Despite some positive news about public transit in and around Baltimore in recent weeks — from a $213 million federal grant to replace the region’s aging fleet of light rail cars to the delivery of the Maryland Transit Administration’s first zero-emission electric buses — these are still challenging times for those who rely on the MTA to get from one place to another. Staffing and equipment shortfalls have been numerous.

Vehicles illegally parked at bus stops prevent Marylanders with disabilities from safely accessing transit buses, keeping us from reaching jobs, schools, healthcare appointments and more on time – if at all. This is a major problem that has gone unrecognized for a long time – but help is finally on the way thanks to Del. Robbyn Lewis and Sen. Arianna Kelly. To combat this problem, last year WMATA launched its Clear Lanes program to enforce illegal parking at bus stops with bus-mounted cameras.

As we near the end of Black History Month, it’s imperative to recognize that Black history is not merely a chapter in the annals of Maryland’s story; it is the very fabric of the state’s rich tapestry. From the bustling shipyards of Baltimore to the farmlands and waterways of Southern Maryland, the contributions and struggles of Black Americans are woven into every corner of Maryland’s history.

 

Inside Under Armour Inc.’s new headquarters lies a bank vault-like door leading to a chamber full of futuristic machines that can adjust temperature and moisture levels to simulate any environment on Earth. The chamber is used to put Under Armour’s latest products through the gauntlet, allowing the company to test how its new fleece material, called the Unstoppable Fleece, could handle temperatures as hot as the Sahara Desert’s.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore presented legislation he’s championing to address child poverty to state lawmakers on Wednesday, laying out a locally focused plan to attack the root causes of concentrated poverty statewide. Moore, who served as the CEO of one of the nation’s largest poverty-fighting organizations before he was governor and has made addressing child poverty a top priority of his administration, testified on one of his signature measures this legislative session.

FedEx has ended its naming rights agreement to the Washington Commanders stadium in Landover, a venue that had been known as FedEx Field since 1999. The move confirmed Wednesday comes two years prior to the expiration of the current agreement scheduled for 2026, and as the NFL club under new ownership looks for a site on which to build a new stadium that would open later this decade.

COPT Defense Properties’s plan to unload the high-profile Baltimore office towers it so eagerly snapped up in a now-abandoned market strategy will have to wait. The Columbia-based real estate investment trust’s office buildings, like many in Baltimore and beyond, have been battered by a post-pandemic market riddled with office vacancies. COPT’s trophy 100 Light St., a stalwart in Baltimore’s central business district since 1975, lost $6 million in value this past year alone.

Leap day is what happens when we rely on dictators like Julius Caesar to solve problems. It’s hit and miss — and then you circle back to the same issue every four years or so. While Caesar, the  dominating leader of the Roman Empire and father of leap day, is long, long gone, his ancient calendar lives on. And with good reason — it sorta works, most of the time. Here’s a look at some of the legend and lore of leaping.

 

The House of Delegates on Wednesday voted for law enforcement officers to refer first-time offenders of car theft or gun possession between the ages of 10 and 12 to diversionary programs as part of broader reforms to the state’s juvenile justice system. Diversionary programs, which many but not all jurisdictions have, are intended to help children change their behavior and avoid the juvenile system, House Judiciary Committee Chair Luke Clippinger, a Baltimore City Democrat spearheading juvenile justice changes in his chamber, said Wednesday.

An hour into hearing mostly glowing comments about his plan to invest in Maryland’s most impoverished neighborhoods, Gov. Wes Moore was posed a question Wednesday that brought to the forefront a topic he and other Democrats have largely avoided in this year’s session of the Maryland General Assembly. How does he justify the new spending — even at only $15 million per year — when the state is facing billions of dollars in shortfalls in the coming years and is not actively considering ways to raise new money?