Baltimore’s dominant utility provider is asking Maryland regulators to keep secret a key document that sheds more light on the controversial deal the company inked earlier this year with Mayor Brandon Scott — an agreement a state watchdog says could cost ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars in the coming decades.

Over the past week, state agencies and small businesses across Maryland lit up with green lights to show their support for Maryland’s veterans as part of Operation Green Light, a national campaign to recognize veterans and provide educational opportunities highlighting the needs and well-being of those who served in the U.S. military.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) laborers at Ford’s Louisville assembly and Kentucky truck plants have voted against a proposed four-and-a-half year contract, while the skilled trades workers voted in favor of the deal, the union’s local unit said on Facebook. The UAW Local 862 union said that 55% of the production workers voted against ratifying the contract. However, 69% of the skilled trades workers cast votes in favor of the contract.

 

Emirates Airline on Monday announced an order for 95 Boeing aircraft at a value of $52 billion, kicking off the first major deal of the 2023 Dubai Airshow. The state-owned flagship Dubai carrier, a subsidiary of Emirates Group, is ordering 55 additional Boeing 777-9s and 35 of its 777-8s, bringing the airline’s total orders for the 777X widebody jets to 205 units. It is also updating its order of Boeing 787 Dreamliners from 30 to 35, comprised of 15 787-10s and 20 787-8s.

 

A majority of Baltimore City Council members accused Mayor Brandon Scott on Wednesday of ignoring community input and failing to be transparent in his redistricting map process. Scott on Monday vetoed a council-approved redistricting map, which automatically allowed his own map to go into effect. In a letter sent to the mayor Wednesday afternoon, Council President Nick Mosby and seven other council members asserted that the map they had narrowly passed late last month addressed the mayor’s concerns that there weren’t enough anchor institutions in certain areas or equalized enough populations across the map.

A coalition of local unions and advocacy groups debuted a proposal Wednesday that could force the Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland Medical Center and other nonprofit institutions in Baltimore to cough up more money for the city, additional revenues that would be earmarked for community programs like land trusts, urban farms and grassroots financial institutions.

Federal officials have chosen a site in the Maryland suburbs to replace the FBI’s iconic but decaying national headquarters in downtown Washington, the General Services Administration and multiple people familiar with the decision said Wednesday. The decision follows years of pointed arguments about where the multibillion-dollar project should land.

Job numbers in Maryland remained strong in the first quarter of 2023, with new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showing that the state was able to fend off concerns about a pending recession. Data released this week by BLS shows that the state posted job gains of 147,510 in the first quarter of 2023, compared to losses of 121,490 for a net gain of 26,020.

Identifying and nurturing the gifted and talented child is one of the most difficult jobs in education today — and one of the most controversial, as well. Who is gifted? In what way? Why are fewer children of color or underprivileged children chosen to receive the additional benefits of accelerated or broadened educational programs?

After months of high-level meetings and discussions, government officials and Big Tech leaders have agreed on one thing about artificial intelligence: The potentially world-changing technology needs some ground rules. But many in Silicon Valley are skeptical. A growing group of tech heavyweights — including influential venture capitalists, the CEOs of midsize software companies and proponents of open-source technology — are pushing back, claiming that laws for AI could snuff out competition in a vital new field.