The demand for cruises is still going strong — and it doesn’t appear to be letting up anytime soon. The industry was the last to recover from the Covid pandemic, but once it did, it has been enjoying strong pricing and booking momentum. While pricing growth is starting to normalize somewhat, it is still well above the rate of inflation, said Patrick Scholes, travel and leisure analyst at Truist.

This summer, when I heard Kamala Harris was considering a former high school teacher as her running mate, I immediately wanted her to pick him — whoever he was. As a former high school teacher myself, I instinctively trust teachers. They work hard and want the best for other people’s kids day after day, year after year. They devote their careers to creating powerful futures.

Amazon Fresh is planting a flag in Greater Baltimore. The high-tech grocery chain will open Nov. 7 in Glen Burnie at 6711 Ritchie Highway with fresh produce, meats, seafood, prepared foods and pantry items. It will be the first Baltimore-area location of the brick-and-mortar grocery chain from Seattle-based Amazon — and will feature over 35 local and regional brands like Tessemae’s and True Made Foods.

Maryland’s governor is getting involved after the state school board mandated how students’ criminal history is shared. Gov. Wes Moore this week ordered the Department of Juvenile Services to lead an interagency review of how information about Maryland public school students who have been charged with or convicted of violent crimes is shared, according to a Friday news release.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund has issued a grant to Washington-based Regenerative Orthopedics & Sports Medicine (ROSM) for non-surgical orthopedic research, aimed at advancing treatments for partial-thickness rotator cuff tears using orthobiologic procedures. The two-year randomized, placebo-controlled trial, set to conclude in December 2026, will explore the efficacy of microfat stem cells in treating rotator cuff injuries, an issue that affects more than 2 million Americans annually.

The Baltimore Police Department hopes to soon be in full and effective compliance with two more portions of the consent decree, but staffing and the department’s fleet of vehicles are still major concerns. “We still have a long way to go, but we are getting there,” said Baltimore police Commissioner Richard Worley.

A flood of cash has poured into Maryland school board races, an unusual influx sparked by culture war debates that have inflamed nonpartisan contests traditionally focused on local budgets, curriculums and teachers’ salaries. The Maryland Democratic Party and the conservative 1776 Project PAC have each injected tens of thousands of dollars into more than a dozen school board races in counties that have seen protests over books with LGBTQ-themes, tensions about a state school funding law meant to increase equity, and, in one district, a ban against Pride flags being displayed inside classrooms.

A downtown restaurant space inside a hotel is getting new life. Redwood Charlie’s will take the place of the former Telltale Restaurant at the recently opened Sonesta Hotel Baltimore Inner Harbor at 1 E. Redwood St. Kim Pabst, the restaurant’s general manager, and her husband Bill, who will oversee the business behind the scenes, hope to open the restaurant next month.

The investigator tasked with looking into allegations of misconduct and financial mismanagement in Prince George’s County Public Schools says school leaders — both in the superintendent’s office and on the school board — continue to throw up roadblocks and make his job harder. It’s to the point that Integrity and Compliance Officer Frank Turner says things have moved from “resistance” to “discomfort” with his role in providing oversight for the Maryland school system.

This past summer earned the not-so-coveted rank of hottest year on record. Living in the Washington region, we always expect our summers to be hot and muggy, but these heat waves are something new, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Echoes of that heat can still be felt now in an abnormally warm October, which should prompt us to act in advance of the next actual heat wave.