“The racial wealth gap is intentional. It was created. It was created by the Homestead Act. It was created by urban redlining. It was created by the inequitable distribution of the GI bill. It was created by unfair appraisal values. It was created by racist procurement policies. The racial wealth gap was created by the misguided choices of people in power.

A national indoor golf simulator venue will open a Harford County location this week, with three more Maryland locations to come next year. California-based X-Golf will open its Bel Air location the evening of Nov. 17. The indoor golf company, which already has a location in Pasadena, is poised to add three more locations throughout the state early next year, in Annapolis, Eldersburg and Frederick.

Baltimore City leaders are touting the Clean Corps program, saying it has removed tons of trash from vacant lots and alleys. One crew worked on West Lafayette Avenue Wednesday after receiving a 311 call that someone had dumped trash in the backyard of a vacant house. The crew could not enter the private property, so instead, they worked on the nearby alley.

Baltimore’s spending board voted Wednesday to approve paying a $3.3 million penalty to the state — a historic fine for pollution that flowed from the city’s poorly maintained wastewater treatment plants and into the Patapsco and Back Rivers. Along with the payment comes a big to-do list for the city, in the form of a court-monitored consent decree, which the city’s Board of Estimates also approved Wednesday.

As the sun shined on Monday in Brunswick, a black veil fluttered while it was pulled off a bronze plaque on a building wall. Engraved on the plaque was the name of a new city building — the Milton E. Frech, Jr. Operations Center. The new $6.8 million building is named after former Frech, a Brunswick police chief who died unexpectedly in his home in Emmitsburg in March 2021.

The Hagerstown City Council plans to appoint someone with political experience to replace a long-time city politician who resigned his council seat last month. The council is set to vote on Peter E. Perini Sr. to fill the remaining term of Bob Bruchey at its meeting next week, according to a news release from the city staff. Mayor Tekesha Martinez announced the remaining four council members’ plans during Tuesday’s city council work session.

Eleven members of Virginia’s congressional delegation officially called for an investigation into the selection process for the new FBI Headquarters. In a letter, they called on the General Services Administration’s Acting Inspector General Robert Erickson to launch the probe. “There is overwhelming evidence suggesting that the General Services Administration (GSA) administered a site selection process fouled by political considerations and alleged impropriety — one that was repeatedly curated to arrive at a predetermined outcome,” the lawmakers said in the letter.

Hundreds of Baltimore residents lined up to secure a steering wheel lock Wednesday. Kia and Hyundai owners picked up the free anti-theft locks at a giveaway in south Baltimore. “People tried to take my car,” resident Angel Castillo said. City leaders were there, including Mayor Brandon Scott and Commissioner Richard Worley. They had 500 locks ready to hand out to drivers in need.

 

Amazon will buy renewable energy from a solar project on Backbone Mountain in Garrett County that is being built at the former site of a reclaimed coal mine. The 120-year-old mining site formerly operated by Arch Coal was contaminated with more than 45 acres of coal refuse. The project is Amazon’s first to be built on a brownfield — land that has been abandoned due to industrial pollution — the company said in a news release.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Education is set to vote on a redistricting plan that will affect more than 6,000 students who attend 48 schools. The school system began hashing out a plan to help balance enrollment almost a year ago. Not long after, it opened the plan to public input. The need to redraw school boundary lines is due to an increase in the number of students, especially in the northern part of the county.