Business

As president and CEO of the Baltimore County Chamber of Commerce, Brent Howard works with more than 450 member companies and a 23-member Board of Directors to promote, grow and sustain a diverse and healthy business community that will enrich the quality of life and enhance prosperity in the Baltimore region. Brent is also president of the Small Business Resource Center, where he works with its two business counselors to aid clients in establishing or growing their businesses in Baltimore County. The resource center is funded with a grant from the Baltimore County Department of Economic Development.

During remarks at an offshore wind convention Wednesday in Baltimore, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore shared his administration’s new “ambitious, but achievable” goal for turbines off the state’s coast: 8.5 gigawatts of power. A spokesman for the Democratic governor said he plans to sign the POWER Act, which would mandate the 8.5 gigawatt goal be realized by 2031, if the General Assembly passes it.

What happens when a scientist walks into a comedy club? If it’s Matt Hurley, he steps up to the mic.b “It didn’t feel good,” Hurley, 31, said of his first times attempting standup in the Baltimore area at places like Wits End Saloon in Timonium and Zissimos Bar in Hampden. That was last February, when the Chicago transplant was beginning to dip his toes into a new world. Hurley had long been more accustomed to experiments of a different kind.

Just a month into his first public office, the top media started asking Maryland Gov. Wes Moore if he’s running for president. While it can be hard to deflect the spotlight, Moore insists that he is focused solely on Maryland and Marylanders. One month almost to the day after Moore officially took office, he appeared on “DMV Zone” on Fox5 – a top station in a top-10 national media market, and was asked by anchor Marina Marraco, “You’ve been in office for 23 days and people are already raising your name as a potential Democratic nominee for 2024.

TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, announced a recent Pre-Seed Builder Fund investment of $150,000 into CyDeploy, a woman- and minority-led startup working to provide businesses with security solutions to improve the overall functionality of their systems. TEDCO’s Builder Fund invests in and provides executive support to Maryland-based technology companies run by entrepreneurs who demonstrate economic disadvantage.

The Walters Art Museum and its employees signed an agreement Monday night that paves the way for a union election this spring, resolving a nearly two-year impasse. The agreement is a win for employees because it will allow about 90 of them to be represented by the labor union of their choice and to form one, large and presumably stronger union instead of two smaller ones.

In November, Maryland became the 20th state to legalize adult-use recreational cannabis. Maryland follows states such as Colorado and Washington, which each legalized in 2012. Medical cannabis became available in Maryland in 2017. “The world of legalized cannabis, it changes daily, and comparing it to what it was in 2014 or 2012, it’s a different world,” said Justin Tepe, a lawyer at Baltimore law firm Goodell DeVries who works with cannabis companies.