Patryk Tararuj, the owner of a local cleaning business, said he tried every which way to get paid by one of his biggest clients — texting, calling, even showing up in person at its offices on Eastern Avenue in Fells Point. Nothing worked, so Green Apple Cleaning of Baltimore sued Chasen Cos. This month, Tararuj’s business won.

Prince George’s County native Jahmal Harvey grew up a fighter, but had to learn to become a boxer. Now, at 21, Harvey is gearing up to compete in the Olympics after winning gold at the 2023 Pan American Games to punch his ticket to Paris. “It meant a lot to me,” he said of his victory last year. “It was more so being relieved, more so than being happy.

On a quiet street just two blocks from the Donald Trump-inspired euphoria inside the Republican National Convention, a small group of the disaffected were mourning a party they once knew, now long gone. Maryland’s former Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, the star attraction at the gathering of anti-Trump conservatives, had strong words for his party — one that he said “needs the biggest political enema it has ever seen.”

Branson Williams feels the weight of his responsibilities. The 39-year-old Marylander is tasked with defeating an elusive and relentless enemy that shows no signs of weakening. Failure in this war is not an option. But a complete and convincing victory is unlikely. “I stay up late at night thinking about this,” Williams says. “Eradication is not possible at this point.

While Maryland Republicans cheered J.D. Vance on the floor of the Republican National Convention this week, their former governor and current GOP U.S. Senate candidate was back home on TV, ducking questions about Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick. “The two of us have pretty different views of the world,” Larry Hogan told a CBS interviewer.

Triple-digit temperatures blasted the Baltimore area on Tuesday, the third consecutive day of record-setting heat in the city, while jail detainees were “baking in their cells” without air conditioning, according to the loved one of an inmate at a correctional facility downtown. The Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, which runs Baltimore jails, confirmed on Wednesday that one of its facilities, the Maryland Reception, Diagnostic and Classification Center, had been partially without air conditioning since Friday after a blower motor malfunctioned on a housing unit tier.

 

Johnny Olszewski Jr. continued to put financial distance between himself and Republican opponent Kim Klacik in the race to succeed retiring U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger for Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District. With 16 weeks before the general election, the Democrat Olszewski reported having $231,195 on hand, according to his latest Federal Election Commission quarterly report.

Russia has been leveraging Western fears of escalation by carving out sanctuary space in its sovereign territory to launch offensive strikes into Ukraine. Its military assets remain partly shielded while Ukraine’s remain exposed. Perhaps now Europe and the United States can offset that advantage by creating sanctuary space for Ukrainian forces in NATO countries.

Money dominates the headlines during elections, whether it’s a city race or the race for the White House. We want to know who’s funding whom, who’s raised the most money, and who’s being backed by which big-money PAC. If it feels like the role of money in politics has gotten more powerful, it’s because it has.

After the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump last weekend, political participants, pundits and observers on all parts of the political spectrum should take a deep breath and dial down the rhetoric. Thankfully, Trump was not seriously wounded, or worse, in the attack. If he had been killed, the ramifications for our country are too horrifying to consider.