Business

Entrepreneurs take great pride in building a business from scratch, developing financial security, and planning for the future. For Ian Mulira, however, success is about something more. “It allows me to sleep at night, which was tough for the first eight years or so,” he said with a smile. An electrical engineer by trade, Mulira was working for the U.S. Department of Defense as a civilian contractor during the early 2000s. His specialty was building automation systems (known in the trade as BAS), which connect and automate building functions from heating and air conditioning to fire and security systems. “I loved what I was doing,” he recalled in a recent interview in the Greenbelt office of his company, Conquest Solutions.

The Small Business Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation have formalized several new agreements to help underserved businesses win federal contracts and access potential funding. The new memorandums of understanding were announced Tuesday at a business forum at DOT headquarters in Washington, D.C., as part of a push to include more small-business owners in the contracts coming from the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Biden in 2021, as well as opportunities from the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act.

A push for a citywide report on tax increment financing (TIF) and the potential to use such bond sales to help renew underserved communities and wipe out vacant buildings was defeated by a Baltimore City Council committee Tuesday. Councilwoman Odette Ramos in April sought the report through an ordinance that would require several city agencies, including the Finance Department and Department of Housing and Community Development, to work with advocates to study TIFs and their impact on the city’s economic development. The quest was nixed, though, after an hour-long hearing by the council’s Ways and Means Committee chaired by Councilman Eric Costello, who voted against the ordinance.

Johns Hopkins has warned nearly 300,000 patients that their doctors, nurses and other health care providers may no longer accept CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield health insurance as soon as Dec. 5, jeopardizing patients’ access to care. Hopkins and CareFirst are at an impasse over rates the insurance company pays for care at Hopkins, a major provider of primary, specialized and outpatient surgical services in the region. CareFirst officials accused Hopkins of putting “the people we collectively serve” in the middle of contract negotiations that began in June, an allegation denied by Kevin W. Sowers, president of the Johns Hopkins Health System and executive vice president of Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The Johns Hopkins University on Monday released its draft memorandum of understanding between itself and the Baltimore Police Department. The document, which activists have long wanted released, is a necessary step for the university to field its own private, armed police force. The university will host its first town hall about the memorandum Thursday to discuss details and address questions.

A South Korean nonprofit is the newest partner in Maryland’s program that seeks to attract international businesses to the state by offering resources such as mentorship and a temporary location to set up shop. Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who is in the midst of a 12-day Asia trade promotion trip, announced Monday that the Korean Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Agency (KOSME) will join the state’s Global Gateway Initiative, according to a press release from the governor’s office. This partnership will couple Maryland’s Global Gateway program with KOSME’s Global Youth Startup Academy, which seeks to assist up-and-coming technology companies that are looking to reach overseas markets.

Defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp. unveiled a three-story, 55,000-square-foot addition to its Linthicum facility on Monday, more than doubling the size of the manufacturing and research hub. The center, which focuses on military applications of aerospace technologies, is intended to increase how fast the company can manufacture and test equipment for outer space. To help achieve that goal, Northrop Grumman installed robotic manufacturing, augmented reality technologies and other labor-saving devices as part of the expansion.