Look out Royal Farms. Step aside Highs and Wawa. There’s a new gas and convenience chain coming to Baltimore County. Sheetz plans to open Thursday in Middle River, its first location in the county as the Altoona, Pennsylvania-based chain continues its expansion throughout the mid-Atlantic. Before now, its closest stores to Baltimore, the longtime home of Royal Farms, were in Joppatowne and Westminster.

School systems around the Baltimore area are looking to hire teachers, administrators and support staff as the academic year kicks off. As of the first day of school Aug. 26, Baltimore City Public Schools had 171 open teacher positions for the 2024-25 year, according to data provided by the school district. There are 15 administration positions posted on its website, including for educational specialists.

Worries of being uprooted from their jobs have returned for Laura Dodson and other federal workers, who have long been the economic backbone of the nation’s capital and its suburbs. During former President Donald Trump ‘s administration, her office under the U.S. Department of Agriculture was told it would be moving. About 75 people were going to be relocated to Kansas City, Missouri, Dodson said, but less than 40 actually moved.

Frederick County outreach workers counted a total of 250 people experiencing homelessness on Jan. 24, 2024 — up from 226 during the same week last year, according to data recently released by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. The data was collected as part of the Point-in-Time (PIT) count, an initiative of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that is carried out locally each year.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office is hosting a community shred and prescription drug turn-in event on Saturday, Sept. 21, outside the Robinwood Professional Center near Hagerstown, the sheriff’s office announced Tuesday. The event will be from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., or until the shred truck is full, in the silver parking lot at the 11110 Medical Campus Road medical complex, according to a release the sheriff’s office put out on Facebook and via its app.

 

Donald Trump is betting that Americans crave trillions of dollars in tax cuts — and that growth will be so fantastic that it’s not worth worrying about budget deficits. In short, he’s hoping that most economic analyses of his ideas are dead wrong. Vice President Kamala Harris believes that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy should pay more in taxes — and wants to use those revenues to help spur the construction of 3 million homes and offer tax breaks for parents.

The Somerset County Health Department getting significant funding to broaden their services. The agency has been awarded $1.7 million via a Health Equity Resource Communities (HERC) grant from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission. Over the course of 5 years, those funds will be used to expand the reach of Community Health Workers (CHW) in the county. Those health officials work with other agencies to connect patients with the resources and information that they need to stay healthy.

Mosquito-borne illnesses pose a serious threat to Americans that is bound to become even more dire as climate change worsens. Yet public health officials don’t have a strong grasp on strategies to protect at-risk communities. That must change — and soon. Just last week, a previously healthy 41-year-old New Hampshire man died of eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), a rare but serious mosquito-borne infection.

Military veterans said Gov. Wes Moore may lose some credibility as a voice for his party within their ranks after he apologized for a White House application that inaccurately claimed he received a Bronze Star. The up-and-coming politician and former U.S. Army Captain with the 82nd Airborne Division has been courting veterans on behalf of Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

It wasn’t as hot as usual in Ocean City in August this year, as we attended the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) Conference, an annual ritual where elected officials, government agencies, community organizations and businesses congregate. Oftentimes, the tone for the next year’s legislative session gets set at MACo, as leaders take their cues from the governor.