Morgan State University is one step closer to opening the first new medical school affiliated with a historically Black college or university in nearly 50 years after winning state Board of Public Works approval to lease space for the school on its Baltimore campus. The proposed Maryland College of Osteopathic Medicine at Morgan State has two primary goals, the founders say — increase the number of Black doctors entering the profession and, in turn, increase Black Baltimore residents’ access to physicians that look like them. Fewer than one in 10 medical school graduates today are Black, American medical college data shows.
Morgan State to open a medical school — first at a historically Black university in decades
Streeter: For the parents who don’t have help: An ode to the village we all deserve
Colons and Cosmopolitans don’t usually go together, but a line from the “Sex and the City 2” movie popped into my mind last week while trying to coordinate the indelicate procedure of a colonoscopy. It’s in a scene where Miranda and Charlotte are in their obscenely huge Abu Dhabi vacation villa commiserating over cocktails about how hard parenting is, and how, for their sanity, they needed a break from their kids. “How do the women without help do it?” a flabbergasted Charlotte asks, and they raise a toast to those hapless, less-supported mothers before going back to their materialistic holiday of being judgmental about local customs and singing ancient Helen Reddy lyrics at unsuspecting Middle Eastern women.
Post-Roe, continuing furor over abortion rights decision looms over November election in Maryland and beyond
In Kansas, a record number of primary voters overwhelmingly opted to protect it. In New York, a congressional candidate in a close race centered his campaign on it and won. And in November, voters in California, Vermont and Michigan will decide whether to amend their state constitutions to guarantee a right to it. The right to abortion — a perennial, if at times sidelined, issue in U.S. politics — is center stage after the U.S. Supreme Court this summer overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision that had protected the procedure as a constitutional right since 1973. The court sent the issue back to the states, to immediate effect. Multiple states banned or severely restricted abortion. Those outraged by the decision girded for battles that have played out in primaries across the country and soon, November’s general election.
Governor hopefuls Dan Cox, Wes Moore help distribute water in West Baltimore
Four days into West Baltimore’s water contamination situation and the ensuing boil advisory, the two candidates for Maryland governor hustled just a few neighborhoods apart Thursday to distribute fresh water bottles to residents and talk about the need for accountability during what has been called a health crisis. “God bless you,” Wes Moore said to nearly every person as he leaned into their front passenger windows or opened their trunks to give them a 24-pack of water bottles outside Wylie’s Funeral Home in Harlem Park. Moore, a Democrat who lives in the city, wore a Home Depot apron and handed off the bottles paid for by the company.
Anne Arundel teachers’ working conditions, pay increases set by labor relations board order; school board adopts plan
Working conditions and pay increases for members of the Teacher’s Association of Anne Arundel County are set for the school year after an impasse in negotiations was resolved by a mediator. The union and Board of Education were unable to reach an agreement for the current school year before the prior contract expired June 30. The Public School Labor Relations Board, an independent quasi-judicial state agency, determined negotiations were at an impasse on July 10, according to AACPS. Mediation was ordered but was unsuccessful as of July 29, when the mediator offered a settlement to both parties.
History calling: Baltimore artist adorns abandoned phone booths across the city
Juliet Ames pulled her blue hatchback into a Remington gas station, heading past the pumps to the far corner of the lot. There, scrawled with graffiti and streaked with rust, was her target: a pair of long-forgotten pay phones. “I do this part in the car so that it’s a quick hit,” said Ames, 42, sticking a thick strip of double-sided tape to a sheet of bright yellow corrugated vinyl. “People don’t usually say anything to me. I’m actually normally a rule follower.” With a quick glance to see if anyone was watching, Ames sprang out of the car and affixed the yellow sheet inside one of the phone booths. She stepped back to admire her work.
Rodricks: Squeegee workers conducted a survey of squeegee workers. Here’s what they said.
In all the grousing and near-hysteria about the young Baltimoreans who do the squeegee thing on the streets of our city, there’s been a woeful lack of listening. Talk radio listens to the squeegee haters. With its ongoing “City In Crisis” reports, Fox 45 listens to any motorist who tells of being accosted by squeegee workers. There has been some, but not much, listening to the boys and young men who wash windshields for money at busy intersections. I’ve done some, but not enough. It was after July’s fatal shooting of Timothy Reynolds, the bat-wielding motorist who went after squeegee workers in downtown Baltimore, that someone thought it time to listen to the squeegee kids, and not just a few of them.
At first of three town halls, officials warn new Bay crossing is still years away
For beach-goers who struggle to get across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, the need for a new, wider span might seem like a no-brainer. Westbound traffic leading to the bridge on Labor Day, the unofficial end to the summer vacation season, stretched 14 miles at its peak. In June many transportation advocates applauded Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to set aside $28 million to advance the state’s pursuit of a new Bay crossing. He called the move an important step in reducing summertime and commuter traffic in Anne Arundel and Queen Anne’s counties. But Maryland Transportation Authority officials cautioned on Wednesday that the process of analyzing alternatives and assessing environmental impacts will run well into the future.
Quiet quitting may be more widespread than ever. And managers are not immune.
More workers may be “quiet quitting” than the recent viral TikTok trend has revealed, at least according to a new Gallup survey — and that includes some managers. “Quiet quitting,” or when workers do only what they feel is called for in their job descriptions and commensurate with their pay — also called “acting your wage” or “working to the rule” — is measured by experts as engagement to the workplace. A new Gallup poll found 32% of workers were engaged while the number who are actively “disengaged” has increased to 18%, or a ratio of 1.8 to 1 — the lowest in nearly a decade. It follows a trend that began in 2021 and coincided with the Great Resignation. The remainder of the workforce lies somewhere in between.
Distributor signs largest lease with PG County business park
Manekin LLC, one of the region’s leading real estate development firms, and Turnbridge Equities, a privately held, full-service real estate investment, development, and SEC-registered investment advisory firm, have completed a 358,400-square-foot lease with Ferguson Enterprises at National Capital Business Park in Upper Marlboro. Ferguson is one of North America’s leading value-added distributors across residential, non-residential, new construction and repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) end markets. Ferguson’s site will incorporate a 358,400 square foot modern 36-foot clear height warehouse distribution facility, approximately 260 parking spaces, 56 truck docks, four drive-in doors, and 80 trailer parking spaces, as well as three acres of outdoor storage space.