Two decades after Baltimore first solicited plans to redevelop a shopping district west of downtown, the Superblock has once again gone bust. The Baltimore Development Corp., or BDC, said Monday that it canceled its contract with Westside Partners, after the group couldn’t show it had obtained financing for a mixed-use development. President and CEO Colin Tarbert said the BDC plans to start a new bidding process and solicit fresh ideas for the Superblock early next year. It’s the latest delay for a city-led redevelopment that formally began in 2003.

To the left, two women repeatedly pushed U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen to stop dodging and say whether he would support a resolution to block $20 billion in arms shipments to Israel. “It’s up to Congress to provide checks and balances on the Biden administration, and the only way is to stop the weapons and you have the power to do that,” said Cole Breedlove, a volunteer with CodePink and other peace groups. (Photo Credit: Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner)

Democratic vice presidential nominee Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday will unveil his ticket’s plans to improve the lives of rural voters, as Vice President Kamala Harris looks to cut into former President Donald Trump’s support. The Harris-Walz plan includes a focus on improving rural health care, such as plans to recruit 10,000 new health care professionals in rural and tribal areas through scholarships, loan forgiveness and new grant programs, as well as economic and agricultural policy priorities.

Even if you’re not lacing up for this year’s Baltimore Running Festival, the annual marathon’s 26.2-mile footprint throughout the city could create an obstacle course for residents this weekend. The foot races scheduled for Saturday will wind through the Inner Harbor’s waterfront area and as far north as Druid Hill Park and Lake Montebello. Like last year, the Baltimore City Department of Transportation estimates more than 13,000 runners will hit the pavement on Saturday.

The Maryland Association of Counties (MACo), a nonprofit, nonpartisan voice for all 24 counties in the state, is proposing that solar companies with state approval to build solar farms on agricultural land, be required to pay $3,500 to $5,000 per acre to the county where farms are located. The money would be used in that county for conservation or agricultural preservation. “MACo has been having discussions with all the state agencies and with the solar industry and so on, recognizing that next spring there’s more than likely going to be a push for further solar legislation,” Chris Heyn, Carroll County’s Department of Planning and Land Management director said at a solar work session last week.

A Hanover company has created a product that could change how data centers are built. Ciena Corp. has developed a new product that will enable companies to build bigger data centers by better connecting the millions of computers inside them. The telecommunications and cloud services company (NYSE: CIEN) expects the product will be ready by the end of 2025. Helen Xenos, senior director of portfolio marketing for Ciena, said the company developed the product – called the 1.6 terabyte coherent-lite pluggable — because the existing technology supporting data centers is reaching its limits.

Tension had been building inside Maryland’s maximum-security psychiatric hospital when the news began to circulate among employees: Scott Moran, their CEO, had been banished from the facility. Moran’s boss at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, which houses people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses who have been accused of violence, had applied for a restraining order against the doctor in February, accusing him of sending “racially suggestive messages” and making violent threats.

Years into Victoria Richardson’s addiction, every choice was rooted in how to continue using drugs. Until this one. “I was five months pregnant with my son and using heroin, and I knew I couldn’t do that anymore,” she said. “I knew I had to change so my kids wouldn’t grow up the same way I did.” A counselor pointed her to a special treatment center for pregnant women and mothers, a homelike environment where everyone stays together and learns or relearns how to be a family.

As Election Day draws nearer, it seems increasingly common for former President Donald Trump to say something on the campaign trail that draws backlash. On Sunday, he was on Fox News calling for the U.S. military to be deployed to fight “the enemy from within” — meaning Americans he deems “radical left lunatics,” a group he termed more dangerous than “China, Russia and all these countries.” During a Saturday rally in California, Trump said a female heckler should “get the hell knocked out of her” — apparently because he found her comments disruptive.

Though he now faces criticism for it, former President Barack Obama opened dialogue for a larger conversation on misogyny in American politics after calling out Black men who have not come out in full-throated support of Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign. “We have not yet seen the same kinds of energy and turnout in all corners of our neighborhoods and communities as we saw when I was running,” Obama, who has endorsed Harris and Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks, said during an appearance in Pittsburgh last week.