Millions of Americans will spend this Thanksgiving weekend watching football. If they instead tune into the soccer World Cup, they’ll discover something infinitely more enthralling. Many Americans think they would not like soccer. They complain about the low scores and seemingly pointless activity in most games. But they wouldn’t judge football by a 6-3 snoozer with plenty of punts or the 1-0 baseball shutout. Soccer’s intrinsic beauty might be an acquired taste — but once you have it, you never look back. The World Cup is not soccer at its best, but it might be soccer at its finest. With 32 national teams converging in one place, the sheer spectacle is unmatched by anything except the Olympics.
Olsen: Watch the World Cup — and witness something infinitely enthralling
Six things to know about Everett Sesker, the next Anne Arundel County sheriff
Anne Arundel County Sheriff-elect Everett Sesker won a historic victory against Republican Sheriff Jim Fredericks last week after several rounds of ballot counting. A Democrat, Sesker campaigned on a progressive vision for the sheriff’s office. He hopes to use the agency, which is mostly responsible for Circuit Court security and legal service, to tackle cyclical crime caused by addiction and mental illness. When he is sworn in at the circuit courthouse in Annapolis on Dec. 6, Sesker will become the first Black sheriff of Anne Arundel County.
Streeter: This holiday season give from the front of your closet
Give from the front of your closet, not the back. It’s a concept I first heard in 2019 when I interviewed Joi Gordon, the then-worldwide CEO of Dress for Success, for the Palm Beach Post. “Some people might think, ‘She should be grateful for what she gets.’ But no,” Gordon said of Dress For Success’ clientele, women reentering the workforce and in need of employment counseling, advice and clothing for interviews. “We want these women to do a victory lap around the room because you went into your closet and gave her your best.” That’s been on my mind as we hurtle into the warm, jolly season of giving back. The way I see it, giving your best is about more than the newness and niceness of the clothes, housewares and electronics we donate to those who need them.
Maryland officials say election proceedings were secure
Federal and state officials and democracy watchdogs monitoring Maryland’s November elections confirmed the fairness and validity of the voting process during early voting and on Election Day, according to federal and state authorities. State and local authorities combined again in November to observe elections and protect the right to vote, a longstanding practice in Maryland and nationally. Interfering with an individual’s right to vote violates state and federal laws. The Maryland State Board of Elections said in a statement they are “unaware of any incident that had a material effect on the 2022 Gubernatorial General Election. The entire election process was free, fair and secure.”
Northeast Maglev launches STEAM enrichment program
Northeast Maglev, a Baltimore-based company focused on bringing the world’s fastest train to the Northeast corridor, recently launched a STEAM afterschool enrichment program. Designed by former educators, students learn through hands-on experimentation about the science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics principles that make the SCMAGLEV train operate. Northeast Maglev teamed up with Restoring Inner-City Hope (RICH) to launch the program, hosting third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students at the RICH headquarters in the south Baltimore neighborhood of Cherry Hill. The event was part of Northeast Maglev’s celebration of National Education Month, which is observed every November.
Mobile sports betting launches in Maryland on Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know.
Two years after Maryland voters approved expanding the state’s gambling industry to include sports betting, mobile wagering apps will go live on Wednesday. “Marylanders had been waiting long enough,” said Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, on Tuesday during a State House news conference to announce the final details of the launch. But now, gamblers don’t need to wait much longer. Here’s key information about mobile sports betting in Maryland.
Opinion: Baltimore County schools can find better disciplinary solutions than student removal
After essentially a year and a half of being online, school has changed. Maryland students returned to in-person school with gaps in their learning and effects on their behavior. And when things change, it’s tempting to cling more tightly to the strategies that we used before, to double down on what used to work. But it is an unfortunate truth that being tough with school discipline without addressing the root issues that lead to student misbehavior won’t fix anything. If Baltimore County Public Schools and other Maryland districts truly want to make their schools safer for all students, they must be willing to embrace new strategies that are responsive to our new reality. They must resist the tough-on-crime rhetoric that is edging into school discipline discussions and resist relying only on exclusionary discipline to deal with student misbehavior.
How to help food-insecure Marylanders this holiday season
The holiday season is officially here, and so are all of the expenses that come with it: food for holiday dinners, gifts for family, and traveling expenses. But this year especially, those costs are hitting families harder than before — and it’s not just because of the holidays. The annual food index has risen 12.9% — the largest spike since 1999, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Maryland, U.S. Census data shows that the percentage of citizens struggling to pay for basic household expenses has risen from 24% in Dec. 2021 to 40% in Sept. 2022. “There’s so many families out there who are having trouble making ends meet, despite the fact that they’re working one, two, three jobs at times,” said Maryland Food Bank spokesperson Joanna Warner.
‘The true meaning is kind of hard’: How American Indians in Maryland observe Thanksgiving
Growing up with an American Indian father and a Polish mother, Rosie Bowen immediately saw how different cultures observed Thanksgiving. The morning of the holiday, she would go to her American Indian grandmother’s home for dishes eaten by the Lumbee tribe: chicken ‘n pastry, an American Indian dish that consists of flat dough noodles and chicken in a sauce, collard greens, cornbread and fried chicken.“It was more soulful,” the 43-year-old Rosedale resident said, explaining that with tribes such as the Lumbee, whose tribal headquarters are based in Pembroke, North Carolina, traditional foods reflect the southeastern region where they are mostly concentrated. “My Native paternal grandparents house was very different from going to my Polish grandmother’s house.”
Maryland Gov. elect Wes Moore spent 5 times as much as Dan Cox down the stretch and still had $2.7M left after his commanding win
In Gov.-elect Wes Moore’s blowout victory over Republican Dan Cox earlier this month, the winning candidate spent five times more than his opponent in the final two-and-a-half months of the race and still had millions left over after Election Day, new campaign finance reports show. Moore had consistently outraised Cox in the general election and other more experienced candidates in the crowded Democratic primary earlier this year — fueling a robust campaign effort that led to the largest win by any candidate for governor in Maryland since 1986. The Democrat and his running mate ultimately raised $6.4 million and spent $5.1 million since the campaigns started heating up in late August, bringing their total fundraising haul to about $17 million since Moore launched his campaign in mid-2021, his and Lt. Gov.-elect Aruna Miller’s reports show.