The Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee selected Del. Nick Charles on Monday to fill a vacant seat in the Maryland Senate. The committee will forward Charles’ name to Gov. Wes Moore (D), who has up to 15 days to confirm the appointment. Central Committee Chair Antwan Brown said he will forward Charles’ name to the governor’s office Tuesday. Charles, 40, an Air Force veteran, has served in the House of Delegates for more than four years representing the 25th legislative district, which includes District Heights, Forestville and parts of Upper Marlboro.

 

Local business leaders and education officials have utilized $1.4 million in grant funding to create an institute at Frostburg State University to promote the outdoor recreational economy in Western Maryland. The mission of the institute is to train a workforce while seeking to recruit outdoor recreation and lifestyle manufacturing businesses to the region. In addition to FSU, Allegany College of Maryland and Garrett College are participating by offering coursework for students based on the needs of the outdoor economy.

Baltimore County educators rallied Monday night to ask the school district to act fast in order to slow a wave of resignations. Cindy Sexton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said Nov. 28 is the final scheduled meeting between union and Baltimore County Public Schools bargaining teams, and that the two sides are not yet actively engaged in over half the union’s demands for a new agreement for next school year. The current bargaining agreement expires at the end of June.

By and large, Donné Settles Allen of Silver Spring has a tall family. She’s 5 feet 9 inches, and both her husband and oldest son are over 6 feet. Then, there’s her 13-year-old son, Asante Allen — an outgoing, tenacious goofball who stands 3 feet 9 inches. (He’s quick to point out that with socks and shoes, he’s closer to 3 feet 11 inches). Asante is the only one in his family who has achondroplasia, the most common type of dwarfism and the same one that actor Peter Dinklage has. His mother calls him the family’s “spontaneous genetic miracle.”

Maryland has long been a center of invention. That’s one reason I located Cloudforce, my own rapidly growing cloud consulting company, in the National Harbor area. I knew that here I would find the talent, creativity, and business opportunities needed for Cloudforce to thrive. Since that time, I’ve learned that a flourishing tech sector doesn’t happen by accident. While smart people executing big ideas are an essential ingredient, they’re not enough on their own.

Two high-profile Baltimore developers have joined up to build a $100 million multi-family community in Southern Maryland. Officials of Greenberg Gibbons and MCB Real Estate said Monday they have formed a 50-50 joint venture partnership to develop the 302-unit apartment complex in the emerging Waldorf Station project in Charles County. The 150-acre mixed-use development located off Route 301 in Waldorf kicked off this month with Greenberg Gibbons as master developer. It’s expected to be completed in mid-2025.

The future of public transit for the Baltimore region is at a critical juncture. Those of us who have been advocating for a reliable, efficient and equitable system were heartened by the announcement in June 2023 by Gov. Wes Moore that he is committed to restarting planning and construction of the Red Line east-west transit service that was abandoned eight years ago by the previous administration. The region has missed many opportunities to invest in a robust public transportation system in the past and cannot afford to do so again.

At our Oct. 30 County Council Public Safety Committee briefing on juvenile justice and crime, I discussed a recent case in which a teenager allegedly stole vehicles on more than one occasion, was apprehended by County Police multiple times, and each time was released by the State’s Department of Juvenile Services back into the community. Too often when considering juveniles who are alleged to have committed a crime, we attempt to minimize the community impact of these incidents.

The Thanksgiving table of Luke Ilardo’s childhood overflowed with all the hallmarks of a Sicilian holiday feast. There were “40-pound” lasagnas and casseroles of pasta al forno “the size of three small children.” There were mountains of fried shrimp, fried veal cutlets and “trays of rice pudding that you could go swimming in,” Ilardo remembers. And then there was “so much bread.” Like the traditional American Thanksgiving, his family’s Sicilian-style meal was a “big, celebratory feast,” said Ilardo, the co-owner of Doppio Pasticceria, an Italian bakery stationed in R. House food hall in North Baltimore’s Remington neighborhood.

Lawyers for one of the world’s preeminent technology giants went head-to-head Friday with Maryland state government lawyers in Baltimore as a new phase of legal challenges began against the state’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax. Apple became the first of several tech companies in recent months to challenge the constitutionality of the fee in Maryland Tax Court after a year in which the tax was struck down and then revived in state appellate court.