Pretty much every item in the modest Silver Spring apartment Baktash Amini shares with his wife, Maryam, and their two young kids has been donated: the table and chairs, sofas, bedroom furniture, even the television hanging from the wall. One notable exception: a white toddler-size Bentley sports car covered in stickers that sits on the floor next to one of the sofas.

 

Pastor Rod Hudson said the first time he came to Baltimore to visit Ames Memorial United Methodist Church in 2007, he was shocked by how much drug activity was going on in Sandtown-Winchester. But he felt called to work there, he said, and not only took the job at the church, but became engaged in efforts and ideas to turn the neighborhood around.

I remember hooting when I watched “Reefer Madness” at some point in my college days, when smoking marijuana was secretive but common enough that no one was either shocked or scandalized. The movie, released in 1936, was straight up propaganda, warning parents that if their children got ahold of “marihuana,” there would be a direct line from a toke to a life of crime and depravity.

Controversy over the renewal of the contract of state superintendent Mohammed Choudhury and the conflict between him and the Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) have made headlines lately. But they are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg of the problems that the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future faces.

Data centers — those vast computer server farms that provide the backbone of the internet — may be the future of Frederick County, but the future has gotten off to a bumpy start. Quantum Loophole, the Texas-based company, is developing a campus of data centers on more than 2,100 acres in the Adamstown area, to much acclaim from local officials and business leaders.

The current haze throughout Baltimore is expected to last through at least Thursday as winds carry smoke from Canadian wildfires across the Northeastern United States. Wildfire smoke from Quebec being carried south has prompted the Maryland Department of the Environment to categorize air quality in the Baltimore metro region and farther east on Tuesday as unhealthy for sensitive groups, such as older adults, children and people with certain medical conditions.

Erica Brooks, a graduating senior at Overlea High School in Baltimore County, had a tough high school experience. She lost her dad as a freshman and she was forced to learn virtually her sophomore year because of the pandemic. But with the help of an academic resource center, she not only bounced back but finished her classes early. She’ll walk across the stage with her peers on Wednesday.

After a lengthy negotiation process to settle on a bill that would raise the debt ceiling in order for the U.S. government to avoid default, the bill now expands the age range in which a person needs to be employed, or in a work training program, in order to receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, benefits.

Nate Fleming had pulled up at a gas station in Northeast Washington on his way home when the red minivan appeared out of the corner of his eye. The van sped up and screeched to a halt next to his dark 2014 BMW sedan. Two people — masked and dressed in all black — flung open the doors of the van and jumped out. One pointed a gun at Fleming, who threw his keys and ran, while the other got into the BMW. Both cars then sped away.

Baltimore Police’s top cop began Tuesday night’s hourslong budget hearing by combating one rumor: He will not be leaving for the police chief gig in nearby Washington, D.C. Commissioner Michael Harrison told Baltimore City Council members he’s fielded calls from across the country to gauge his interest in open jobs. He’s said no to all, he said.