Tropical Storm Debby is causing major flooding across the southeastern U.S. and is expected to move offshore Tuesday. As such, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday signed a state of preparedness declaration ahead of the storm’s possible arrival in the state later this week. While the path remained uncertain Tuesday, possible effects in Maryland could include heavy rain and winds and inland and tidal flooding.
Four incumbents and six challengers are running this year for seats on the Hagerstown City Council, which includes five members elected to four-year terms. The positions on the council are nonpartisan and elected at-large during presidential election years. The council is responsible for adopting policies, ordinances and resolutions for the city, including annual operating and capital budgets. Annual compensation for council members is $8,000.
Among the last things Gene Oishi wrote, the preface to the new edition of his 1988 memoir refers to “the resurgence of racial prejudices and animosities in the United States.” But then it veers away from that troubling subject and resists reference to Donald Trump. “My memoir,” Oishi wrote in March, “is not about the state of our country, but about how I view my place in it.”
Unionized employees at the Apple store in the Towson Town Center voted “overwhelmingly” to ratify their first contract with the tech giant, the union said Tuesday night. IAM International President Brian Bryant said in a statement that the contract “sets a new standard for Apple retail workers nationwide.” The employees in Towson were the first in the United States to form a union of Apple store workers in 2022, and then in late June became the first in the country to reach a tentative contract agreement after protracted negotiations.
U.S. News and World Report released its annual list of healthiest communities in America and Maryland has six in the top 300. Howard County ranked the highest coming in at No. 20. Montgomery County was also high on the list at No. 56. Carroll County ranks No. 156, Frederick County No. 223, Harford County No. 264 and Anne Arundel County ranks No. 300.
“flows. flip. daring.” The Frederick County Division of Fire & Rescue Services used just three words to pinpoint an injured person’s location and rescue them by the Monocacy River about a week ago. Fire and Rescue and the Department of Emergency Management have used a word-based location tool called what3words for the past few years to find people who call for help.
The Baltimore County Council has created a pathway for some affordable housing to be built in areas where the council is further limiting new development because of overcrowded schools. The council last month overrode County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s veto of a companion measure to the county’s adequate public facilities ordinance, or APFO.
Building homes is a fickle business. Over the last twenty years, the United States has weathered a dramatic sequence of ups and downs in the residential housing market. An enormous construction boom from 2004 to 2006 gave way to a spectacular crash, bringing the entire global economy to a screeching halt in 2008. A slow and sluggish recovery followed, eventually picking up steam in the mid-2010s before accelerating into a second boom in the pandemic era, 2020 through 2022.
Maryland supporters of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said they submitted 26,000 signatures to get the independent presidential candidate’s name on the ballot, more than twice the required amount, by Monday’s deadline. If at least 10,000 signatures are verified by election officials over the next three weeks, Kennedy would join Republican Donald Trump, Democrat Kamala Harris and Libertarian Chase Oliver as the options for president on Maryland ballots this fall.
A soon-to-open museum in downtown Salisbury is set to receive a financial boost. The Maryland Heritage Area Authority has awarded a $35,800 grant to the Museum of Eastern Shore Culture at Salisbury University to help with interpretation and accessibility. The award is earmarked for audio guide software, iPads and adjustable stands, material for sensory-friendly exhibits, interpretive signage in gallery spaces, a braille labeler and materials for a community art project, and to design and build an accessible reception desk.