Maryland manufacturers looking to modernize their factories amid a boom in the industry post-pandemic could get a boost from a new state program. The newly created Maryland Manufacturing 4.0 program is committing $1 million in grants to small and midsize manufacturers in the current fiscal year to help them automate their plants. Maryland Department of Commerce officials said Monday that grants will cover 50% of project costs, with a minimum grant of $15,000 and a maximum grant of $50,000. “Manufacturing and innovation have played a critical role in our incredible economic turnaround,” Gov. Larry Hogan said in a news release announcing the funding.

In June, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced they will be launching an inquiry into the practices of the “prescription drug middleman” industry. These middlemen, known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), determine if an insurer will pay for a prescription that is prescribed for a patient. Caremark, ExpressScripts and Optum are some of the familiar gatekeepers and suppliers of medications. The FTC statement reads, “Pharmacy benefit managers are the middlemen who are hired to negotiate rebates and fees with drug manufacturers, create drug formularies and surrounding policies, and reimburse pharmacies for patients’ prescriptions. The largest pharmacy benefits managers are now vertically integrated with the largest health insurance companies and wholly owned mail order and specialty pharmacies.”

Carroll County will soon have several new representatives in the Maryland House of Delegates. In July, voters chose from among eight candidates in the Republican primary for District 5 and among two Republican candidates in District 42C. There were no candidates from the Democratic Party in either race, so the winners of the Republican primaries are the presumptive winners of the election. District 5, which covers most of the geographic area of Carroll, has three representatives in the House of Delegates. Two of the three delegates who have represented Carroll in Annapolis for the last four years did not run for reelection.

Recent media reports have revealed that the Hogan Administration is closing its capital budget meetings to legislative staff members. The capital budget ($5.2 billion this year) deals with construction projects and other big-ticket items that the state can fund with bonds. Legislative staff have been invited to these meetings back at least to the administration of Governor Harry Hughes in the 1970s and ‘80s. This move is well within the rights of the governor and his budget staff. Still, it is a step backward.

Catonsville-based Erickson Senior Living is now the second largest independent living provider in the United States, according to a report published by Argentum, the leading national trade association serving companies that own, operate and support professionally managed senior living communities. Argentum’s 2022 Largest Providers List ranks operators in size by self-reported measures such as number of units and employee head count. In terms of it full portfolio of units including independent living, Erickson is the nation’s fifth largest provider, advancing two spots from seventh last year.

Baltimore-based Merritt Properties Tuesday expanded its reach into the Richmond, Virginia area with the purchase of the Crescent Business Center for $41.3 million. The center in in Ashland, Virginia includes five existing Class A industrial buildings situated on close to 20 acres, as well as an additional nearly 19 acres for new development opportunities for warehouse and distribution space. Merritt acquired the park from Crescent Business Center LC, a Thalhimer Realty Partners, Inc. development. Baltimore-based Merritt Properties expands its commercial real estate footprint into the expanding Richmond, VA, market.

Just 1 in 4 Americans believe that President Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act will actually reduce inflation, while 71 percent say the law will either have no impact or make things worse. The majority is right to be skeptical. The nonpartisan Penn Wharton Budget Model found that the bill’s effect on inflation will be “statistically indistinguishable from zero.” This is not surprising. The real purpose of the bill is not to reduce inflation but to reduce climate change. Fully 85 percent of the law’s spending goes toward climate and clean energy.

The Chesapeake Lighthouse Foundation has chosen Arundel Overlook, a 68-acre business community located near BWI Airport, as the site of their first elementary school in Anne Arundel County.  The Chesapeake Science Point Charter School campus network includes six schools with STEM-focused curricula. The group signed two full-building leases with St. John Properties, Inc. for 72,120 square feet of combined space at 1503 and 1513 Signature Drive. Initial kindergarten through fifth grade classes are expected to begin at Arundel Overlook in fall 2023 and, at full capacity, approximately 600 students will be enrolled at the campus.