Last summer, a piece of artwork generated with artificial intelligence took a first prize at the Colorado State Fair. To me, the image looks like a view from the back of the stage at an opera. You see the backs of three singers, then, past them, vague squiggles and forms that may or may not be an audience, and all around, dominating everything, the fantastical Lord of the Rings-style palace where they are performing. The artwork looks cool at first glance, but after a second, it feels kind of lifeless. “As I came back to the image and sat with it for a while, I found that my efforts to engage it at depth were thwarted,” L.M. Sacasas wrote in his newsletter on technology and culture. “This happened when I began to inspect the image more closely. As I did so, my experience of the image began to devolve rather than deepen.”

Opening beer cans for Orioles fans during Saturday’s Birdland Caravan happy hour, Adley Rutschman got hasty, prompting a Checkerspot Brewing Company employee to jokingly remind him to make sure the patrons paid for their drinks. A nearby fan offered a reason the Orioles’ catcher should have been able to get away with it. “He can do what he wants,” she said. “He’s Adley.” Such a viewpoint is likely common among Baltimore’s fanbase after Rutschman’s arrival miraculously spurred the Orioles into contention. With Rutschman putting up numbers that eventually resulted in Most Valuable Oriole honors and a runner-up finish in American League Rookie of the Year voting, the Orioles played at an 89-win pace with him on their roster. They finished three games out of a playoff spot despite preseason expectations they would be the majors’ worst team for the third time in five years.

A once-segregated elementary school in west Baltimore is in the process of transforming into Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center. The aging structure in the Upton neighborhood will soon become a place with various cultural activities and programs. The 150-year-old building is getting a makeover to honor the legacy of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall who attended the school in 1914. Dr. Alvin Hathaway, who has spent his life serving his church and community and after years of pastoring the Reverend, is directing his efforts into community revitalization. The two-story building has been abandoned since the 1990s and most recently withstood a fire that nearly destroyed it.

Unionized workers at Horseshoe Casino Baltimore are demanding raises in line with others in the gaming and hospitality industry in the city and elsewhere, saying casino revenues have rebounded since the pandemic while compensation has stalled. About 20 workers and union representatives demonstrated Wednesday in front of the casino on Russell Street near downtown, calling for raises, holiday pay and other changes. Workers said bargaining has stalled with owner Caesars Entertainment on a contract that expired in October.

Without an umbrella, Gov. Wes Moore moved his way through a sea of rain-soaked red shirts Tuesday at Lawyers Mall in Annapolis to show his support for forthcoming legislation to further regulate where Marylanders can carry and how they store firearms. “There are people in our society who have not just the intent, but the accessibility to firearms — to weapons of war — that are not allowing our children to grow up in peace and safety,” the Democratic governor said. “We have an obligation to take this personally.” This legislative session, Democratic lawmakers are prioritizing bills to raise the age for access rifles and shotguns, prohibit guns from being carried in certain settings and end civil immunity for arms manufacturers.

A bill that would create a Maryland Rail Administration to expand the state’s rail network and oversee financing, construction and maintenance of the system is likely facing strong headwinds in the Maryland General Assembly this session. The bill, introduced for a second year by House Majority Leader Marc Korman (D-Montgomery), would create a funding source for expansion of the state’s rail program by increasing tolls around the state and tapping into toll revenues collected by the Maryland Transportation Authority. That money, however, is already dedicated to pay for upkeep of the state’s toll tunnels, bridges and the Intercounty Connector, and used as a dedicated revenue source to pay the debt service of bonds that transportation authority sells to fund projects.

The Baltimore Orioles and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore announced a joint commitment to what they called a “multi-decade, public-private partnership” to revitalize the Camden Yards sports complex. The statement from the team and the state’s new governor came Wednesday, the deadline for the Orioles to exercise a one-time, five-year extension to their lease at Camden Yards. The team was not planning to exercise that option, according to a person with knowledge of the decision. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the club hadn’t announced its decision.

When Maryland State Delegate Terri Hill told fellow lawmakers that she saw an older man with a walker seated outside a polling station waiting to vote, her voice choked with emotion. Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee last week, Hill said she later learned that the man left after more than an hour, never given the opportunity to exercise his fundamental right to cast a ballot. “I hope we can find some way so that if another person like that man, who goes to vote, he doesn’t have to wait an hour to go home without being accommodated,” said Hill, a Democrat representing Howard and Baltimore counties. “It’s that simple.”.