When July hit, I saw a lot of cannabis content on my timeline. Marylanders get to grow two plants and may possess up to 1.5 ounces of dried flower. There are going to be a lot of plants inadvertently dying prematurely in the next couple of months as people get the hang of cultivating a new crop. There is still no smoking in public or businesses. Wherever you can use tobacco products, you should be able to use cannabis products, also.

We took up the entire row “J” of the Senator Theatre in Baltimore, my 21-year-old daughter, her best friend, my friend, her 18-year-old daughter and my mother, all in our pink and glitter. My 12-year-old son, dressed in coral shorts and a salmon colored button down hawaiin shirt wanted to sit in his own row, a row behind us with his bag of popcorn.

Frederick’s aldermen want the city to commit to spending money it has received from developers to build more affordable housing and school facilities. The city has nearly $6 million in school mitigation funds — intended to offset development in areas where schools are already overcrowded — and almost $5 million for building affordable housing paid by developers in lieu of putting affordable units in their projects, Alderman Ben MacShane said Wednesday.

Discontent with city leadership may have played a larger role than has been acknowledged in the recent, back-to-back departures of Baltimore’s police commissioner and director of the neighborhood safety office. Texts messages obtained by The Banner through a public records request show Shantay Jackson, then the outgoing director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, sent text messages to then-Police Commissioner Michael Harrison during the Police Department’s consequential City Council budget hearing on June 6, which led to his abrupt departure two days later.

Months ago, large groups of squeegee workers were a consistent presence on President Street in downtown Baltimore and in other busy intersections in the city. The workers, often Black teens and young adults, approached vehicles when the lights turned red, washing windows in hopes of a tip. Now, those same streets are noticeably quieter.

Most of a city block on Baltimore’s west side is headed to auction as the ongoing reset of the once-popular area continues. The multi-building portfolio is in foreclosure and will be sold on Aug. 29 on the courthouse steps downtown. The auction will consist of five mixed-use buildings and a 410-space, multi-level parking garage, including the 392-unit Centerpoint Apartments and 33,000 square feet of street-level retail space.

In a city with spectacular waterfront views, sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are equally stunning vistas from the water looking in. I was reminded of this truth last week as I took in a different view of Canton, from the seat of a rental boat belonging to the Oasis Boat Club at Lighthouse Point Marina. I hitched a ride to talk to Lars Kristiansen, the vice president of food and beverage for Oasis Marinas, who was there to tell me all about the hospitality group’s plans for a new restaurant at the site of the old Bo Brooks Crab House.

Eight environmental leaders are pressing Maryland energy regulators for more transparency on how the state’s renewable energy program is handled — and how the state hands out financial credits for entities that generate renewable energy. In a letter sent Tuesday to the five members of the Maryland Public Service Commission, the green groups suggest that the state’s renewable energy program isn’t delivering on its promise.

If you’re reading this at a red light, stop and put your phone down. More Marylanders died on the roads in 2022 than in 2019 despite people driving less, and distracted driving was one major cause, a new study found. TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, reported that Maryland experienced 557 traffic fatalities in 2022 — one per 100 million miles traveled.

Eight years before Martin O’Malley was tapped to manage Social Security, he was running for president and claiming to be the only candidate with a plan to fix it. The vision, the former Maryland governor said, was not just to address the long-term outlook for a program expected to be incapable of paying full benefits by the mid-2030s, but to expand the benefits while raising wages and inspiring more private investment in retirement.