Some 20,000 Port of Baltimore workers are back on the job and business is rebounding since the full reopening of the 700-foot Fort McHenry Federal Shipping Channel a week ago, the port administrator told 11 News. “Baltimore is back, the port is open,” Jonathan Daniels, the executive director of the Maryland Port Administration, told 11 News.

After hours of debate and numerous amendments, the Prince George’s County Council has put together its plan for what it calls “rent stabilization.” The deal reached this week meets many of the demands raised by progressive advocates, leading the apartment industry to warn it will backfire in the long run. But the 10-0 preliminary vote this week, a culmination of lots of discussion and compromise among the council, made clear that this will be what passes into law when the final vote on the matter comes next month.

That certainly is true for Frederick, which might be one of the best places in the country to plan a summer “staycation.” This is a city that likes to have fun year-around, but it really heats up — both figuratively and literally — after Memorial Day and keeps going right until school starts again. Alive@Five, the summer concert series sponsored by the Downtown Frederick Partnership at Carroll Creek Park, is underway, attracting good-size audiences to a variety of music on Thursdays.

 

Alan Tsao wanted to spend big on a new luxury watch but his wife joked that at that price, perhaps he should start a watch company of his own. He took that message to heart. Tsao started the Tsao Baltimore Watch Company in 2017 and initially found success on Kickstarter, with one campaign raising more than $40,000 in 30 minutes. He has since released nine watch models and expects to pass $1 million in annual sales this year.

The top-earning State House lobbyist from the last half year — a period that covers the most recent General Assembly session — is making history. According to newly released records from the Maryland State Ethics Commission, which regulates registered lobbyists in the state, Lisa Harris Jones from the firm Harris Jones Malone was the top earner from Nov. 1, 2023, to April 30 of this year.

 

This Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman and a group of 150 registrants will do something once considered revolting: jump into the Inner Harbor. The event, called Harbor Splash, is a milestone for a 14-year campaign that originally aimed to make Baltimore’s waterfront fishable and swimmable by 2020, led by the city’s Waterfront Partnership.

Casi O’Neill works at the heart of Maryland’s youth legal system, but she rarely does her job. If she did, the specially trained social worker hired by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender would be assessing the complex needs of children charged with low- to moderate-level crimes. As a forensic social worker and member of Baltimore’s juvenile division, O’Neill is trained to uncover why a child may have committed a crime in the first place.

 

A defining feature in the skyline of historic Frederick, Maryland, is in danger of condemnation, but there’s a new effort to preserve Frederick’s oldest spire and the City of Frederick’s clock tower. If you stand at 10 W Church St. and look straight up, you’ll see the stone face of Trinity Chapel topped with a wooden superstructure housing church bells, and above that, the clock.

 

Eight crew members of the Dali will be allowed to leave the country, after attorneys representing the city reached an agreement with the ship’s owner to ensure crew would be available for lawsuit-related interviews. The massive container ship crashed into the pylon of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning hours of March 26. Six men died when the bridge collapsed into the water, while one person survived the fall.

The civics lessons implicit in news coverage and social media posts relating to the 2024 election, the conflict in Israel and Gaza, crime and safety, and other pressing issues are clear. They suggest that the role of a good citizen is to choose sides and speak out, knowing that an election might empower one’s enemies, and that silence might mean complicity. The civic environment driven by our feeds is full of fury and alarm.