For those who feel like Baltimore has endured more than its share of bad news in recent months — the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge providing the biggest example but hardly the only one — the Greater Baltimore Committee may have provided just the timely antidote you need. The business advocacy group recently compiled a “Baltimore Region Investment Scorecard” to survey for the first time how, through various measures, the Baltimore area is doing in terms of investment, job growth, deal-making and tax revenue.

“Just enough of me, way too much of you.” This quote from the chapter on overpopulation in political humorist P. J. O’Rourke’s “All the Trouble in the World” popped into my head after a pair of recent articles in The Frederick News-Post. The first, a piece about how the county’s added just over 20,000 people to its total population over the past three years, prompted the usual chorus of complaints about how we’re growing too fast.

 

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has received campaign donations above the $6,000 maximum from at least nine contributors this election cycle, violating state campaign finance law.Most of the problem donations, which amount to an extra $29,250, are the result of multiple contributions — some made in early 2023, before the mayoral campaign was underway, combined with others made more recently.

 

Federal safety investigators are homing in on the electronic system of the enormous cargo ship that struck Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge last month, immediately collapsing the span and plunging six construction workers to their deaths. (Photo Credit: Kim Hairston/Staff)

Plans to revamp Baltimore’s deteriorating Pimlico Race Course have been years in the making, but it took a weekend of negotiations and a bill passing in the waning hours of the legislative session for Gov. Wes Moore’s administration to advance a new deal. State officials hope the deal will spur a declining industry with facility upgrades and year-round racing, provide a boost to communities neighboring Pimlico and other tracks, and keep the Preakness Stakes — one of three annual events comprising thoroughbred horse racing’s Triple Crown — running in Maryland.

Three of Frederick’s aldermen expressed support, in varying degrees, Wednesday for a proposal to let city residents who are not U.S. citizens vote in elections for city officials. Frederick could follow existing state voter registration policy in allowing residents of the city who are not U.S. citizens to vote in city elections, Alderman Ben MacShane said at a meeting Wednesday.

William “Billy” Marquez is used to hauling five containers a day from the Port of Baltimore. He owns and operates his truck, often working with Jag Transport Inc. to move goods like furniture and aluminum stock for soda cans. Since the day the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, blocking most container ships from entering the port, there’s been nothing to move.

 

As avian flu cases among dairy cows are reported in several states, Maryland is taking action to prevent it from spreading into the state. The Maryland Department of Agriculture has issued an order restricting the movement of dairy cows from affected states.“The concern about movement of cattle is that a lot of the outbre aks in multiple states have been linked to one particular farm in Texas, which implies that the movement of cattle is somehow spreading this virus to other states as well,” Dr. Andrew Pekosz, a virus expert who studies viruses such as influenza at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said.

Before leaders of Maryland’s 24 school systems meet deadlines this year to show how they will continue implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plans, they can seek assistance from certain scholars at the University of Maryland, College Park. The school’s College of Education released a teacher career ladder framework last month with recommendations on professional development, peer evaluations and job descriptions. The document also includes policy briefs from parts of the Blueprint legislation approved in 2021.

The Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners unanimously approved a transportation contract Tuesday for two taxicab services that were investigated last year for potential fraudulent charges to the system. Richard Henry, the state’s inspector general for education, found taxicab vendor WHC MD, LLC, which does business as zTrip, billed city schools for over $631,000 in charges between 2018 and 2022 that did not match attendance records.