Thirty-five years after the Orioles announced their arrival in Baltimore, then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer introduced a “distinguished visitor” to mark the end of a meeting that would redefine the MLB team’s relationship with the state of Maryland. The Oriole Bird came into the conference room and rallied the elected officials and bureaucrats with a chant of “O-R-I-O-L-E-S.” The occasion — final approval of a state-of-the-art, taxpayer-funded stadium in exchange for the Orioles’ long-term commitment to Baltimore — came on the heels of the painful departure a few years earlier of the NFL’s Colts.

A Montgomery County law placing limits on firearms oversteps state laws, according to a Montgomery County Circuit Court judge. Judge Ronald B. Rubin, in a decision issued Monday, said he will issue a permanent injunction blocking portions of the local law. “In summary, the comprehensive and intertwined scheme of existing state regulation preempts Montgomery County’s efforts…to place additional legal hurdles on wear and carry permit holders, state licensed firearms dealers and privately made firearms,” Rubin wrote in a 21-page decision.

The team leading the development of Baltimore Peninsula in South Baltimore’s Port Covington neighborhood unveiled a conceptual design of The Exchange, a brick-and-mortar marketplace designed to bolster small and local merchants. Scheduled to open late next year, The Exchange — which is using BCT Design Group, the designers behind the newly reopened Lexington Market in Downtown Baltimore — will consist of 13 spaces ranging from 90 square feet to 165 square feet as well as a food stall, seating area and space for a yoga studio and multipurpose room.

Progress has been slow in the quest to create an ideal environment for captive dolphins Baltimore is home to a shrinking population of about 575,000 humans and a growing population of six bottlenose dolphins — five of them born and raised at the National Aquarium in the Inner Harbor. However, not long after the birth of the youngest, Bayley, the Aquarium decided to stop breeding dolphins. Nor does it plan to expand the pod by accepting captured dolphins or those from other facilities. Which means these six will be the last dolphins to live in Baltimore.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 17-10 Tuesday to advance to the full Senate the nomination of former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley to be the next commissioner of the Social Security Administration. All 14 Democrats and three Republicans — Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — supported advancing O’Malley’s nomination. Ten other Republicans voted against O’Malley.

This summer’s oxygen-poor “dead zone” in the Chesapeake Bay was the smallest since scientists started monitoring it in 1985, according to estimates by researchers in Maryland and Virginia. The good news for the bay could reflect the lower-than-average rainfall in the bay watershed this year, experts said. Rainwater carries pollutants into the Chesapeake, inundating the estuary with nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous from farm fields, lawns and city streets, which trigger the growth of algae blooms that draw oxygen from the water as they decompose, creating the dead zones.

Greenbelt Council member Ric Gordon, who was known as a community activist, died suddenly on Sunday at the age of 41, the Maryland city announced late Sunday. A native of Prince George’s County, Gordon fought for the residents of his community on several issues, including property management, according to a statement from the City of Greenbelt.

Maryland is a national leader in medical innovation and is at the forefront of discovering new treatments and cures for many chronic and rare illnesses, including HIV, cancer, cystic fibrosis, and more. Patients with rare and chronic diseases like my daughter, Grace, are depending on our nation’s longstanding commitment to meet unmet patient needs and advanced medical innovation has given countless patients, families, and caregivers hope that a new treatment or cure is on the horizon.

It used to be that the worst thing about gas-powered leaf blowers was the noise they made. Nothing quite says get out of bed early on a Saturday morning than the sound of 75 jet-engine-like decibels as the neighbor tries to gather his fall yard waste without benefit of a rake. But it turns out that the noise, while potentially harmful to the unprotected eardrum of the operator, is hardly the worst of your problems.

Constellation Energy Corp. wants to be a big player in the hydrogen industry, a field that could be worth more than $1 trillion, but first, the company needs a key federal ruling to go in its favor. The U.S. Department of the Treasury is currently mulling over rules that would determine who qualifies for a new clean hydrogen production tax credit that was created as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) called 45V, which will give out $3 for every kilogram of clean hydrogen a company produces.