Business

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.

TEDCO, Maryland’s economic engine for technology companies, will host a free Tech Fair Sep. 12 at 9 a.m. at the Hotel at the University of Maryland. TEDCO created the fair to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners in any industry from Maryland’s underserved communities to technology companies, resources, trainings, and networking opportunities to grow their business. U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship Chair Ben Cardin (D-Md.) will deliver the keynote address.

Baltimore’s two historically Black universities have both received the first batch of new funding they are slated to receive as part of a lawsuit settlement and plan to use the money to hire more than 50 new faculty members and expand marketing efforts. Morgan State University and Coppin State University received a combined $20.8 million in fiscal year 2023 from the settlement with the state. The schools are receiving the funding as part of the settlement for a lawsuit the state’s four HBCUs brought against Maryland in 2006, which argued that systematic underfunding hurt the competitiveness of the HBCUs when compared to predominantly white institutions

Five months after the Australian-based biopharmaceutical company Ellume opened its first U.S. location in Frederick, the facility is scaling up its production of at-home COVID-19 tests by starting to automate the manufacturing process. U.S. Rep. David Trone and U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin visited the sprawling campus along Executive Way on Tuesday afternoon for a tour of the company’s production capabilities and a town hall meeting with its employees. They were joined by Laurie Locascio, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. NIST runs the Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership in Gaithersburg, which helps manufacturers in the state — like Ellume — operate more efficiently, grow and create more jobs.

Total Wine & More, a Bethesda-based company that is the nation’s largest independent wine retailer, has renewed its lease on its headquarters located at 6600 Rockledge Drive, the Maryland Department of Commerce announced Tuesday morning. The press release did not specify the duration of the lease, and a representative of Total Wine & More could not be reached for comment. In addition to renewing its lease, Total Wine is also expanding in Maryland. 

Reports of the end days of Eddie’s of Mount Vernon, it turns out, were greatly exaggerated. The popular midtown grocery on Tuesday was the scene of an epic retail drama that involved a diverse cast of characters including a team of city health inspectors, store owner Dennis Zorn, landlord Dennis Richter, Facebook patrons and City Councilman Eric Costello. The situation escalated and a city health department spokesman said Baltimore police were called to Eddie’s and took a report for verbal and physical assault.

Sinai Hospital is planning to build a new 125,000-square-foot cancer center to provide more treatment options to patients. Sinai is building the new facility to consolidate its outpatient cancer resources into one building at its Northwest Baltimore campus. The Sinai Hospital Cancer Center, designed by Wilmot Sanz of Rockville, is expected to be completed by 2025. “All the departments that will ultimately be in this building, are spread out throughout the whole campus right now,” said Rick Sasaki, a partner at Wilmot Sanz. “They want to bring all that together. So you can serve the patient a lot better, rather than having that patient traipse all around the hospital.”