Reports of the end days of Eddie’s of Mount Vernon, it turns out, were greatly exaggerated. The popular midtown grocery on Tuesday was the scene of an epic retail drama that involved a diverse cast of characters including a team of city health inspectors, store owner Dennis Zorn, landlord Dennis Richter, Facebook patrons and City Councilman Eric Costello. The situation escalated and a city health department spokesman said Baltimore police were called to Eddie’s and took a report for verbal and physical assault.

University officials across Maryland are preparing for both the return of students in the coming weeks and the Monkeypox public health emergency. “The main thing is educating the student body about what they can do to prevent the disease and also recognize it early,” said University of Maryland, Baltimore Public Health Officer Dr. Marianne Cloeren. Dr. Cloeren said contact tracing and vaccination efforts, once supply ramps up, will be critical in the response to Monkeypox. The University of Maryland, College Park sent a letter to its campus community Tuesday laying out prevention, symptoms, and information about the virus. So far, there have not been any cases within its community, the letter said.

Olivia Newton-John just died. I feel like I honestly loved her, like the famous lyrics to her song. Soon enough, her sweet, innocent face will be added to the grand montage scattered across the screen when the Oscar’s present “In Memoriam,” a digital obituary showing a snippet of creative achievement. But what about when the real celebrities in our lives leave this earth — our parents? As a Gen Xer, I and the majority of my peers are sadly at a stage in our lives where the inevitable is happening — our guardians are dying.

A faddish phrase on the right is something called “the administrative state,” which refers to the federal workforce deputized by Congress to craft and enforce rules over the environment, banking, health care, product safety, mass communications, the power grid, etc. A recent profile of the Claremont Institute — which has the unenviable task of stitching together an intellectual fig leaf for Trumpism — noted that scholars there view our nation’s bureaucrats as a “fourth branch,” effectively overturning the Constitution. For some years, the right has been dressing up this vision of government as a scary horror show.

The sinkhole on North Ave that opened up last month and forced the demolition of multiple homes is only the latest example of what happens when we don’t properly invest in climate-resilient water infrastructure. As with the chronic issue of sewage backups into our homes, it’s far too easy to adopt an “out of sight, out of mind” attitude toward our underground infrastructure. The incident on North Ave is a reminder that what is hidden will not always stay buried.

When Revival Hotel in Mount Vernon began to take on squeegee workers through a city employment program, the staff decided to invite the apprentices to play basketball on Sundays. The games had started recently as “Over the Hill Hoops,” an excuse for members of the staff in their 40s and older to play at a court near the home of Jason Bass, director of culture and impact at the hotel. With the new workers added to the mix, Bass said apprentice Davion Hodges, 22, took over the court about three weeks ago, showing off his skills and personality.

The U.S. Senate, along party lines, passed a sweeping energy, health care, climate and tax package Sunday afternoon, following an overnight marathon of votes that resulted in just a handful of notable changes to the legislation. The 755-page bill was passed after Vice President Kamala Harris broke a 50-50 tie in the evenly divided Senate. It now heads to the House, where Democratic leaders have announced they will take it up on Friday. “At last, we have arrived,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said.  Democratic senators broke out into applause as Harris announced passage of the bill, expected to total more than $700 billion.