The Donald Trump allies behind Project 2025, the plan to shift the federal government to the ideological right and expand presidential power, want to abolish the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration because NOAA is “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.” I didn’t know that tracking weather and climate change was an “industry.” I thought it was science.

Ripken Baseball is returning to Walt Disney World as its parent company looks to use the brand for its westward expansion. Ripken Baseball will operate tournaments at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World starting next summer. The deal between Disney and Unrivaled Sports, the majority owner of Ripken Baseball, will see Ripken host four week-long events at the complex in 2025 and 2026.

Maryland has some of the highest child care costs in the nation and soaring expenses have been putting pressure on employers and employees alike. The average annual cost in Maryland for using a child care center was $15,003.49, 16% of the state’s median income, which ranks sixth in the U.S., according to a study by Care.com and the latest income data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Dozens of aging bridges in 16 states will be replaced or improved with the help of $5 billion in federal grants announced Wednesday by President Joe Biden’s administration, the latest beneficiaries of a massive infrastructure law. The projects range from coast to coast, with the largest providing an additional $1.4 billion to help replace two vertical lift bridges over the Columbia River that carry Interstate 5 traffic between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

As the country’s premier Republican Party event was nearing its first-night high on Monday, the party’s most successful candidate in modern Maryland politics — one whose next chapter is on the line in just a few months — was the elephant not in the room. Larry Hogan, the two-time former governor and nominee for U.S. Senate this year, was 800 miles away, making him the only major Republican candidate in a competitive Senate race not in Milwaukee for his party’s third celebration of Donald Trump atop the ticket.

It’s been a few decades, but Shawn MacInnes is coming back to Columbia. As a young, working professional, MacInnes started his career as an engineer with the Maryland State Highway Administration in Baltimore. For part of the job, he completed six-month rotations in different parts of the department. One of those rotations brought him to Columbia, where the SHA was working on a bridge project. (Photo: Ronica Edwards/The Baltimore Banner)

Fewer teens have been shot in Baltimore during the first half of this year than in any in the last decade, a Banner analysis of police data has found. The number of high school-aged teens shot in Baltimore has fallen by more than two-thirds compared to last year’s 10-year-high watermark. The Banner has been tracking youth gun violence since teenagers began being shot at exceedingly higher rates in 2022.

 

A blessed reprieve may be on the horizon after days of oppressive heat, but emergency room doctors in Baltimore say the latest heat wave has been a reminder that hot weather isn’t just uncomfortable – it can be dangerous. In the last few weeks, when temperatures and the humidity routinely made the weather feel like it’s 100 degrees, doctors have reported seeing an uptick in people coming to hospital emergency departments with the trademark symptoms of heat-related illnesses.

Design of a trail project in Frederick and one to add sidewalks in areas of Brunswick are among the projects scheduled to be approved for funding Wednesday by a regional transportation organization. The money from the Transportation Planning Board of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments would provide $200,000 for design to tie two trail stubs on the eastern side of Frederick into the city’s trail network, as well as $330,718 for design for sidewalks along H Street in Brunswick, a key priority for the city.

Prince George’s County Council has greenlit a resolution to move forward with a project to build eight new schools in the county through a mix of public and private funds. The approval comes after the county council was unable to get the necessary votes to advance to the second phase of the plan last week. Under the Blueprint Schools Program developers finance the construction, and Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) pays for the new buildings over a 30-year period.