Dave Benfield did not have a clear exit strategy for the business he spent 25 years building. So when the opportunity to sell presented itself, the 53-year-old founder of DuClaw Brewing Co. seized the chance to spend more time with his family and focus on why he got into the brewing industry in the first place. The Rosedale-based brewery announced last week that it had sold to New Jersey’s River Horse Brewing Co. for an undisclosed amount.

The Navy’s newest warship, the guided missile destroyer USS Carl Levin, will be commissioned in Baltimore on June 24. Although it isn’t among cities with a Navy installation, the Navy chose Baltimore for the ceremony to commission its newest ship, demonstrating it still sees Baltimore as a Navy town. The city has a rich maritime tradition that was rooted centuries ago. The Navy’s first ship, the USS Constellation, launched in Baltimore in 1797.

The air quality in the D.C. area shifted into Code Orange early Friday morning but is expected to remain unhealthy for some groups throughout the day. Here’s what you need to know. What is a Code Orange Air Quality Alert? While Code Red means some members of the public may experience health effects and some individuals in sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects, code orange is slightly better.

 

A process fraught with tense discussions and heated public debate ended Tuesday afternoon as the Montgomery County Board of Education took a final vote to adopt next year’s $3.1 billion school operating budget. “Today marks the completion of the annual operating budget development process,” announced Superintendent Monifa McKnight, who added she was proud the district was able to “get to a point we’re proud of.”

 

Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison is stepping down Thursday, Mayor Brandon Scott announced in a news conference Thursday morning. “I have been truly blessed to serve this city of Baltimore,” Harrison said. “The opportunity to serve as your police commissioner is one that I will always cherish.” The mayor and Harrison said they’ve been in discussions for several weeks about the commissioner’s future and the future of the department.

Canceled events, emergency messages and mask-clad pedestrians harked back on Thursday to the frenzy of uncertainty in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic as the Baltimore metropolitan area fell under a “code red” air quality alert for the second consecutive day. Federal, state and local government officials are advising the general public to stay indoors or mask up outside in response to plumes of smoke from Canadian wildfires that have wafted into the mid-Atlantic.

The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association announced Thursday its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will remain in Baltimore for an additional year. The extension, announced by CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams during a news conference sharing economic impact numbers, came a little more than a year after officials from the city and the nation’s oldest historically Black athletic conference had agreed to keep the tournaments in Baltimore through 2025.

Former president Donald Trump said Thursday night that he’s been charged by the Justice Department in connection with the discovery that hundreds of classified documents were taken to his Mar-a-Lago home after he left the White House — a seismic event in the nation’s political and legal history. A seven-count indictment has been filed in federal court naming the former president as a criminal defendant, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a case that has yet to be unsealed.

Marty Wasserman fell off his horse. Sitting in the screened-in porch of his Ellicott City home on Monday, he told a story of how he was riding his horse, T, last summer when the animal was startled by a noise and threw him. At 80, any fall can be a disaster. But this was a full-on flop to the ground from the saddle of a tall bay. Wasserman injured his face and his ribs.

Even without the need for six feet of social distance, outdoor dining, and its power to brighten the streetscape, is in Baltimore to stay. The latest initiative for permanent outdoor dining “parklets” — restaurant seating areas in public right-of-way spaces — was approved by the city’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday, establishing safety rules for seating structures and a fee system that will charge restaurants in affluent areas more per square foot.