Much of UpSurge Baltimore CEO Jamie McDonald’s job is to keep track of the startups and venture capital firms that make up Baltimore’s tech ecosystem. Yet even she can’t keep track of everything happening in the industry right now.n “I’m thrilled when we hear about a company that we haven’t heard of,” McDonald said.

To a person, they cross their fingers or say a small prayer every time a major race draws near: Please, please do not let a horse breakdown. Those who love thoroughbred racing agree that among all the difficulties facing their sport, none is more existentially threatening than public dismay over the deaths of racehorses.

The Frederick County Health Department announced on Thursday that it would be rolling back local COVID-19 resources and programs following the end of a federal emergency declaration that expired the same day. Changes in the Health Department’s COVID-19 operations include the end of community COVID-19 vaccination clinics for those over age 5 and the end of individual vaccine appointments, starting July 1, according to a county news release.

 

Brenda McCartney will return to Garrett County Public Schools as interim superintendent for the 2023-24 academic year, following action taken by the Board of Education at its May meeting. The appointment is contingent upon the mutual agreement of contract terms and approval from the state superintendent of schools.

Metro is planning for a more open design for its next generation of rail cars that will better accommodate wheelchairs, strollers and bicycles, while giving passengers the ability to switch cars when trains get crowded. Transit officials recently traveled to New York to see subway cars that use the “open gangway” style, which provides enclosed walkways between cars to allow for the movement of passengers while in motion, much like an Amtrak train.

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission awarded $14 million to several Baltimore universities, nonprofits and startups to boost stem cell development on Tuesday as part of an effort by the state government to expand funding for cancer research. The commission, which is an arm of the Maryland Technology Development Corp. (TEDCO), awarded 39 entities, including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and the University of Maryland, Baltimore as it looks to address a shortage of manufacturing facilities for biological research.

The NAACP is moving ahead with plans to depart Baltimore for Washington, D.C., and is seeking a partner to redevelop its Northwest Baltimore headquarters property. The civil rights advocacy group wants to redevelop its former headquarters at 4805 Mt. Hope Drive — a site that stretches just over three acres with a 43,454-square-foot red brick office building — into a community-based job and small business hub.

Since Tammy Young became a foster parent six years ago, she’s taken care of 35 children, including the five who reside at her St. Mary’s County home. To support her foster children — ages 4, 6, 8, 9 and 16 — it helps that Young receives a six-figure salary as a data architect with the U.S. Department of the Navy. A single mother of two adult children, she also has guardianship of a teenager who turned 18 in March.

An Upton/Druid Hill nonprofit organization is revitalizing the properties of one of Baltimore’s most influential Black families. Beloved Community Services Corporation, led by Rev. Dr. Alvin C. Hathaway, acquired Clarence M. Mitchell Jr.’s family home, located at 1324 Druid Hill Ave., and the law office of his wife, Juanita Jackson Mitchell at 1239 Druid Hill Ave. in December 2022.

 

Maryland’s highest court issued an order Tuesday reversing a ruling by an Anne Arundel Circuit Court judge that struck down the state’s first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising. The order by the Maryland Supreme Court, which did not have an accompanying opinion Tuesday evening, vacated Anne Arundel Circuit Judge Alison L. Asti’s decision striking down the law, holding the lower court lacked jurisdiction in striking down the tax.