Across Maryland, schools are coming back in session, and it won’t be long before the excitement and goodwill of a new academic year fades as educators confront the harsh reality that effective teaching is one of the hardest jobs around. The challenges of classroom instruction are only the starting point. At the core of running a K-12 school is not just the lofty business of inspiring young minds but the often less personally fulfilling mission of getting young people to behave around each other so they can learn.

I do not believe there is such a thing as a “born leader.” The phrase is often used to describe someone people want to follow. It does not mean that as the leader evolves, they will possess the skills to identify and unlock human potential in service of a shared goal, something a great leader does. Instead, I believe that great leaders are not born, but built. Their greatness is supported by the building blocks laid through a lifelong journey of continuous improvement.

At a time when prices remain sky-high and local families are scrounging to make ends meet, we should all come together in a sense of common good to deliver relief. Instead, the Anne Arundel County Council took the bait, raising costs on struggling residents in the name of green policy that lines retailers’ pockets. The recently passed ban on plastic retail bags also creates a new tax on paper bags, the latest in a curious trend of Maryland’s retailers linking arms with the activists at the Sierra Club.

The day Sarah E. Carter broke the color barrier in Anne Arundel County nearly a half-century ago, she said she recognized the significance of her achievement. “I had a lot of people helping me and it’s amazing to win,” she told Michael Wentzel, a reporter for The Evening Sun newspaper. “We didn’t do it alone. People told me that I’m with white people too much. They’d tell me they wouldn’t vote for me when the time came. This proves that racism isn’t good from any angle.”

A new way to purchase green power is coming to Maryland, thanks to a partnership that will result in the installation of solar panels on the rooftops of self-storage facilities in Maryland and two other states. The arrangement between Public Storage and Solar Landscape, announced this month, is designed to produce 87.53 megawatts of clean energy for up to 10,000 low- and moderate-income households in Maryland, Illinois and New Jersey.

 

Bird, one of the e-scooter brands found throughout Baltimore over the past year, is no longer permitted to provide rides in the city. The dockless vehicle company was axed in the Baltimore Department of Transportation’s latest round of permits, which allow two other e-scooter brands — Spin and LINK by Superpedestrian — to continue operating through June 2024.

At the height of the pandemic, the co-owners of Diamondback Brewing Co. in Locust Point signed a deal with Legends Limited, giving them a one-stop shop for distribution and a wide reach across the state. Colin Marshall and Tom Foster had experienced working with multiple distributors to sell their beers and wanted out. So, they paid half of $24,000 to exit their contract with Wantz Distributors in Hagerstown.

Three people have filed to run for one seat on the Emmitsburg Board of Commissioners, according to the town’s election page. The three candidates are Glenn Blanchard, Dale L. Sharrer and Valerie Turnquist. The filing deadline was Friday. The current mayor, Donald Briggs, previously said he would not be seek re-election.

 

 

Seven activists who were arrested after they went up the State House steps and refused to leave on the last day of the General Assembly session had their charges dropped this week. The seven were part of a demonstration with the immigrant advocacy group CASA, rallying for better access to health care by asking the Senate to pass a bill which would remove immigration status as a barrier to obtaining insurance through the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange. The seven held a large banner across the steps reading, “Healthcare is a human right.”

As the end of her 2020 mayoral campaign neared, Sheila Dixon said she wouldn’t run for mayor again if she lost the race. Three years later, however, the former Baltimore mayor may be staging another potential comeback. First there was a June appearance in which Fox 45 host Armstrong Williams referred to Dixon as a candidate for mayor. She didn’t correct him.