There’s clearly been an outbreak of performative politics of late — from the strident reaction of Donald Trump’s supporters to his conviction last week in the hush money case to Monday’s grilling of Dr. Anthony Fauci by a Republican-led House subcommittee clearly more intent on vilifying the infectious disease expert than on drawing lessons that might better inform the U.S. response to the next pandemic.

Lost commerce and delays going through Baltimore’s harbor tunnels lend “an urgency” to Congress approving legislation — introduced nearly two months ago — to ensure the federal government pays the full cost of replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin told the federal highway administrator Wednesday.

The Board of Public Works unanimously approved a $724 million contract for pretrial detention medical and mental health services Wednesday over the objections of a troubled incumbent. The vote by the three-member board approves the contract with Centurion of Maryland despite an ongoing set of appeals filed by private equity backed YesCare, which is currently providing services to the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.

Charles Schultz was sitting in his living room when it sounded like a bomb went off. Then the sky turned dark. Throughout his 50-plus years living in Curtis Bay — an isolated community wedged into the southern corner of Baltimore — he’d gotten used to seeing soot pile up on his windowsill. Now coal dust was raining down onto his street, a tower smoldering on the CSX coal pier just a stone’s throw from his doorstep.

I-Mab LogoI-Mab, the Rockville-based global biotech company focused on cancer treatment, Wednesday announced it has entered into a clinical trial collaboration and supply agreement with Bristol Myers Squibb to evaluate the combination of two drugs as a potential first-line treatment for patients with advanced Claudin 18.2-positive gastric and esophageal cancers.

A mammoth new industrial complex in White Marsh has signed its first tenants — and one will bring 10 indoor pickleball courts to the mix. Merritt Properties has signed deals with Dill Dinkers, Restaurant Depot and Sensi Auto to join White Marsh Interchange Park at 10301 Philadelphia Road near Interstate 95 and Route 7.

Inside his Delaware headquarters, President Joe Biden’s campaign is signaling it will incorporate Donald Trump’s recent felony conviction as a core element of the Democratic incumbent’s reelection message. But in nearby battleground Pennsylvania, a state that could decide control of Congress and the presidency this fall, Democrats are far from certain that Trump’s criminal record matters to voters at all.

Multiple tornadoes swept across Maryland on Wednesday in what may be one of the most significant twister events to strike the area in years. Trees were uprooted, crashing into homes as the area was lashed by high winds, thunderstorms and heavy rain. Five people trapped in a Gaithersburg home were hospitalized, one with traumatic injuries not considered to be life-threatening.

 

This week, Baltimore City said it was unwilling to wait any longer on the redevelopment that New York developer La Cité has been promising for almost 20 years in West Baltimore’s Poppleton neighborhood. In all that time, La Cité has completed only one project, a 252-unit apartment complex, on the up to 14 acres of land it was supposed to redevelop.

The Frederick County Board of Education has made some very tough choices, balancing its budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1. That is the way it goes when needs and wants outpace resources. Among the last of these hard decisions was the call on the Remote Virtual Program (RVP), a school initiative that became a necessity during the Great Pandemic.