As native Baltimoreans, my brother Shawn and I had a dream of starting a business that would create a positive impact in the city that we love. In 2016 we launched Connie’s Chicken and Waffles at Lexington Market, here in Baltimore. Our goal was simple: to use food as a medium to create community, and to share the love that our mom (affectionately known as Miss Connie), has shared with our family for decades. With the dedication of our team members and the support of our Baltimore community, Connie’s has been fortunate to grow to serve the needs of our customers by expanding into new Baltimore locations in Charles Plaza, Broadway Market and into an out of state location, DECO, which is located in Wilmington, Delaware.

The Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan was adopted on Wednesday by the Frederick County Planning Commission. While the vote to approve was not surprising, some members of the Livable Frederick Coalition say there were a lot of questions about the plan which remain unanswered. Hugh Gordon, Executive of the Frederick County Realtors Association, says one such question is the impact this plan will have on property values. He says that issue was brought up by a Commission member, but there was no answer. “If, in fact, they don’t remember that response, then they weren’t listening to the comments that were made during the hearing, I find that to be reprehensible, frankly,”: he said.

Albert Elliott has been fueling up his Kia Soul in increments of $15, $20 and $25 to make the 60-mile commute from Fayetteville, N.C., to an Amazon warehouse in Raleigh, where he makes $15.75 an hour. Lately, he doesn’t have enough cash to fill his tank the entire way. In June, gas prices had gotten so steep that Elliot took on a second job as a janitor at a community college, working an extra two days a week for $10 an hour. “Gas is just through the roof. Unless it’s payday, I put in all the money I have at the time, sometimes borrowing money from family and friends,” Elliott said.

The monkeypox outbreak is spreading with alarming speed. Ideally, it should have been nipped in the bud when the first cases appeared in May and June outside West and Central Africa, where monkeypox has been endemic for decades. Now the caseload has expanded to more than 11,000, including 1,470 in the United States, and is expected to increase in the weeks ahead. The lessons of the coronavirus pandemic should be taken to heart and should result in a more rapid response.

Today Maryland’s interstate highways, I-495 and I-270, still belong to the public. Our taxes paid for them, we depend on them, and we expect that any changes to them will be made in the public interest by accountable representatives of the citizens of Maryland. But something new and disturbing is happening. When the Board of Public Works approved private toll lanes for I-495 and I-270, they said ‘yes’ to the idea of surrendering control of our public highways for the next 50 years to a private conglomerate whose mission — to maximize its own profit — may well come at the public’s expense and long-term interests.

A jurisdiction of one of Christianity’s oldest churches will hold its national convention in Baltimore this week, marking the second time this month that a prominent Christian faith tradition has held its most important regular gathering in the city. The Orthodox Church in America — one of the largest jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox church in the United States — kicks off its “All-American Council” on Monday at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor.

Hourly workers must be paid for the time they spend waiting and being shuttled between a remote parking lot and the worksite if such transportation is required by their employer, Maryland’s top court unanimously ruled Wednesday. Compensation is owed under Maryland wage laws because the parking lot and shuttle bus essentially serve as the employers’ mandatory labor staging area, the Court of Appeals held in its 7-0 decision involving workers who helped build the MGM National Harbor resort and casino in Oxon Hill between 2015 and 2016.

 

A youth mission group from two Maryland churches is “safe” and headed home from Panama, a spokesman said Saturday, a day after a chaperone said about two dozen people were stuck at an oceanside compound amid protests that have shut down major roads in the country. “The mission group was able to make it through the protest blockade during a brief window early this morning and are now safe at a secure location where they are making flight arrangements to travel home,” Evan Knott, director of communications for the Chesapeake Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, wrote in an email Saturday morning.

For the first time in more than a decade, two long-time elected officials in Prince George’s County aren’t on the ballot — but that doesn’t mean they aren’t busy boosting candidates and trying to influence elections in their legislative district. A series of text messages this week attacked Del. Geraldine Valentino-Smith (D), who is not seeking re-election in Bowie-based District 23 and attempted to discourage voters from supporting her favored candidates. “Last year, Geraldine Valentino Smith voted with Republicans to keep more budgetary power in the Governor’s Office, rather than distribute it to the General Assembly,” said one message from the Twenty-Third District Team Slate, which Valentino-Smith was once a part of.