Wednesday, November 27, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Novavax secures CDC signoff for Covid-19 vaccine as booster

It’s a good week for Novavax. The Gaithersburg vaccine maker has earned the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation to make its protein-based shot available as a booster to adults in the U.S., the last hurdle required before people can use it beyond a primary series. The CDC said late Wednesday that its director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, greenlit the decision — which gives initially vaccinated adults the choice to get Novavax’s jab as a booster instead of the updated Omicron-specific shots from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.

Biden wants to let gig workers be employees. Here’s why it matters.

The Labor Department has proposed a rule that would make it easier for delivery drivers, janitors, construction workers and other independent contractors to be considered employees, granting them access to benefits and federal labor protections. The proposal would overturn a Trump-era move and restore Obama-era standards for determining whether workers qualify as employees or independent contractors.

Sinclair sets nationwide launch date for local sports streaming service

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. will roll out its local sports streaming service nationwide in September following what executives described as a “better than expected” soft launch earlier this summer. The Hunt Valley-based broadcaster rolled out its direct-to-consumer service, which it’s calling Bally Sports+, to five markets on June 23, streaming MLB games in Detroit, Kansas City, Miami, Milwaukee and Tampa.

Workers in half the country will see major pay increase in 2023

Washington, D.C., and over half the states in the United States are raising their minimum wage this year, with residents of the nation’s capital getting the biggest boost. Beginning this past Sunday, D.C.’s living wage will increase to $16.50 an hour. This amount will later increase to $17 an hour on July 1, making it the highest minimum wage within the U.S., according to a news release from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s office.

Sheppard Pratt plans to build a children’s hospital in Towson

Sheppard Pratt is hoping to create a new model for the mental health care of young people by building a new children’s hospital in Towson. The hospital is in the very early stages of development, with officials hoping to make more detailed plans public after first securing funding. Currently, Gov. Larry Hogan’s preliminary budget plan calls for $100 million in state funding to go toward Sheppard Pratt to be used toward the creation of the hospital, a global training center for workforce development and other projects. It will be up to Gov.-Elect Wes Moore to decide whether to include the allocation in his budget once he takes office in January.

Maryland Board of Pilots to consider cellphone policy after phone usage contributed to grounding of Ever Forward in March

In 48 U.S. states, it is illegal to text and drive a car. An airline pilot can’t use a cellphone for personal reasons while flying a plane. But there is no policy forbidding such a practice when it comes to guiding 1,100-foot ships through the narrow channels of Maryland waters. That could change soon. In March, the Ever Forward, a container ship as long as three football fields and weighing about 130,000 tons (for comparison, the average car weighs about 2), steamed out of one of those channels into the shallows of the Chesapeake Bay, getting stuck for more than a month.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Microsoft set to battle FTC over $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard deal

Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, a gaming company famous for hits like Call of Duty, disputed the Federal Trade Commission’s challenge to their proposed $68.7 billion merger on Thursday, writing in a court filing that the U.S. regulator’s concerns that the deal would undermine fair competition in the gaming industry are “unfounded” and “absurd.” The rebuttal foreshadows a coming legal battle between Microsoft, a tech giant that has largely avoided close regulatory scrutiny from federal authorities in recent years, and the FTC, whose chairwoman Lina Khan is a well-known skeptic of big tech.

The city of Baltimore wants to give $1 million to Harborplace developer

The city of Baltimore said in legal filings that it wants to give $1 million to the private developer that will soon own the troubled Harborplace in the Inner Harbor, making good on comments made by Mayor Brandon Scott earlier this year. In a May speech to the Downtown Partnership, Scott said his administration would commit $1 million to David Bramble, whose firm MCB Real Estate has spent months lining up the purchase of Harborplace. The twin mall-like pavilions have been losing money for years under out-of-state ownership. As restaurants and stores fled, Harborplace defaulted on a $76 million loan in 2019 and fell into receivership, a legal process typically used to avoid bankruptcy.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Under Armour names Marriott executive Stephanie Linnartz as new CEO

Stephanie Linnartz, president of the hotel chain Marriott International, will become the next CEO of Under Armour, the company announced Wednesday. Linnartz has worked at Marriott for 25 years, rising through the ranks to become the company’s president in 2021, the Baltimore-based athletic apparel brand said in a news release. “She is a proven growth leader with a distinguished track record of brand strategy, omnichannel execution, talent acquisition and development, and passion for driving best-in-class consumer connectivity, experience, and brand loyalty,” Under Armour founder Kevin Plank said in a statement.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Sinclair signs deal to add regional sports networks to FuboTV lineup

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. is bringing its 19 regional sports networks back into the streaming space with a new agreement with FuboTV. The carriage agreement to get the networks back on FuboTV, which was for an undisclosed figure, comes as there have been fewer ways to watch the RSNs online and as the networks have struggled financially. The RSNs have been dropped by a host of online TV providers including YouTube TV, Sling TV and Hulu TV.

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