Officials at school districts across Maryland are in the process of raising teacher salaries and kickstarting a new pay structure, changes required by the state’s landmark education reform plan. But some teachers’ unions have said there is unclear guidance from state education officials on the specifics of the payment structure, called a career ladder, and whether districts can offer their current pay structure as one of multiple ways to earn a raise.

For the 35 years he’s owned Monaghan’s Pub in Woodlawn, Jack Milani has always offered free paper bags to his customers after a sale. But starting Wednesday, when Baltimore County’s Bring Your Own Bag Act goes into effect, he will have to charge them for something to carry their purchase in. The law, which the County Council passed earlier this year, bars retailers from offering single-use bags of thin plastic film and requires them to charge at least 5 cents for each paper or reusable bag they provide.

Last Sunday in Israel, Richie Pearlstone and fellow travelers heard horror stories of 10/7 from terrorized people who had lived until that day in the kibbutzim near the Gaza Strip. In a phone call from Tel Aviv on Monday, he described what he had heard the day before: “A woman said, ‘My husband went out to defend the kibbutz with a gun. He got killed. We managed to survive.’

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said Friday that he is giving “serious consideration” to running for the U.S. House seat being vacated by Democratic incumbent John Sarbanes at the end of next year. Ball, a Democrat, was elected county executive in 2018 and reelected in 2022. “With the retirement of my dear friend Congressman John Sarbanes, many in our community and across our state have encouraged me to run for Congress,” Ball, 48, said in a statement on social media.

Baltimore’s Harborplace would be transformed with soaring new conjoined towers with ground-level shops and restaurants, expanded public parks and a revamped waterfront promenade, under a much-anticipated plan to be unveiled Monday morning by the developer. The firm re-imagining the aging retail pavilions at the Inner Harbor — MCB Real Estate — also will ask Baltimore officials and voters Monday to expand permitted uses at the new Harborplace to allow people to live and work there for the first time.

As if new state schools superintendent Carey Wright doesn’t have more than enough Halloween hobgoblins to contend with, the scariest one has been overlooked in public understanding and political debate about the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future: How many students are actually expected to succeed by the time the Blueprint sunsets in 2032?

An Iowa high school student considered the future of her family farm through the lens of Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” One middle-schooler analyzed tensions between Bangladesh and Pakistan with fierce moral clarity. Another educated himself about trade policy to understand Puerto Rico. The kids I met at the National History Day finals in College Park in June weren’t afraid to confront history.

LifeBridge Health officials said they have halted plans to develop a 22-acre health care campus next to the Pimlico Race Course to give the state more time to figure out the future of the troubled historic race track. The health system that operates Sinai Hospital in Northwest Baltimore also may move a $100 million ambulatory services building planned as the centerpiece for the campus out of the development altogether.

William Sterling moved his Saturday Morning Cafe to Little Italy in the midst of the pandemic. Businesses struggled to attract patrons to the beloved city neighborhood. But Sterling said the decision to depart downtown for this ethnic enclave couldn’t have worked out better. Sterling is among the optimists who see a bright future for Little Italy even amid the dramatic changes to the neighborhood’s business and residential life.

She had to say something. Speaker after speaker at the Prince George’s County Council meeting had just railed against the very business that Chante Goodwin, 35, hoped to launch as a Black woman intent on joining the green rush ushered in when Maryland legalized adult cannabis sales. One county resident compared dispensaries to sex shops. “What happened to just say no?” another asked, referencing a Reagan-era slogan on drug prevention.