If you’re like most people in Maryland, chances are you haven’t switched your business or home over from your regular power supplier — BGE, Pepco, Delmarva, etc. — to a competitive supplier.

As of the end of August, the Public Service Commission reports that 28.8 percent of the state’s 239,031 commercial and industrial businesses prefer competitive supply and that 4.1 percent of the state’s nearly 2 million residential customers are shopping for power (that’s an increase from 2.8 percent of homeowners who had switched as of January).

With so many options and little effort by the state to educate consumers, it’s not too surprising that Marylanders haven’t jumped on the competitive supply bandwagon.

To clear up all that confusion,  a company called BidURenergy.com has created a service that lets businesses and residents plug in their information and do little other work to get a good deal.

The staff at BidURenergy.com will analyze electricity and gas use over the last 12 to 24 months, identify incorrect charges from the utility and recoup any overcharges, and then issue a request for proposals to suppliers licensed in the customer’s state within a few days.

The service is free, and the company says it doesn’t get paid based on getting contracts signed between suppliers and customers — suppliers pay a uniform fee — so there’s no bias when it zeroes in on the best contract for the customer.

I haven’t tried it, but it sounds like an easy way to see if competitive supply might save you or your business money.

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As of this morning’s commute I am officially a field tester of the Maryland Transit Administration’s new Charm Card.

The Charm Card is a rechargeable plastic fare card, just like the Washington Metro’s SmarTrip card. Instead of buying paper passes daily,weekly or monthly you can add money to the card as needed — with the option to load it with weekly or monthly passes as well.

So, I plunked $20 into the vending machine this morning — paying with credit card is apparently forthcoming, but not available yet. And, on the first time out, everything went as expected, with no problems.

I can’t say I was really expecting there to be any problems; it’s not like using rechargeable fare cards is a novel idea.  The SmarTrip card launched in May 1999, and more than a million cards have been issued.

But the MTA is not taking chances. After a two-month field test on the subway system, it’s on to a test of the Light Rail and buses. That means it won’t launch systemwide until some point next year.

I’ll provide updates periodically of how the experiment is faring.

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Today, the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore launched its new site that’s intended to help commuters figure out how they can get to Harbor East without a car, or at least show them alternatives. The site, entitled “A Smarter Way to Get There,” has some cool-looking features, though I’m not having great success in using it right yet. Over time, it will probably get easier as they refine it.

Basically, here’s how it works: the site is oriented around a map with 11 icons below it, for the various Maryland Transit Administration lines and the Baltimore’s pending Charm City Circulator. You can click one of the options and see what resources are available around Harbor East. For example, click on the bicycle and it will show you public bike racks around the area. (And fun facts. Did you know that you burn 85 calories in a ten minute bike ride?) But it’s hard to look at other parts of the city where commuters might stop or be coming from. I’m sure that wouldn’t be too hard to fix.

Overall, it’s an interesting idea, because the Harbor East area, with its relatively narrow, two-way streets, is not going to wind up being a place where everybody can drive their own car to work. As Robbie Whelan and I wrote last year, many of the intersections in that area are projected to become inadequate if the growth continues apace. Using the existing public transportation could be helpful, but everyone seems to acknowledge that it’s going to be hard to accommodate growth down there without the Red Line, an east-west light rail link that’s years away.

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With tight budgets this holiday season, here’s one way to make yourself feel better about the upcoming spending spree — make everyone else’s spending work in your favor by investing in toys.

According to a Stifel Nicolaus report this week, Mattel’s entertainment pipeline is building. For one, the toy manufacturer has reached an agreement with Universal Studios to create a live-action feature film based on its Barbie property. Columbia Pictures will also acquire the rights to do a film based Mattel’s Masters of the Universe property. Release dates for both are unknown but the report’s authors Drew E. Crum and David Pang say they expect to see products on shelves next year or in 2011.

“Hollywood drives toy sales, in our opinion, so we view this as a positive for Mattel,” they wrote.

Mattel also scored big with the most (10) items on the Toys ‘R’ Us 2009 Hot Tot Holiday Toys list released this week, which Crum and Pang say is pretty much free promotion for toy manufacturers. Other manufacturers to score were Hasbro with five items. JAKKS Pacific and Leapfrog had one item each.

Lastly, the analysts say toys will outperform video games this holiday season.

