The Preakness Stakes is an annual horse race that is the middle jewel of the Triple Crown. Since 1931, the race is typically run on third Saturday in May, two weeks after the Kentucky Derby. The outdoor event takes place rain or shine. This year marks the 149th running of the Preakness. It has never run on a Sunday. But it has been staged 14 times on a Tuesday, 13 times on a Friday, six times on a Monday, five times on a Wednesday and four times on a Thursday.

There was a boom, several plumes of smoke and then a splash as millions of pounds of Francis Scott Key Bridge debris fell Monday evening into the Patapsco River. Crews had previously placed linear shaped charges — explosive cutting devices — on the large piece of the bridge that dropped March 26 on the bow of the Dali after the ship struck one of the bridge’s supporting piers.

Maryland is winding down its Key Bridge collapse worker retention program this week. The governor announced at a news conference Monday morning progress being made to reopen the Port of Baltimore, so applications for the worker retention program will close after Friday. Businesses in need of assistance can access programs through the Maryland Departments of Commerce and Housing and Community Development.

 

Maryland voters today will select the Democratic and Republican nominees for the open U.S. House seat being vacated by Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), who is running for U.S. Senate. The 6th District is the most politically competitive of three open House races Maryland voters will shape today, with 1.2 registered Democrats for every registered Republican and more than 141,000 unaffiliated voters.

“Push It” by Salt-N-Pepa blasts in The Studio of Dance in Gaithersburg as Eurae Muhn teaches a hip-hop routine to seven other moms on a rainy Saturday morning in early March. Two women brought their 5-year-old children, who happily play together—occasionally darting onto the floor to have their snacks opened. The women chat and laugh throughout the hourlong class, chiming in with tweaks to the choreography.

Maryland’s at-times rancorous Democratic primary campaign for the U.S. Senate comes to a close Tuesday, as voters decide which Democrat to nominate for a battle of national consequence against the likely Republican nominee, former governor Larry Hogan. Democrats must hold the reliably blue seat in November if they hope to maintain their razor thin margin in the Senate, and two-term Hogan remains popular among residents — some Democrats at primary polls now say they might vote for him in the fall.

Institutions of higher education — particularly those as diverse as the University of Baltimore — still stand tall as places in contemporary society where people from vastly different backgrounds can come together to examine complex ideas. As times change quickly, and politics shift as suddenly as tectonic plates, that’s more important than ever.

 

A major dropout whose name is still on the ballot. A rematch held under very different circumstances. A race where “non-endorsement” endorsements became commonplace. The rematch between incumbent Mayor Brandon Scott and former Mayor Sheila Dixon is here, and it’s been a weird one. With a major recent race shake-up and no public, up-to-date data about how people are feeling, voters head into primary election day in an unusual information vacuum.

Eighteen inches is enough to hold the Port of Baltimore back from record-setting revenues. Even when the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is finally cleared and port activity gets back on track, the Howard Street Tunnel, a 1.7-mile section of CSX Transportation’s rail operation that cuts under downtown Baltimore, will still be a foot-and-a-half shy of being able to handle the freight fad of the future — double-stacked cargo trains.

 

Two years after organizing the first union at an Apple retail store, workers in Towson are preparing to take another unprecedented step: Becoming the first to go on strike against Apple. The union voted “overwhelmingly” to authorize a strike, according to a Saturday news release from the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Coalition of Organized Retail Employees.