The Democratic majority of the Anne Arundel County Council voted down a controversial bill that would have banned outside parties from being authorized to fly their flags on county flagpoles. Pasadena Republican Council member Nathan Volke, the legislation’s sponsor, initially introduced a broader bill banning all flags from county flagpoles other than the U.S., state and county standards. After community pushback, Volke revised the bill, but still failed to get the necessary votes at Monday night’s County Council meeting. The legislation failed along party lines with only Volke’s Republican colleagues, Amanda Fiedler of Arnold and Jessica Haire of Edgewater.
Flag restriction bill voted down by Anne Arundel County Council Democratic majority
Ocean City pit beef mainstay closing 2nd Street location, hunts for new boardwalk spot
Bull on the Beach — a mecca for pit beef and steamed shrimp in Ocean City for 42 years — is closing its 2nd Street location this month, with plans to relocate the restaurant to another spot on or off the boardwalk. “We’re down but we’re not out,” General Manager Brad Wells said on Tuesday. “We’re looking for another spot to build our brand.” But Wells acknowledged that finding a new location of about 2,000 to 3,000 square feet on the boardwalk, which he dubbed Ocean City’s “Times Square,” will be a challenge because of the rising real estate prices in the resort town. But Bull on the Beach didn’t really have a choice but to make a move. The boardwalk location closes on Oct. 23.
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute grad shares Nobel Prize in physics with two others
Three scientists, including a Baltimore City school alumnus, jointly won this year’s Nobel Prize in physics on Tuesday for their work on quantum information science, a “totally crazy” field that has significant applications, including in the field of encryption. American John F. Clauser, Frenchman Alain Aspect and Austrian Anton Zeilinger were cited by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for discovering the way that unseen particles, such as photons, can be linked, or “entangled,” with each other even when they are separated by large distances.
Many Generation Xers struggling to catch up with retirement savings
The oldest members of Generation X are within 10 years of turning 65 years old. Still, according to studies and financial planners, that cohort of Americans trails previous generations in preparing to retire. Members of Generation X, those born between 1965 and 1980, generally accumulated more student debt and often incurred larger credit card bills than members of the Baby Boomer or Silent Generations. As a result, their retirement savings are lagging, and they’re usually not receiving the financial advice they need to catch up. “Generation X is kind of overlooked in the way financial planning advice is given,” Dale Horn, managing director of UBS Financial Services Inc., said.
Falen: Women’s colleges transform women, who then transform the world
The number of women’s colleges in the United States has declined since the 1960s, leading some to question if there is still a need for them. Women’s colleges started in the 1800s to provide women access to higher education. However, a women’s college education provides many benefits that go far beyond providing the simple access once denied. Women’s colleges provide safe spaces, allowing young women to find their voices and to fill leadership and other extracurricular roles that are often filled primarily by men. The Women’s Colleges Coalition notes more women graduate in four years or less from women’s colleges than from coed institutions. Other benefits typically include small class sizes, faculty using student-centered teaching styles, collaboration with other women, and opportunities to be mentored by women.
Opinion: Cancer death disparities are real, but so is the ability to do something about them
Cancer is a relentless, vicious disease that continues to claim too many lives, and the troubling reality is that the toll is even worse for people of color. As a pastor, I have tried to bring comfort to grieving families who have lost a loved one to cancer, in many cases, because the disease was diagnosed too late to do anything about it. It does not have to be this way. A combination of science and government may be able to do something about this disparity very soon — and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin is leading the way. Research has shown that Black people have a disproportionately high mortality rate for many types of cancer. Studies show that people of color tend to have lower cancer screening rates and, thus, often have their cancers diagnosed at a later stage when treatment is far less effective.
Voters will decide in November if Baltimore can sell its underground conduit. A former mayor says a new contract puts the system at risk of sale.
A November ballot measure will ask voters if Baltimore should ban privatization of its conduit system, a 700-mile underground network home to wires for phone, electric and internet services. About a month out from the election, Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration is pursuing a $50,000 contract with an advisory firm that current and former City Hall officials say puts the conduit system at risk of a sale. The contract with FMI Capital Investors, a consultant firm that advises on conduit and telecom evaluations, specifies the firm would be paid “an upfront flat fee and a contingent one-time transaction fee equal to a portion of any profit from a future deal, should it be able to identify a profit-making venture that the City accepts.”
‘Walk in Their Shoes’ — Survivors of domestic violence detail their journeys in a public education campaign
This month, displays detailing the experiences of domestic violence survivors will pop up in libraries, recreation centers and police stations. Each one will feature a pair of shoes and the stories of a particular survivor. Cheryl Kravitz, a survivor and longtime advocate in Montgomery County, shared her story at a news conference Tuesday announcing the Walk in Their Shoes campaign. She pointed to a pair of flats on display. “They’re flat because you need to run quickly to get out of the house when you can,” she said. Kravitz detailed the whirlwind romance that led her to marry a man who, over time, began to push and shove her. Then the violence escalated.
Inflation, supply chain crunch put pressure on Baltimore to beat federal pandemic aid deadlines
When temperatures in Baltimore climbed into the mid-90s in August — a routine occurrence for summers in the city — broken air-conditioning systems forced nearly a quarter of city libraries to temporarily close their doors. It’s a seasonal problem that Baltimore officials are looking to tackle with a small portion of the city’s hundreds of millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 aid. Several million of the city’s $641 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding have been set aside for HVAC improvements in five city libraries. But the high costs of project materials and supply-chain backlogs could cause delays, or even prevent the city from making repairs at all five of the targeted libraries, said Marwan Alkarajat, chief of the capital projects division in the city’s Department of General Services.