“The installed hardware base for video games is saturated (note recent price cuts on Xbox and PS3 in an effort to stimulate sales) and historically, toys have gained share against video games during this period in the cycle,” Crum and Pang wrote. “And that’s the assumption certain retailers are making for the holidays, including Toys ‘R’ Us, whose product mix will skew to toys.”

So there you have it. It’s the old “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” philosophy — especially for parents. Rather than spend all that money for the toy your kid’s “gotta have” this December only to have them forget about it in a month, this way you might get a little something for yourself out of the deal.

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If you’re like most Americans, you’ll choose comfort over conservation in most cases.

Environmentalists have been working overtime to try to change that phenomenon, campaigning for people to turn the thermostat up a few degrees in the summer and down a couple in the winter, but now the outreach effort has made its way beyond the cozy confines of the living room and into the bathroom.

In what the Washington Post’s David A. Fahrenthold is calling the “battle for America’s behinds,” environmentalists are trying to change the way toilet-paper makers manufacture the fluffy white stuff, preferably in favor of the stiffer, thinner paper you find in public restrooms.

At issue is the practice of cutting down old trees — valued for absorbing carbon dioxide — to make toilet paper, instead of recycling paper for a product that is used for mere moments.

“The reason for this fight lies in toilet-paper engineering. Each sheet is a web of wood fibers, and fibers from old trees are longer, which produces a smoother and more supple web. Fibers made from recycled paper — in this case magazines, newspapers or computer printouts — are shorter. The web often is rougher,” the Post reports.

One company has bowed to a 4 -year attack campaign from Greenpeace. Kimberly-Clark, maker of Kleenex and Cottonelle, agreed to change its practices and said by 2011, 40 percent of the fiber in its products will come from recycled paper or sustainable forests.

Toilet paper and tissues have a 5 percent share of the U.S. forest-products industry, no great shakes compared to the 26 percent accounted for by the cardboard packaging and paper industry (more than half of which is made from recycled products).

Environmentalists think those numbers could be better, but manufacturers say that their customers want soft. Period.

A May Consumer Reports survey didn’t give recycled toilet paper brands like Seventh Generation and Marcal’s Small Steps a glowing review  — “only so-so for softness” — but it beats the thin and wimpy rating given to Scott 1000, which looks like it doesn’t include any recycled content. The video challenge can be seen here.

Given the sales of Marcal’s Small Steps and Seventh Generation, $13 million and $8 million in the last year, respectively, compared to $703 million for Scott and $424 million for Quilted Northern, it seems like only the greenest of greenies use the recycled products behind closed doors.

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Just read an article in the most recent Business Week edition about home loans backed by the US Dept. of Agriculture (USDA Home Loans: Subprime Redux?). Gist of the article is that the loan program offers $0 down and 100% financing, conditions awfully similar to those subprime loans that have wreaked so much havoc.

A quick look at eligible areas for the program on the USDA website shows that there are some prime areas in the state. Links to search for eligible areas are on the left side.

Obviously, most of the urban areas in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County and others are ineligible but there are pockets that might work.

Is this a viable tool to get people in homes? Or, will it be another program that will cause headaches down the road?

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Who says there’s nothing to do in small towns? On the contrary, when there’s nothing to do but watch the grass grow and everybody knows everyone else, you have to get creative for entertainment.

Hence, a news release I came across this week advertising the grand opening of Wilbur’s Corn Maze in Chestertown (population 4,746). Inspired by the children’s classic Charlotte’s Web, the maze will host “aMazeing Races” between teams of local vendors or individual teams every weekend from now until Oct. 25.

The corn maze’s outline is in the shape of Wilber the pig from Charlotte’s Web and free copies of the book will be given to children who attend. And — naturally — anyone named Charlotte gets in for free.

I love this stuff. Seriously. Who doesn’t get excited about a romp through a corn field? Or building a scarecrow or dressing your pet like Wilbur the pig? I dare you to find a place that’s doing this in the city.

The weekend event also includes local vendors and a pumpkin patch for younger children and is hosted by Shared Opportunity Service Inc., a non-profit family support center. A grand opening dinner will be on Friday.

Individual ticket prices are $4 to $10. Family and group rates are available.

See you at the corn field…

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How much do you walk every day? Are you perhaps one of those women who carry their heels in a bag and walk to work in more comfortable shoes? (I, for one, am guilty of that during the warmer months and wear my flip flops everywhere I possibly can.)

