Lytos, a Baltimore-based company that specializes in making a patent pending, gluten-free premium vodka with added electrolytes, Tuesday announced it has expanded sales into liquor stores and bars in Washington and Delaware. Lytos, manufactured in Columbia, was originally sold throughout greater Baltimore and the Eastern Shore. The company has plans to expand sales into other states, targeting New York, Florida, Arizona and California. After debuting in November 2020, Lytos Vodka is now sold in about 400 bars, restaurants and liquor stores throughout Maryland, Washington and Delaware. Lytos calls itself the first-ever vodka marketed and sold with added electrolytes.
Baltimore vodka maker Lytos expands sales to DC, Delaware
One of Baltimore’s most aggressive homebuyers declares bankruptcy
Two months ago, Jay Walsh was comparing Baltimore’s housing market to crack cocaine for investors. On Tuesday, his company filed for bankruptcy. ABC Capital Investment LLC has been one of the most aggressive homebuyers in Baltimore in recent years. In an investigation published in October, The Baltimore Sun identified more than 140 homes purchased by ABC Capital since 2019. Walsh said his firm has actually bought about 1,200 homes since 2015, selling most of them to foreign investors and using third-party companies to manage them.“If you wanted to give investors a drug, Baltimore’s the drug,” Walsh said. “Some people, they think it’s easy. It’s not easy. It’s not easy at all. But if you’re willing to put in the work, I think it’s a diamond in the rough, even with the rats.”
Cummings: The myth of recycling as the answer to plastic waste
Plastic recycling isn’t working. Only about 6% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled, and the vast majority of all the plastic ever produced on this planet still exists somewhere. In the ocean alone, it is estimated that tens of trillions of pieces of plastic lie on the sea floor — that is, what hasn’t been pulverized by currents into micro-particles or is floating brazenly on the surface. Ocean plastic is even finding its way into the human food chain. Despite all of this, the plastics industry is spending millions to convince us that recycling is the answer, even though, according to a recent joint NPR/PBS investigation, their own internal studies suggest otherwise.
Bray & Scarff signs lease to expand presence in Laurel Business Center
Jessica Haire concedes to Steuart Pittman in Anne Arundel County executive race
Republican County Council member Jessica Haire conceded to incumbent Democrat Steuart Pittman late Tuesday in the Anne Arundel County executive race, Pittman said on social media.” I just received a gracious phone call from Jessica Haire conceding the race for County Executive,” Pittman wrote around 11:30 p.m. “I’m grateful to her for a hard run race, and for her dedicated service on our Council. I look forward to another four years making Anne Arundel the Best Place for All.” Earlier Tuesday, Pittman took a 200-vote lead over Haire for the first time since Election Day.
How will Wes Moore govern? Awaiting the specific policy priorities behind the bold campaign promises.
Maryland’s next governor is setting high expectations. Both before and after his landslide victory Tuesday, Democratic Gov.-elect Wes Moore has talked of a vast, idealistic vision for his time leading state government. Tackling racial and economic disparities. Ending child poverty. Making Maryland a leader in technology and a state with the workforce of the future. But for someone who’s spent his career outside government — aside from a few internships and a yearlong fellowship in Washington, D.C. — it’s not yet known how Moore will prioritize and govern both for short- and long-term goals. Also, to be determined is how he’ll manage a bureaucracy of 40,000 employees, a historically depleted number that may lead to a hiring spree.
Mohler: The Uncle Bobby Rule
So, let’s start today’s episode of “What the hell just happened,” with Uncle Bobby. Who’s that you say? I promise that if you stick with it until the end, it just might make some sense. But first, a little background on my uncle: Robert P. Scruggs grew up on Route 175 in Jessup, Maryland. He had forearms the size of tree trunks, and although he didn’t have a college degree, was one of the smartest people I ever met. As a young man, he tended bar, worked in a liquor store, served as a volunteer firefighter, and finally found his passion as a proud member of the Maryland State Police. By all accounts he was an exemplary trooper, and I have no doubt that had he remained in law enforcement, he would have risen rapidly through the ranks. But as a young man with a growing family, a trooper’s salary in the 1960s just didn’t cut it.
With a new team and coming rebrand, Baltimore’s Port Covington developers hope to turn a page. Will it work?
The once-barren stretch of industrial wasteland has been replaced with towering structures of glass, brick and steel. Mature trees, rather than saplings, have been planted there, too. The message from the new team tasked with selling Port Covington to potential tenants and visitors: Finally, the long-promised new era has arrived, and it’s here to stay. Attached to one of the largest public subsidies in the country, the $5.5 billion, multi-phase waterfront development in South Baltimore spans more than 200 acres and will feature three direct access points to Interstate-95. Under Armour founder and executive chairman Kevin Plank and those affiliated with his Sagamore Ventures development firm began buying up the Port Covington land for more than $100 million starting about a decade ago, with the intention of building the once-dominant apparel company a new corporate headquarters surrounded by a “mini-city” akin to the existing Harbor East and Harbor Point sites.
Workers at MOM’s Organic Market in Timonium vote to unionize in growing trend
Workers at the MOM’s Organic Market in Timonium have voted to become the second location in the Baltimore area to unionize in recent months, part of a growing trend nationwide as workers seek higher wages and better protections amid a historic labor shortage and continuing strain from the COVID-19 pandemic. The vote comes months after workers at the company’s location in Hampden voted to join the Teamsters, and it coincides with an announcement by workers at the store’s College Park location that they plan to organize with United Food & Commercial Workers.
Opinion: We can end homelessness in Baltimore with more targeted support
This year, Baltimore has rehoused 1,188 individuals and families experiencing homelessness. But the annual point-in-time census counted 1,597 Baltimoreans in need of housing on just one night in February. Every day, more neighbors, friends and family reach out for help. But only 1,188 housing placements is not enough.We represent Baltimore City’s Continuum of Care. This group of elected volunteers includes people with lived experience of homelessness, service providers, system leaders and citizens of Baltimore. Hundreds of CoC members work together to make homelessness in Baltimore rare, brief and non-recurring. We set the strategy for engaging and serving those experiencing homelessness, leveraging $25 million in federal CoC funding to make the greatest impact. The majority goes directly to people experiencing homelessness as rental assistance and housing.