Business

Dozens of projects in communities affected by coal-related job losses are receiving nearly $47 million from the Appalachian Regional Commission. The awards through the ARC’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization Initiative go to 52 projects in 181 counties, the commission said. It is the largest single awards package from the initiative since it began in 2015, according to the ARC. Among the largest awards was $2.4 million to expand broadband in Summers County, West Virginia. The project will connect 489 homes and 179 businesses to affordable broadband. Another fiber optic project, in Carroll County, Ohio, was awarded $1.9 million to connect 11 communities to affordable broadband, serving 384 homes and 53 businesses.

Maryland’s unemployment rate fell from 4.3% to 4% last month as the state, buoyed by hiring in the hospitality sector, added 5,300 jobs, according to preliminary data released Friday by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The nation’s unemployment rate as of September was 3.5%. The leisure and hospitality sector in Maryland had the most jobs gained in September, state officials said, with 3,500 jobs added from the accommodation and food services (2,600) and arts, entertainment, and recreation (900) subsectors. Other gains were reported in the professional and business services (800) and trade, transportation, and utilities (700). Some sectors saw losses, chiefly the financial activities sector, which decreased by 2,000 jobs, and the manufacturing sector, which lost 200 jobs.

The booming tech and biotech markets in Central North Carolina have lured another Maryland developer south to start digging for new business. Woodlawn-based St. John Properties this month opened a new office in Raleigh, joining other Baltimore developers like Merritt Properties, Greenberg Gibbons and Heritage Properties doing work in the southern state’s Research Triangle. The area was cited in a new report this month as the fourth fastest-growing market in the United States. Dustin Atkielski, a regional partner for St. John, will head the new office and is already scouting for available land. He will also oversee development and leasing in the coming months for the single-story Class A projects that have been the signature of St. John’s multiple developments in Greater Baltimore.

Bertha’s Mussels, an iconic Fells Point seafood restaurant and bar, is closing after 50 years in business, the owners announced on Facebook Thursday. The restaurant will remain open through the end of the year and go to auction with bids to start Nov. 12. Three family generations have worked at Bertha’s Mussels since 1972 when Tony and Laura Norris, both musicians, opened the bar on South Broadway Street to create an outlet where local musicians can perform.

Baltimore City Department of Transportation officials are asking for public input on a new plan to make curbside dining in some areas permanent. Transportation officials said they’re getting a lot of mixed reactions to the idea. This all happens as the city prepares to end the COVID-19 policies that first made it possible.

An acrimonious spat between trustees of the Walters Art Museum and its employees continues to move through the courts, with the cultural institution filing documents Tuesday attempting to prove that legally it is a private corporation and not a city agency. On the surface, the issue that a Baltimore City Circuit Court judge is being asked to decide might seem dry as dust: Is the museum in the Mount Vernon neighborhood part of city government — as its employees claim — and therefore, subject to the Maryland Open Records Act? Or is the museum a private entity as trustees argue, and therefore exempt from having to share certain documents with its employees?

Ellie Mental Health is a fast-growing mental health franchise model headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota. And a new Bethesda location at 8120 Woodmont Ave., Suite 840, is the first of multiple Maryland practices that its franchise owner, Montgomery County native Shahzad Dastgir, plans to open this year. How it started: Dastgir was working as a consultant for Optum Inc. doing mergers and acquisitions with large health care systems, including mental health providers. Then about a year and a half ago, he came across Ellie Mental Health. Its cozy vibe was more reminiscent of a living room couch than a doctor’s office, and its therapists felt like friends, he said. It caught his attention.

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.

Constellation Energy Corp. has tapped Nneka Rimmer, a former president at McCormick & Co. Inc., to join its board of directors — the second former high-level executive at the spice maker to join the energy company. Constellation (NYSE:CEG) on Tuesday elected Rimmer to fill a seat on the board once held by Allstate Insurance legal chief Rhonda Ferguson. Ferguson, 52, died in April. Rimmer’s appointment will be effective Nov. 1.