As discomfiting as the “Free Kevin Brown” debacle proved to be — including a happy-to-be-back statement issued under the Orioles announcer’s name that read suspiciously like the work product of a soulless corporate AI computer (”John Angelos and I have a solid dialogue based on mutual respect…”) — the suspension of the well-regarded play-by-play man was far from the most troubling news to filter out of Camden Yards in recent days.

“Gun shots make everybody deaf and blind,” writes Jason Reynolds in his book, “Long Way Down.”It’s been more than a month, and we still do not know who committed what has been called the largest mass shooting in Baltimore history, at Brooklyn Homes. In “Long Way Down,” Reynolds suggests that neighbors avoid telling the police what they witness, fearing that they might become the next gun violence victim from a potential revenge shooting.

The murder trial of Draquan Smith had been set to begin in Baltimore, and prosecutors wanted to reschedule it because the assistant state’s attorney assigned to the case was out sick. The state had opposed an order to have a different assistant state’s attorney handle jury selection as to not delay the case. When a judge denied a second request to postpone the trial, or, at a minimum, pause the court proceedings for 24 hours, the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office dismissed the charges of first-degree murder and use of a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence against Smith.

Montgomery County Public Schools has retained Baltimore law firm Jackson Lewis to look into “significant allegations of harassment and bullying involving one of our principals,” it said in a statement Monday, referring to allegations involving Joel Beidleman, the former Farquhar Middle School principal accused in a Washington Post report Friday of a years-long pattern of sexual harassment.

D.C. has a lot to offer. Great dining, history, museums and attractions. But when it comes to ground level ozone, the city scores and F with the American Lung Association. The association ranked several parts of the DMV with several regions receiving poor scores. The American Lung Association’s 2023 State of the Air report based the failing score on factors such as the number of days with code orange ozone levels.

Frederick’s mayor and aldermen will determine the fate of plans to rezone a shopping center along West Patrick Street, following a vote by the city’s Planning Commission. The commission voted unanimously Monday night to recommend approval of the master plan to redevelop the Westridge Shopping Center along Frederick’s Golden Mile to the mayor and aldermen.

Commuters exiting the Jones Falls Expressway are bound to notice a dramatic change in traffic patterns after crews last week added turn lanes at 28th Street and are funneling traffic into one lane heading east. The change is the first of many as the Baltimore Department of Transportation begins a project along 28th Street between Sisson Street and Maryland Avenue aimed at addressing safety concerns for pedestrians and excessive speeds along the thoroughfare that runs through the Remington neighborhood.

 

National defense technology company Leonardo DRS has moved one of its Montgomery County locations to Frederick. The roughly 85,000-square-foot building on Executive Court is part of the company’s Airborne and Intelligence Systems sector, which develops radio systems used in advanced electronic warfare and intelligence gathering for the U.S. military and other intelligence agencies.

 

Polish up your ruby slippers. In six weeks, a much talked-about Broadway-bound production of “The Wiz” will ease on down the road and into the Hippodrome Theatre for its world premiere — pouring millions of dollars into the local economy and potentially elevating Baltimore’s importance nationwide as a theater destination. The revival of “The Wiz,” the iconic, 1975 all-Black musical retelling of “The Wizard of Oz,” will be the first show to take advantage of financial incentives the Maryland General Assembly approved last year.

A ‘hush trip’ has emerged as one of the employee abuses made possible by remote and hybrid work, and in a ResumeBuilder survey of Gen Z workers under age 27, a surprisingly large share admit to having done it.  A hush trip is working from a vacation destination without telling their manager they are on vacation, and sometimes working very little when they go. The survey found 44% of the 900 or so Gen Z office, remote or hybrid workers responding had taken such a trip, and many have taken those trips to an extremely deceptive level.