Baltimore City students are discovering potential new career paths in classes that cover topics such as coding and graphic design at a local tech center. “I wanted to learn more about technology because this will help when I get older,” said Zaire Blackwell, a 12-year-old student at the Digital Harbor Foundation. “Some of the stuff I want to do has a lot to do with technology.”

Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md), a titan of Maryland politics and the former No. 2 leader in the House of Representatives, will seek a 23rd term in Congress. Hoyer, 84, plans to file for reelection Tuesday in a deeply Democratic area he has represented in Congress since 1981, and before that the Maryland legislature starting in 1967.

Could a run for the county executive seat be in Evan Glass’ future? When asked about the prospect, the departing Montgomery County council president was evasive. But Glass (D-At-large) is clear about one thing: He said he wouldn’t do anything differently about his year leading the largest and most diverse council in the county government’s history and its most diverse in terms of gender, race, ethnicity and LGBTQ+ identity.

A Howard County HVAC firm is staying put in the Baltimore suburbs with a new 47,000-square-foot lease that will expand its office space. Quick Servant Co. Inc. recently signed the deal with Adler Real Estate Partners to move its headquarters into new office, storage and warehouse space in the Rivers Park I office park at 9065 Guilford Road in Columbia.

Frederick County Public Schools Superintendent Cheryl Dyson on Monday released a $992 million recommended budget for fiscal year 2025, an increase of more than $81 million from the current spending plan. Dyson’s recommended budget totals $991.6 million. It includes a $38.2 million pool for salary increases, which would equate to an average raise of 7% for employees across the system.

Baltimore County Public Schools Superintendent Myriam Rogers presented her proposed $2.58 billion operating budget for the fiscal year 2025, a 2.2% increase compared with the previous year. Rogers’ first budget request as superintendent comes as Maryland prepares for a slowing economy and federal coronavirus pandemic funding is set to expire this year.

The increasingly absurd and grossly inhumane conflict over immigration reached a new height of idiocy in recent weeks with the reports that border states are now changing tactics as they continue to ship busloads of undocumented immigrants north to sanctuary cities. As cities like Chicago and New York — their resources to house and feed new arrivals stretched woefully thin — attempt to limit such traffic by regulation or lawsuit, bus operators are being directed by their overseers to drop off their human cargo in the suburbs.

Housing instability is the primary portal to poverty for families in our region. Prices are soaring, and so are evictions. Small business owners can’t fill jobs if no housing is accessible to their workers. Local governments must act. I worked in housing advocacy from the mid-’80s to the mid-’90s and know it’s a frustrating story: same problems, same solutions and same political obstacles to implementing the solutions.

If you have shopped in the city of Frederick since New Year’s Day, you probably noticed a change when checking out: No more plastic bags. For those who like to bring home their packages in plastic, the city’s new ban on single-use plastic bags might be an inconvenience or even an annoyance. But it is an important step in protecting the environment, one that local governments in Maryland and around the country are increasingly taking.

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal Sunday on how much the U.S. government will spend in the new year, a significant step toward avoiding a shutdown. But while the agreement on a “topline” spending level breaks a logjam that had stalled the process, it doesn’t necessarily extinguish the shutdown threat as the first of two deadlines nears on Jan. 19, when some parts of the government will run out of money.