Just a few weeks removed from the biggest meet of his life, Khoi Young has seen the clips of his medal-winning vaults and pommel horse routine many, many times. In one sense, it is a dream fulfilled: He’s the first American men’s gymnast to earn three medals (two silvers and a team bronze) at a single World Championships in 20 years. But the adventure still feels dream-like. When Young watches his spins, his flips, his steely confidence throughout his final runs in Belgium against the world’s best, it’s an uncanny experience.

Howard County boasts the highest median family income in Maryland. Its unemployment rate is tied for the state’s lowest, its school system consistently earns top reviews, and Columbia, Maryland’s first planned community, was recently designated by WalletHub as the nation’s second safest city. To top it all off, there’s the home equity bottom line: Buying real estate has turned out to be a terrific investment in Howard County, with the median sale prices of homes averaging abound $725,000 — or $200,000 more than just four years ago, the biggest jump in all of Maryland.

Last week, a dear friend shared how she told her 94-year-old Jewish mother about the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel. After pouring two cups of coffee, she sat with her mother at the kitchen table and broke the news. Her mother crumbled and wept. “Again?” she asked, almost in disbelief. “Again?” That one word captured the unspeakable horror. Again.

The Baltimore area was chosen as one of 31 federal tech hubs on Monday, providing hundreds of millions in funding to make the region part of a national effort to advance America’s tech industry through competitive grants. The Baltimore tech hub will focus on the combination of artificial intelligence and biotechnology — what’s been dubbed “predictive healthcare” — to use artificial intelligence on health data to improve outcomes, clinical decision-making and produce new therapies and drugs.

The Annapolis City Planning Commission is scheduled to consider the site plan for the new City Dock Park at a December meeting. This update and discussion of the overall project aimed at protecting the downtown area from frequent flooding and honoring the city’s maritime history was the subject of two city work sessions held Thursday for the City Dock Action Committee to update city leaders on waterfront plans.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) stepped into the U.S. Senate race Monday to endorse Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. Moore returned the favor after Alsobrooks endorsed him last year for governor when he opened a field office in Prince George’s, the majority Black jurisdiction with the largest number of registered Democrats in the state.

When I woke up on the morning of Saturday, October 7, to the news of the invasion of Israel, and the reports of civilians slaughtered, it was clear that this time was different. As the stories on the ground continued to unfold, I was shocked at the pure evil and barbarism that had occurred. During the next few days, we learned about the scale of the atrocities — of the babies and children murdered at point-blank range; of young adults at a music festival gunned down, kidnapped and raped; and of families missing or massacred by Hamas terrorists.

CFG Bank is undertaking the largest capital raise in its 14-year history to support its growing commercial loan portfolio. CFG, the largest bank headquartered in Greater Baltimore, is currently reaching out to private investors to secure $200 million to $250 million and expects to close the fundraising round by year-end. The bank is growing its reserves because it faces a problem many banks would love to have: too many loan opportunities, many coming from parent company Capital Funding Group Inc.’s national health care clients.

Maryland’s high-profile race to replace U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin got off to a quick start, with four Democrats almost immediately jumping in for the rare chance to win an open seat in Washington, D.C., next year. Cardin, a three-term senator who’s been involved in Maryland politics for nearly six decades, is not seeking reelection in 2024.

Growing up in South Baltimore, Michael Middleton became accustomed to the invisible barriers separating his neighborhood from the next one over. Those imaginary lines, he recalled, meant that Cherry Hill and Brooklyn neighbors shared little in common besides geography. Now retired, Middleton said something extraordinary has happened to those walls over the last few years. Six South Baltimore communities, wary of development north of the Patapsco River’s Middle Branch, joined forces nearly a decade ago and turned a page.