Business

If you’ve ever been frustrated that your phone is charging at a snail’s pace (most likely while the charger is overheating), you may be in luck. A Frederick company, Pirl Technology, is working to develop more effective chargers for not only cellphones but also for electronic vehicles and other devices throughout the household. The company’s first product, a multiport cellphone charger, delivers 25-30% more power to the device than other chargers and is cool enough that it doesn’t need a fan to stop from overheating.

A coalition of Baltimore technology companies more than tripled the percentage of Black employees on staff from 6.5% to 19.8% in a single year. How did the Baltimore Tracks coalition do it? The more than 20 companies instituted four reforms to the hiring process. They eliminated college degree requirements, began paying interns, shared qualified candidates with each other and swapped insight into how to improve diversity, equity and inclusion. The findings of the Baltimore Tracks second annual report, released this month, provide a roadmap for other employers who hope to become more diverse and reach a larger pool of applicants that they are likely missing.

Johnson & Johnson announced it is severing ties with Gaithersburg-based Emergent Solutions after the pharmaceutical company was forced to destroy another 135 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine made at Emergent’s troubled Baltimore production plant because of quality issues. Congressional panel leaders announced the action Thursday, which follows a report in May that detailed how more than 400 million vaccine doses made at the plant had to be trashed. The doses more recently slated for destruction were made between August 2021 and February, the House members said.

The University of Maryland women’s lacrosse and field hockey teams will soon have a new $11 million home. The existing 6,195-square-foot lacrosse and field hockey complex on the College Park campus will be partially demolished to make room for a building more than twice the size at 15,340 square feet. The construction is set to be complete in 2023. The renovation is significantly larger than the plans announced in early 2020 that called for a nearly 12,000-square-foot facility. The state Board of Public Works on Wednesday approved a construction contract to renovate the university’s field hockey and lacrosse facility.

John P. Angelos, the chairman and CEO of the Orioles, is decrying that his brother took what he calls “the nuclear option” of filing suit over a dispute in how to handle their father’s assets. In several filings Wednesday in Baltimore County Circuit Court, John Angelos denied the allegations that his brother, Louis F. Angelos, made about him in a lawsuit in June: that he sought to seize control of the Orioles and other assets of their father, Peter G. Angelos, as he fell ill and eventually became incapacitated in recent years.

To help reach the IKEA ambition to become a circular and climate positive business by 2030, IKEA U.S. Thursday announced a collaboration with Electrify America and Electrify Commercial to bring ultra-fast public charging stations and delivery fleet electric vehicle (EV) charging to over 25 IKEA retail locations in Maryland and throughout the U.S. This joint effort will enable IKEA U.S. to quadruple its total number of EV chargers, which supports the goal of achieving zero-emission home deliveries by 2025 and halving relative1 emissions from customer and co-worker travel by 2030.

UnitedHealthcare, a UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) company, is awarding $500,000 in Empowering Health grants to four community-based organizations in Maryland to expand access to care and address the social determinants of health for uninsured individuals and underserved communities. In total, UnitedHealthcare is donating $11 million in grants through its Empowering Health program across 11 states. The grants will assist individuals and families experiencing challenges from food insecurity, social isolation and behavioral health issues, and support local health promotion and health literacy efforts.