We find ourselves at a crossroads where the principles of fairness and fiscal responsibility stand at odds with the allure of sweeping student loan forgiveness. The Biden administration’s ambitious plan to erase student debt, while undoubtedly appealing to many, raises profound questions about the nature of responsibility and equity in our society.

The first two businesses recently moved into Beacon Square, a new retail and housing development in Annapolis — with more soon to come. Aspen Dental and GNC, two nationwide chains, opened their doors in June and as of July 3, are the only two tenants up and running. Other retailers expected to open in the coming weeks include: Jersey Mike’s Subs, Moby Dick House of Kabob and Meg Fox Aesthetics. (Photo: Angelique Gingras/Staff photo)

There’s a hole in Maryland’s transportation system about as big as the gap between the remnants of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. It’s a gap in state funding, but that gap existed before the cargo ship knocked the critical connector into the Patapsco River. And the group charged with assisting in filling that gap — the Transportation Revenue and Infrastructure Needs Commission, legislatively-mandated in 2023 — is on hiatus after legislative maneuvering in the last month of the this year’s session repealed the original commission, reconstituted the organization and provided it with a different charge than the original group’s.

Maryland is among the most-challenging states for minimum wage workers to earn enough to be able to afford rent for a two-bedroom apartment, suggesting that affordable housing is “out of reach” for many low-wage renters. That’s the conclusion of the “Out of Reach” report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), a housing research organization, which shows that Maryland is behind only seven states and Washington, D.C., in the 2024 ranking.

 

A new report on the mental health of children in Maryland is a hopeful sign that they are starting to recover from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. But it is far too soon to declare the crisis is past, and it might be years before the damage can be undone, if ever. Even before the pandemic, depression and suicidal thoughts were on the rise among high school and middle school students. The pandemic turbocharged that trend.

When he signed an executive order advancing the state’s pollution reduction plan last month, including a call to phase in zero-emission standards for heating systems, Gov. Wes Moore (D) used words like “bold” and “ambitious.” Matt Rusteika thinks that might be a reach. He says many homeowners already have heat pumps, a popular type of zero-emission heating that is not new technology.

 

A federal judge has sided with Maryland in a dispute over the state’s digital advertising tax, dismissing a claim filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and three trade associations arguing that the tax violates First Amendment rights to free speech. The decision, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby, found that language included in the tax’s “pass-through prohibition,” which bars digital advertising companies from passing along the tax as a “fee, surcharge or line-item,” does partially restrict the speech of the companies.

An Annapolis cybersecurity company that works with national security and defense agencies has acquired a Hanover firm in the same industry to grow its offerings. SIXGEN closed its purchase of Secure Enterprise Engineering Inc., or Secure-EE, on June 27, bringing the two cybersecurity contractors’ complementary services together. SIXGEN CEO Jack Wilmer said the firms knew each other from the relatively small community of cyber contractors working on threat prevention at the FBI, U.S. Cyber Command and other national security and defense agencies.

When the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed into the Patapsco River, it destroyed a central passage for transporting hazardous materials up and down the East Coast. Soon, fears surfaced online that hazmat trucks are now using Baltimore’s underwater tunnels instead, despite state law largely prohibiting them from doing so.

Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell has mostly recovered from the brutal assaults he endured from Donald Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. But not completely. His shoulder has limited endurance, and there are screws and a metal plate holding his right foot together after bone fusion surgery. Emotional recovery has been more difficult.