Most Baltimoreans get their news through TV and find local media a fair, accurate source of information that will help determine how they vote, according to a new survey from Goucher College Poll in partnership with The Baltimore Banner. The Goucher-Banner poll surveyed 711 registered Baltimore voters by cellphone and landline from Sept. 19-23. The poll has a 3.7 percentage point margin of error.

Six days after the Orioles and the state of Maryland announced a 30-year deal to keep the team at Camden Yards and five days after it was revealed that the agreement was a memorandum of understanding, and not a lease, Gov. Wes Moore emphasized the deal’s importance and guaranteed a lease would get signed. “Mark my words, and you can bet on it, the Orioles will be here for 30 years,” Moore said in an impassioned speech Wednesday during a meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works in Annapolis.

Just in case you’re not spending the entirety of your October and November weekends praying to the baseball deities or the football spirits, there are myriad ways for Marylanders of all ages to get outside and into the swing of autumn. Our state has so many farms, mild weather this time of year, and such a wide range of topography from mountains to rivers and ocean, there are activities for nearly everyone to enjoy. Here’s a round-up of a small sampling around Baltimore and beyond for everyone to be able to plan a day trip whether you’re traveling solo, with a friend, or a group.

 

The ballot issue committee with ties to Sinclair Broadcast Group that put a successful charter amendment to set term limits for Baltimore elected officials is now pursuing a measure that would reduce the size of the City Council from 14 districts to eight. In August, the People for Elected Accountability & Civic Engagement updated its statement of organization to the Maryland Board of Elections to reflect the new ballot measure effort. PEACE’s original statement of organization was to support ballot measures to create term limits for elected officials and recall other elected officials.

A new affordable housing complex in the Hanover/Jessup area will finish construction in early 2025, Anne Arundel County announced Tuesday.Eagle Park, which will be on Rockenbach Road abutting Fort Meade, will include 120 rental units in two smaller communities. The goal is to provide more housing for the county’s workforce and older adults earning significantly below the area’s median income.

If you think the Baltimore Orioles are the year’s biggest turnaround surprise, you haven’t been following the fortunes of the Maryland State Department of Education. It was only about four months ago that the State Board of Education was singing the praises of the beleaguered state superintendent. All the while, as I’ve reported in these pages, implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future was lagging, and Maryland was continuing to fall behind many states in the most critical element of school reform: early literacy.

 

Gov. Wes Moore (D) offered words of condemnation following a shooting on the campus of Morgan State University that left five people injured. Moore, speaking Wednesday at the start of the Board of Public Works meeting, said more must be done to stem the tide of violent crime and the ease with which firearms are accessed and used against people.

The Frederick County Board of Education and the staff of the school system have shown an admirable and necessary willingness to adapt to new conditions as the county grapples with an extreme shortage of classroom space in the schools. The board last week approved a site for a new school in the heavily congested section of the county east of the city of Frederick, even though the plot of land is far less than ideal and will require an innovative construction plan.

The Latino community in Baltimore is a vibrant tapestry of diversity, comprising individuals from a multitude of countries and backgrounds across Latin America. We are Mexican, Salvadoran, Honduran, Guatemalan, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Ecuadorian and Colombian. Our community spans a spectrum of skin colors, a testament to the complex history of colonization and the trafficking of human beings that shaped our ancestral homelands.

Back before he was in charge, John Angelos wrote lengthy missives complaining to “ownership” about being underpaid, underappreciated and surrounded by “rank incompetence” and “insane business practices.” He would offer ideas and analysis to “the supreme authority,” Angelos wrote on Feb. 3, 2010, only to be “met with dismissal or combativeness and personal attacks on my shortcomings and alleged ulterior motives.”