One will go to the military, another will continue his education and a third plans to continue on with an organization that works to combat the poverty-to-prison pipeline. They were just some of the 231 members who were among the inaugural class of Maryland Corps and Service Year Option graduates who were applauded Tuesday at their commencement ceremony.

Members of the Baltimore Teachers Union rallied outside the school system’s headquarters Tuesday to pressure the Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners to launch a national search for a new chief executive. Sonja Santelises, the Baltimore City Public School System’s CEO, signed a one-year contract in June after months of drawn-out negotiations with the board.

Prince George’s County Council unanimously approved a rent increase cap, becoming the second county in Maryland to approve rent stabilization legislation. The bill establishes a 3% cap plus inflation, or 6%, whichever is lower. However, buildings constructed after 2000 would be exempt. District 7 Council Member Krystal Oriadha, who led the rent stabilization effort, said it is a huge step in the right direction.

 

A container ship terminal planned for Sparrows Point is expected to transform the state’s economy over a decade, generating more than 8,000 direct and Port of Baltimore-affiliated jobs and adding $1.54 billion a year in economic impact. Developers of Tradepoint Atlantic, the site of the proposed terminal in Baltimore County, released the findings of an economic impact study Tuesday.

The Montgomery County Council passed Tuesday new tenant safety regulations inspired by a deadly February 2023 fire at the Arrive Silver Spring apartment complex that claimed the life of 25-year-old Melanie Diaz. The legislation will require residential leases to include information related to renter’s insurance, automatic sprinkler systems and emergency evacuation and safety plans.

As the Howard County Council weighs two bills that would establish the county’s first-ever Office of the Inspector General, residents have taken more than a passing interest in the idea. Dozens of people appeared at a council meeting Monday evening to share their thoughts and concerns about the legislation — and even a few grammatical suggestions.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is moving forward with a new east-west light rail project in Baltimore that could cost up to $7.2 billion to build and millions more to operate. Yet ridership on the region’s current north-south light rail system is about half of what it was before the coronavirus pandemic, and its costs keep ticking up. The number of rides taken during fiscal year 2023 was down to 3.4 million, compared with 7.4 million in fiscal year 2018, on the north-south line, which travels from Hunt Valley in Baltimore County to BWI Marshall Airport or Glen Burnie in Anne Arundel County, according to Maryland Transit Administration data.

Former president Donald Trump’s choice of Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) as the GOP’s vice-presidential nominee reflects the ascendancy of the party’s populist economic wing — and the choice is alarming traditional conservative policymakers and elite donors who opposed the pick. Vance has suggested a break with the Republican Party’s economic orthodoxy of the last several decades on a range of policy issues, including unions, antitrust, trade and taxes, even making comments that appear at odds with Trump, who already scrambled the party’s ideology.

After the horrible assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump, President Biden spoke eloquently Sunday about the need to lower the temperature, to renounce violence and to engage in peaceful political debate. “There is no place in America for this kind of violence,” he implored viewers. “We can’t allow this violence to be normalized. … It’s time to cool it down. And we all have a responsibility to do that.” He nevertheless stressed the need for vigorous debate.

There’s an internet meme that asks what message you’d write to let your loved ones know you’ve been kidnapped — a statement so unlike you that they’d know something was wrong and to look for you immediately. My longtime answer was, “I am voluntarily camping in the woods,” as I am a proud, lifelong, five-star-hotel snob who considers roughing it to be a place without room service. After three peaceful, lo-fi but not completely unplugged nights looking at the stars from under a canopy of green along Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountain, though, I’m going to have to come up with another one.