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Sierra Nevada Corp., a woman-owned federal contractor in Sparks, Nev., has won a $609.94 million contract to provide enforcement aircraft to the Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection, with the contract to be handled at the company's Hagerstown facility.

"This is a strategic win for us in realizing our diversification objectives into Homeland Security Department as well as others, like international markets," said president Eren Ozmen in a statement.

The initial base contract is for $95 million for five Beechcraft 350ER aircraft with four one-year options up to 30 aircraft over the life of the program.

Dimensions frontrunner to buy hospitals

Dimensions Healthcare, the management company that runs Prince George's County's hospital system, appears to be the front-runner to buy the three county-owned facilities in a government sale, officials said at a meeting Wednesday.

At the meeting at Laurel Regional Hospital, members of the Prince George's Hospital Authority said they have several proposals from interested companies that they will reveal publicly at their Oct. 9 meeting. The group was created by the state and county last year to negotiate selling the hospitals in Laurel, Bowie and Cheverly to a private owner.

But officials familiar with the process say that after more than a year of soliciting bids nationwide for the system, the prime candidate for the purchase is Dimensions, the quasi-government nonprofit that has operated the hospitals since 1982.

Dimensions board member and state Del. Barbara A. Frush (D-Dist. 21) of Beltsville said the group has submitted a bid to form a new company called NewCo, which would buy all three hospitals from Prince George's in partnership with the state medical system.

Blockbuster closes some Maryland locations

Blockbuster franchise locations in Frederick, Hagerstown, Westminster and Mount Airy have been closed, along with 200 other locations nationwide.

A company filing with the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission last month said Blockbuster would evaluate other stores that could be candidates for closure. Spokesman Randy Hargrove said he could not specify how many stores would close in Maryland and that the Frederick, Westminster and Hagerstown stores could reopen.

Blockbuster is exploring other ways to make movies available to consumers, he said, including the installation of 10,000 Blockbuster DVD Express vending machines in grocery stores and other retail locations nationwide by mid-2010.

He said the company is also working with TiVo for consumers to download movies to their televisions and with Samsung for downloading to high-definition televisions through a Blu-ray player.

USGC lands Navy deal worth up to $22M

USGC of Annapolis, a woman-owned consulting company, has won a contract worth up to $22 million from the Navy Military Sealift Fleet Support Command to provide human resources support. The contract has a base period of one year and four one-year option periods.

USGC will support locations in Norfolk, Va., Freehold, N.J., and San Diego, and will operate the Civilian Mariner Support Center out of a USGC facility in Norfolk.

Safeway to invest $100M in Montgomery

Safeway has announced that it intends to invest $100 million in Montgomery County to overhaul several supermarkets and build new ones during the next five years.

The Damascus store will be the first, and projects for stores in Olney, Bethesda and Wheaton are in the planning stages.

The Pleasanton, Calif., grocery chain has 22 stores in Montgomery County and has already remodeled or built replacements for 16 of them. There are 77 Safeway stores in Maryland. The company reported sales of $44.1 billion in 2008.

"I applaud the decision by Safeway to invest $100 million in new stores and renovations to existing stores in Montgomery County," said County Executive Isiah Leggett (D), in a statement.

Hispanic firms land $127M in federal contracts

Having received more than $127 million in government procurement payments in 2008, Hispanic-owned businesses are among the fastest growing in the minority business segment, state officials announced at the Maryland Hispanic Business Conference Tuesday.

Speaking at the event at the BWI Marriott, Luwanda Jenkins, director of the Office on Minority Affairs, said more than $107 million of these payments was part of prime contracts.

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown (D) said Hispanic business participation in government contracts has increased 30 percent since he and Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) took office in 2007.

He said Hispanic businesses have seen more than a $50 million increase in contracts awarded to them in that time. From fiscal 2006 to 2008, Hispanic businesses increased their procurements to $96.1 million from $45 million, according to the state's Minority Business Enterprise Annual Report. This is a 113 percent increase from 2006 and is 7.3 percent of minority enterprise contracts in 2008.

UM Smith School offers board institute

The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business will offer the Directors' Institute, an intensive two-day program to be held annually to address critical issues facing corporate boards.

The inaugural program will be held April 7-9 at the Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, and is designed for board chairmen, corporate directors and senior executive officers of publicly traded companies to receive instruction and engage with each other to develop best boardroom practices.

Pa. firm donates $2M in licenses to college

Analytical Graphics of Exton, Pa., a satellite systems provider, said it donated 20 educational software licenses last month to Capitol College of Laurel, valued at more than $2 million.

The licenses provided the faculty the opportunity to bolster its aeronautical engineering curriculum, according to Capitol College information.

Montgomery Works to open in Germantown

The Montgomery Works One-Stop Career Center will reopen Oct. 5 in the Upcounty Regional Services Center in Germantown. The center in Lakeforest mall in Gaithersburg is closed. There is also a Montgomery County one-stop career center in Wheaton.

Barbara Kaufmann, manager of work force services with the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, said, "We have more space for different training sessions and computers with the move."

Information: www.montgomeryworks.org.