Seventeen years ago, one of the busiest bridges in Minnesota fell into the Mississippi River in the middle of evening rush hour, killing 13 people and injuring 145. The tragic fall of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in downtown Minneapolis was correctly judged a national catastrophe. The Red Cross was called out. Huge memorial services were held for the victims. The eyes of the world were upon the “Star of the North.”

The city of Frederick is launching a $400,000 grant program to provide capital to minority- and women-owned small businesses. The Access Granted program is available to start-up and established businesses that require capital to expand. Applications are open from 11 a.m. on July 15 to 5 p.m. on Aug. 12, according to the city press release. Eligible businesses can apply for grant amounts up to $40,000 apiece, according to the Access Granted application form. Grants will be distributed by early fall of this year.

 

Dori Henry, a seasoned policy and communications strategist who is leaving her post next month as chief of staff to Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. (D), is joining forces with Alexandra Hughes, the former chief of staff to state House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) and the late Speaker Michael E. Busch (D).

A Harford County farm store chain plans to build a multi-million dollar facility so it doesn’t have to turn farmers away as demand for fertilizer continues to increase. The Mill is about to start construction on a new $4 million fertilizer building at its The Mill at Blackhorse store in White Hallthat will allow the store to double the amount of fertilizer it can receive, process and give to farmers.

An experiment that began five years ago — involving multiple city and state agencies, and all 10 hospitals in Baltimore — proved so effective in keeping formerly unhoused residents in new homes that officials gathered Monday to tout funding to expand the program. The idea pushed by housing advocates was that not everyone could be given a set of keys and expected to thrive, particularly those with serious medical conditions.

For the first time since the pandemic, the number of children in Maryland enrolled in pre-Kindergarten programs climbed above 30,000 last year. Since then, that number has grown even more and additional enrollment is expected. The state is in the early stages of implementing the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a decade-long education reform law, which requires an expansion of full-day pre-K for 3-and 4-year-old children.

In 1938, about 600 workers — predominantly Black women — walked off the job in what was then the self-proclaimed “Crab Capital of the World” to protest a wage cut at the Crisfield crab-picking houses. For five weeks, the crab pickers fought to reinstate their pay. As they did, angry white mobs burned cars, invaded homes, and threatened their union representatives. Labor organizers brought in groceries; white residents blocked them from delivering them to the strikers, hoping starvation would bring them back to work.

With dangerous temperatures continuing to climb, the Code Red Extreme Heat Alert in Baltimore City has been extended through Wednesday, July 17. The temperatures could reach 102 degrees on Tuesday and 97 on Wednesday. The heat index, a measure of air temperature and relative humidity that indicates how hot it feels to the human body, could get as high as 110 degrees over the next few days.

Molly Adams said she’s “lucky” to teach third grade at Salem Avenue Elementary School. Salem Avenue is of Washington County’s nine Title I elementary schools and one of the most impoverished in Washington County. But Adams used to teach in Baltimore City, where she said she had very little behavioral support in the classroom by comparison. “It is not that I had terrible daily bloodshed in my classroom in Baltimore or anything like that,” she said.

Bynia Reed’s career and life revolve around children — and not just her own. Her long list of titles includes: mother of two, child psychotherapist by training, and co-founder and chief operating officer of the children’s indoor playground Hyper Kidz. “I definitely believe in the power of play,” she said. “Pretty much all I do with kids is play therapy, so I understand how important and critical play is to children’s well-being.”