melissa Pechter, of Housatonic, Massachusetts; a sister, Dora Schwartz, of Florida; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Services were held Aug. 26 at B’nai Torah Congregation in Boca Raton.

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump suggested to business leaders Thursday that his plans to increase tariffs on foreign imports would solve seemingly unrelated challenges such as the rising cost of child care in the U.S.

The GOP presidential nominee promised to lead what he called a “national economic renaissance” by increasing tariffs, slashing regulations to boost energy production and drastically cutting government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the U.S.

Trump was asked at his appearance before the Economic Club of New York about his plans to drive down child care costs to help more women join the workforce.

“Child care is child care, it’s something you have to have in this country. You have to have it,” he said. Then, he said his plans to tax imports from foreign nations at higher levels would “take care” of such problems.

“We’re going to be taking in trillions of dollars, and as much as child care is talked about as being expensive, it’s — relatively speaking — not very expensive, compared to the kind of numbers we’ll be taking in,” he said.

Trump has embraced tariffs as he appeals to working-class voters who oppose free-trade deals and the outsourcing of factories and jobs. But in his speech Thursday and his economic plans as a whole, Trump has made a broader — to some, implausible — promise on tariffs: that they can raise trillions of dollars to fund his agenda without those costs being passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices.

His campaign attacks Democratic nominee Kamala Harris ’ proposals to increase corporate tax rates by saying they would ultimately be borne by workers in the form of fewer jobs and lower incomes. Yet taxes on foreign imports would have a similar effect with businesses and consumers having to absorb those costs in the form of higher prices.

The United States had $3.8 trillion worth of imports last year, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Trump in the past has talked about universal tariffs of at least 10%, if not higher, though he has not spelled out details about how these taxes would be implemented.

Kimberly Clausing, an economist at the University of California, Los Angeles, has repeatedly warned in economic analyses about the likely damage to people’s finances from Trump’s tariffs. She noted that Trump wants tariffs to pay for everything, even though they can’t.

“I believe Trump has already spent this revenue, to pay for his tax cuts (which it doesn’t), or to perhaps end the income tax (which it cannot),” she said in an email. ” “It is unclear how there would be any revenues left over to fund child care.”

Trump was asked to talk about child care

Child care is unaffordable for many Americans and financially precarious for many day care operators and their employees. Democrats in Congress have long argued the child care industry is in crisis and requires a drastic increase in federal aid — and some Republicans have joined them. Trump pointed to his tariff ideas as well as efforts he announced to reduce what he described as “waste and fraud.”

“I want to stay with child care, but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just told you about,” he said.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance was also asked about proposals to lower day care costs earlier this week, and he suggested making it easier for families to keep the kids at home with a grandparent or another relative.

“Make it so that, maybe like grandma or grandpa wants to help out a little bit more,” he said. “If that happens, you relieve some of the pressure on all the resources that we are spending on day care.”

Vance also suggested training more people to work in day cares, and said some states required what he called “ridiculous certification that has nothing to do with taking care of kids.”

Trump laid out a series of economic proposals

In his speech, Trump said he would immediately issue “a national emergency declaration” to achieve a massive increase in the domestic energy supply and eliminate 10 current regulations for every new regulation the government adopts. He said Tesla and Space X CEO Elon Musk has agreed to head a commission to perform a financial audit of the federal government that would save trillions of dollars.

“My plan will rapidly defeat inflation, quickly bring down prices and reignite explosive economic growth,” Trump claimed.

Trump has previously floated the idea of chopping the corporate tax rate to 15%, but on Thursday clarified that would be solely for companies that produce in the U.S. The corporate rate had been 35% when he became president in 2017, and he later signed a bill lowering it.

Harris calls for raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21%. Her policy proposals this week have been geared toward promoting more entrepreneurship, a bet that making it easier to start new companies will increase middle-class prosperity.

On Thursday, Trump attacked Harris’ proposals on banning price gouging and accused her of embracing Marxism and communism.

“She wants four more years to enforce the radical left agenda that poses a fundamental threat to the prosperity of every American family and America itself,” he said.

He also vowed to end what he called Harris’ “anti-energy crusade,” promising that energy prices would be cut in half, although energy prices are often driven by international fluctuations. He said an emergency declaration would help with rapid approvals for new drilling projects, pipelines, refineries, power plants and reactors, where local opposition is generally fierce.

And he also said he would ask Congress to pass legislation to ban the spending of taxpayer money on people who have entered the country illegally. He specifically said he would bar them from obtaining mortgages in California, targeting a bill passed in that state last week. Throughout his campaign, Trump has railed against the economic impact of the influx of migrants that have entered the country in recent years and their strain on some government services.

The Harris campaign issued a memo accusing Trump of wanting to hurt the middle class, arguing his ideas would expand the national debt and shrink economic growth and job creation.

“He wants our economy to serve billionaires and big corporations,” the campaign said in a statement.

Their dueling economic proposals are likely to be central to the upcoming presidential debate on Tuesday. Harris arrived Thursday in downtown Pittsburgh to devote the next several days to preparing for the debate. She intentionally picked a key part of the battleground state of Pennsylvania to hone her ideas ahead of their showdown.

Trump plans to rely heavily on tariffs

In June, the right-leaning Tax Foundation estimated that Trump’s proposed tariffs would amount to a $524 billion yearly tax hike that would shrink the economy and cost the equivalent of 684,000 jobs. After Trump floated tariffs as high as 20% in August, the Harris campaign seized on an analysis suggesting that figure would raise a typical family’s expenses by almost $4,000 annually.

The money raised by tariffs would not be enough to offset the cost of his various income tax cuts, including a plan to whittle the corporate rate to 15% from 21%. The Penn Wharton Budget Model put the price tag on that at $5.8 trillion over 10 years.

Economists have warned about Trump’s plans to impose tariffs that he says would return manufacturing jobs to the U.S. Some have said such taxes on imports could worsen inflation, though he is vowing to cut down costs. Inflation peaked in 2022 at 9.1% but has since eased to 2.9% as of last month.

“Some might say it’s economic nationalism. I call it common sense. I call it America First,” he said on Thursday.

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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Boak reported from Pittsburgh. Associated Press writers Moriah Balingit and Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux in Washington contributed to this report.