Well, if so you might want in on a contest that’s part of a promotional campaign being run by Baltimore-based Warschawski for its client GOR-TEX. The company, which makes waterproof/breathable fabric, has partnered with Soles4Souls, a charity that provides shoes to people in need, to launch the “How Far Can One Pair Go?” national shoe drive and footwear promotion.

The campaign encourages consumers to donate shoes or money to the charity from now until Dec. 31 at select retail partners or online at www.howfarcanonepairgo.com. Gore will also donate $5 to Soles4Souls for each pair of shoes made with the GORE-TEX brand technology purchased through the website during the campaign (up to $10,000 total). As of Sept. 23, $400 has been donated to the charity.

The contest requires entrants to submit a short essay (no longer than this post) on how far you walk every day. The winner and a friend will travel with Soles4Souls to give away shoes during a distribution trip in June. Ten runners up will get a free pair of GOR-TEX shoes.

Seeing as Baltimore was voted one of America’s top walking cities (I’m assuming that’s because of the Inner Harbor where it’s less likely to get run down by a Mack truck barreling down a narrow city street), I’d expect to see some strong representation here on this front. Let’s show those San Franciscans (voted best walking city) that ridiculously steep hills aren’t the only elements that make a good walking story.

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All right, before you start freaking out over that subject line, I’m sure Camden Yards is perfectly safe. But it did get you to click on this post, didn’t it?

But as for the question at hand, we may have a specific answer in a few months after a safety study on the ballpark is finished. The Maryland Stadium Authority recently hired Chicago-based Hillard Heintze to conduct a comprehensive security threat and vulnerability assessment of the Camden Yards Sport Complex (which includes the ballpark, the warehouse and M&T Bank Stadium).

Stadium Authority officials at their last public meeting mentioned that the impact the sports complex’s proximity to D.C. was an element they wanted covered.

But here’s my question — what about the little things? The last several times I’ve gone to either ballpark (D.C. or Baltimore), I’ve noticed the bag check at the security has gone a little lax. So far it’s just encouraged me to try and sneak food into Nationals Park (thank you O’s for letting me bring in my own food without the risk of getting mustard on my wallet).  But what kind of tricks could ill-intentioned people pull?

And the same does not go for football games — especially the Ravens, which seems like the equivalent of going through airport security. At least it is for the guys…finally a perk to being a woman that involves shorter lines!

What’s your assessment as a fan of the security at sporting games? Are some venues in this region better than others?

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Calling all ACC fans — have you ever heard of Buster Sports? Maybe you will after Baltimore firm Warschawski PR gets a crack at it.

Raleigh, N. C.-based Buster Sports, an online tailgating and networking community for college football and basketball fans, selected Warschawski this week to build its brand on a national level. The site is relatively new (founded last year) but includes content from former college coaches and allows users to interact with those experts, which distinguishes it from other fan forums.

Looking at the roster of coaches, I’d like to see what the firm does with this cast. All highly touted coaches with accomplished careers, most didn’t end on a hot streak.

Here’s the breakdown:

• Tommy Bowden: 90-49 lifetime, won a conference title with Tulane University in 1998,  fired from Clemson University last season
• Tommy Tuberville: 110-60 lifetime, conference title with Auburn University in 2004, resigned from Auburn after last season
• Jim Donnan: 104-40 lifetime, Division I-AA National Championship with Marshall University in 1992, fired by University of Georgia president at end of 2000 season, now a broadcaster and most recently selected to the College Football Hall of Fame for his success at Marshall
• Terry Donahue: former UCLA coach who won four New Year’s Day Bowl games in a row (1983-1986), fired as the San Francisco 49ers general manager in 2005, now a football analyst
• Mike Gottfried: 75-56-4 lifetime (1978-89), ended career at University of Pittsburgh
• Dennis Franchione: 107-81 (Division I) lifetime, winner of eight conference championships and one divisional crown, resigned from Texas A&M in 2007 under controversy
• Glen Mason: 123-121-1 lifetime, three-time conference coach of the year winner, fired from University of Minnesota in 2007, now a football analyst.

Granted, most “former coaches” were probably fired from their last job. Otherwise they’d still be coaching. But given that most of these guys left after controversy or after a string of disappointments, I’d be interested to see if Warschawski plays upon that (if at all) given the coaches’ interaction with fans.

I for one, would like to have a few words with Donahue about my beloved 49ers…

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