Maryland House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) appears to have gotten her man in the Senate race in her legislative district. Jones — along with outgoing Sen. Delores Kelley (D) — had endorsed Del. Ben Brooks (D) for the Senate seat in the 10th District, which Kelley is giving up after 28 years on the job. And Brooks is leading Del. Jay Jalisi — who is often a bur in the side of legislative leaders — and two other candidates as ballots continue to be counted. The 10th District race is one of several competitive Senate primaries — some for open seats, others involving potentially formidable challengers, that were on tap this year and are in the process of being called.

A recent study conducted by the Maryland Food Bank is showing astronomical rises in need throughout the state for families struggling with food insecurity. The study has led to big budgeting changes as the food bank gears up for a busy year on the heels of national inflation, with the pantry expecting to buy more than double the amount of food than it has in years past. “We would buy about 12 million pounds of food, which is still a lot, and pay 45 cents per pound,” Maryland Food Bank Executive Vice President Meg Kimmel said. “Next year in our budget we have budgeted for 25 million pounds of food, so double the amount at double the cost–88 cents per pound versus 45 cents pre-pandemic level.”

Peter Turcik still remembers the shot. Leaning forward in his kayak, holding his camera still, he snapped a vertical picture of the sunken ship, with the setting sun as its glistening background. I actually laid down in the kayak to get down to the water level so that I’d get the composition that I wanted,” he said. “And I remember it was pretty buggy out. So, I was trying to hold still, while flies bit in my legs.” That was in August 2016 in Mallows Bay, an alcove in the Potomac River known for its array of sunken “ghost ships,” including vessels hurriedly constructed for merchant shipping in World War I, then scuttled after the war.

Carroll County government is forging a relationship with Johns Hopkins School of Medicine to hire a medical director who will oversee operations for the county’s new Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services. The Board of Carroll County Commissioners voted unanimously Thursday to approve a $52,000 annual independent contract with Johns Hopkins, which will hire the position. The medical director will work six to eight hours per week overseeing all operations of the county’s EMS department, but could eventually move to a full-time position, if needed.

Food deserts. Poor housing conditions. Lack of community investment. These challenges may not always come to mind when people think about how to improve America’s public schools. But when my colleagues and I studied the 21st Century School Buildings Program, a $1.1 billion school building and renovation initiative in Baltimore, these were the kinds of issues that staff from community-based organizations, schools, philanthropic organizations and city agencies hoped to address through improved school facilities.

After Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s choice to succeed him flopped in last week’s Republican primary, his political allies insisted Hogan’s calm brand of moderation will ultimately prevail over the Donald Trump-led right wing. “At the end of the day, the governor will be right and Trump and his ego will be wrong,” longtime Hogan strategist Doug Mayer said. “It’s the long game.” But how long? Even before Hogan-endorsed Kelly Schulz, a former state commerce secretary, lost to Trump-backed Dan Cox, analysts said it was difficult to say when — or if — Hogan’s moment would come in a national party whose base remains enthralled by the twice-impeached 45th president Hogan has often opposed.

People attended a tree dedication ceremony in Howard County on Saturday to honor a man who died trying to rescue someone from the flood waters that ravaged Ellicott City in 2018. Eddison Hermond died while trying to help rescue a woman and her cat behind La Palapa Grill & Cantina while churning, brown waters ripped through Ellicott City’s flood-prone downtown. “Eddison was taken too soon by his courageous and unselfish acts during the Ellicott City flood,” Blossoms of Hope board chair Joe Barbera said.

“Be Kind or Leave.” The newspaper article, and the restaurant sign that inspired it, caught my eye. The owner of an Erie, Pa., eatery posted the notice after tiring of obnoxious, belligerent customers berating his employees and sometimes each other. It seems the escalating — make that descending — level of boorish behavior in our society has many in customer-facing enterprises rethinking their traditional “all are welcome” policies. As a Rhode Island hotel manager put it, “The customer was always right. Well, they’re not.” One consumer-research consultant said he now advocates drawing of clear and firm rules: “If you don’t meet our expectations of decorum, leave.”

Last month, on a perfect night for baseball, Kennedy Krieger Institute’s community gathered at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen to watch and cheer on a young man as he accomplished something rare and exciting. Robby, a twenty-something with autism, landed a job with the Aberdeen IronBirds minor league baseball team this spring. He works as a fan host, rotating between serving as a ticket taker, operating the area known as the fan zone and working as an usher. If you take in a game this summer, you might see him greeting ticket holders and showing them to their seats.

Wes Moore has lived quite a few lives. Rhodes scholar. U.S. Army officer who saw combat in Afghanistan. Investment banker. Bestselling author. Leader of a massive anti-poverty nonprofit organization. And now, as a first-time candidate for elected office, his next role may very well be governor of Maryland. Moore, 43, defeated a sprawling field of experienced and well-funded candidates to win the Democratic nomination for governor in Tuesday’s primary. In facing Republican Del. Dan Cox in the general election, he’s hoping to return the state government to full Democratic control after eight years of Republican Gov. Larry Hogan.