The Central Maryland Chamber of Commerce has appointed Dewan Clayborn as its new president and CEO, making him the organization’s first Black president. Clayborn replaces Kristi Simon, who now leads the Howard County Chamber of Commerce. He is bringing his expertise in management and chamber operations from his previous role as president and CEO of the League City Regional Chamber of Commerce in Texas.

Maryland officials sliced nearly $150 million out of the $63 billion state budget on Wednesday, a trim that will help fund health care and child care assistance programs that are experiencing booming enrollment. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said “thoughtful deliberation, countless hours of consideration, countless hours of debate and a very careful review of various cost-containment measures” went into his decision about which programs to cut. (Photo: Brenda Wintrode/The Baltimore Banner)

 

The independent agency that oversees Maryland’s multibillion-dollar education reform plan has canceled a scheduled Thursday meeting at which officials said they might have been able to start approving local school district plans. Scheduling conflicts forced the postponement of the Thursday meeting of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board – or the AIB – which grants final approval of plans. That meeting has now been set for Aug. 1.

On Saturday afternoon, a young man attempted to assassinate the former president of the United States at a political rally. And while Donald Trump survived this violent attack, volunteer fire chief Corey Comperatore was killed and two others were critically injured. Both President Joe Biden and former President Trump have rightly called on Americans to come together in a rare moment of unity.

 

It’s July and as if the excessive heat isn’t enough, there is also coronavirus out there. The surveillance is less widespread, or even timely, these days. But more people who bother to test are positive for COVID-19, and some are being hospitalized, and more virus is being found in wastewater samples. Many of us know of someone at home sick, including President Joe Biden.

I’m standing across the street from the apartment where I lived, back in 1983, in this city’s River West neighborhood. The street looks substantially the same, though I’m sorry to discover that Harry’s Chapel, the tavern that used to be two doors down, where a 12-ounce glass of Miller High Life on tap sold for a quarter, is gone.

The Maryland Transportation Authority will raise tolls for the Bay Bridge and harbor tunnels in two years, part of the ongoing economic fallout caused by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge earlier this year, but the size of the increases aren’t yet known. MDTA officials originally planned to raise tolls, due in part to inflation, in July 2028, the start of the authority’s fiscal year.

Last week’s jaw-dropping $1 billion donation from billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg to Johns Hopkins University, enabling tuition-free medical school for most students, probably kicked off a lot of celebrations from Homewood to Name-Your-City-Here. The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine was already ranked among the nation’s best (second only to Harvard University, according to U.S. News & World Report rankings).

April McClain Delaney, the Democratic nominee running to represent Maryland’s 6th District in Congress, raised over a million dollars in connection with her campaign in the second quarter of 2024 — about 80% of which came from the candidate herself. According to quarterly campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Monday, McClain Delaney raised $1,034,297 during the second quarter of 2024.

Nearly four months after a ship strike decimated the Francis Scott Key Bridge and killed six construction workers, who would build and pay for a new bridge and the impact on Marylanders’ wallets were among the topics on the minds of readers during a Reddit AMA on Wednesday with Baltimore Sun reporter Hayes Gardner.