Around Maryland

University of Maryland alumnus Stanley R. Zupnik has made a $25 million commitment toward a new building that will help prepare new generations of engineers and foster collaboration between disciplines in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Named in his honor, Stanley R. Zupnik Hall will be the new home of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and will include mechanical engineering, the Quantum Technology Center and the Maryland Transportation Institute.

Bedtimes had long passed by the time Friday night’s U.S. Open semifinal ended around midnight, but still some youth members of the Junior Tennis Champions Center remained glued to a television screen as Marylander and JTCC alumnus Frances Tiafoe gave a post-match interview. Tiafoe lost in five thrilling sets to No. 3 seed Carlos Alcaraz, but his U.S. Open run was nevertheless spectacular and captivating. The 24-year-old became the first American man to reach a U.S. Open semifinal in 16 years and the first Black man to do so since Arthur Ashe, the man whom the stadium Tiafoe played in Friday night is named after, in 1972. With the best performances of his career, including a win over legend Rafael Nadal, Tiafoe launched himself to international relevance and the edge of stardom.

A Danish training ship hit the moored USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul on Sunday morning in the Inner Harbor, according to a statement from the U.S. Navy. No U.S. Navy personnel were injured and there was no serious damage to the Navy ship, a U.S. Navy spokesperson said in a statement. The USS Minneapolis-Saint Paul was docked on the port side of the west wall in the Inner Harbor at 11:17 a.m. Sunday when the Danmark crashed into it during Maryland Fleet Week. A representative from Sail Baltimore, which brings visiting vessels to the harbor to showcase different cultures and maritime history, referred questions about damage to the Danmark to the U.S. Navy.

To Ronnie Sewell, owning a Christmas tree farm is the best job in the world. “I have everything I possibly want here,” says Sewell, 80, who loves the glossy, sparkling finish his trees’ needles get after a strong summer rain. “It’s so rewarding.” “In today’s busy world of getting up and driving a half hour to work and putting up with traffic and spilling coffee, what glorious world I live in,” Sewell said. “I can walk out the door, feed the cats and ride around the farm and it’s a definite inspiration.”

Four days into West Baltimore’s water contamination situation and the ensuing boil advisory, the two candidates for Maryland governor hustled just a few neighborhoods apart Thursday to distribute fresh water bottles to residents and talk about the need for accountability during what has been called a health crisis. “God bless you,” Wes Moore said to nearly every person as he leaned into their front passenger windows or opened their trunks to give them a 24-pack of water bottles outside Wylie’s Funeral Home in Harlem Park. Moore, a Democrat who lives in the city, wore a Home Depot apron and handed off the bottles paid for by the company.

Working conditions and pay increases for members of the Teacher’s Association of Anne Arundel County are set for the school year after an impasse in negotiations was resolved by a mediator. The union and Board of Education were unable to reach an agreement for the current school year before the prior contract expired June 30. The Public School Labor Relations Board, an independent quasi-judicial state agency, determined negotiations were at an impasse on July 10, according to AACPS. Mediation was ordered but was unsuccessful as of July 29, when the mediator offered a settlement to both parties.