A former chief of staff to two Senate presidents will be considered to fill a vacancy on the Maryland State Board of Elections. The executive board of the Maryland Democratic Party is expected to consider the nomination of Yaakov “Jake” Weissmann at a meeting on Tuesday. The meeting follows a letter from Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore) and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones (D-Baltimore County) that recommended Weissman for the vacancy.

Wondering what to do with that extra day off this Memorial Day weekend? Well, the D.C. region is home to many outdoor attractions perfect for celebrating the holiday weekend. Erin Gifford, a freelance travel writer who has written three guidebooks for hiking in Virginia and the surrounding D.C. area, recommended a few favorite hiking spots that vary in difficulty and driving times. “I always look for hikes that are just interesting,” Gifford said. “They need to be a good distance, not too long, maybe 2 or 3 miles, and that always have kind of engaging features.”

 

The Orioles on Monday unveiled their City Connect uniforms, paying tribute to Baltimore with a uniform that, like the city, has more to it than what’s visible from outside. With a black uniform featuring much of its color on the interior — which the club noted with pride is a first — the Orioles became the 19th team to participate in the City Connect series, part of a partnership between Major League Baseball and Nike. Orioles players and coaches will first wear the uniforms in a game Friday night against the Texas Rangers.

Serena McIlwain, Maryland’s new secretary of the Environment, has seen the very best of environmental activism and innovation in government, and it informs her work in Maryland today. For four years, McIlwain was undersecretary at the California Environmental Protection Agency during Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first term. After decades of working for the federal government, being able to push a bold agenda at a well-funded agency, with full buy-in from the state’s top leaders, was an eye-opening experience.

 

Bethesda-based property technology firm Brivo Inc. has landed a $92 million equity investment from the multi-billion-dollar Tokyo security company Secom Co. Ltd. The funding deal, announced Wednesday, comes less than a year after Brivo’s plans to go public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company fell apart amid a downturn in the financial markets that caused many such deals to collapse. That deal, which was terminated in August, was expected to net Brivo about $304 million.

Baltimore County’s Department of Recreation and Parks has launched a Park Finder web tool to provide users with “comprehensive information on 362 parks and recreation centers throughout the County, makes exploring and enjoying Baltimore County easier than ever,” county officials said Monday. Users can search by name, community name, and/or amenities like playgrounds, picnic areas, amphitheaters, farmlands, pickleball courts, dog parks, boat rentals, and more.

The clock is ticking for President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to come to agreement to avoid a first-ever default on the nation’s debt. And although there are some positive signs suggesting they’re closer to a consensus, there is still no deal. They face a looming deadline, with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen reaffirming in a letter to McCarthy on Monday that it is “highly likely” that the US Treasury will not be able to pay all of its bills in full and on time as soon as June 1.

From the owner’s box at Camden Yards, David Trone gazed out at the crowd — a sea of Orioles fans in orange and black — and pronounced himself one of them. “We grew up all our lives rooting for the Orioles,” the 67-year-old congressman, who was raised in Pennsylvania near the Maryland border, said at the team’s sold-out home opener last month.

Maryland gained 8,000 jobs in April as the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 2.5%, according to preliminary data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). This is the third consecutive month of record-setting low unemployment in the state and is now the lowest since the BLS began publishing unemployment estimates for Maryland in January 1976.

 

Lakeforest Mall’s owners have redoubled their efforts to persuade Gaithersburg officials to adopt an ordinance that would help speed up redevelopments like theirs. Representatives for South Carolina-based WRS Realty penned a letter earlier this month, its second such appeal, to city officials asking them to take up local legislation that would let the two sides strike what’s known as a Development Rights and Responsibilities Agreement, or DRRA.