Business

Donta Henson had no previous experience running a business in the vast and competitive alcohol industry, but that didn’t stop him and his brother from jumping in feet first when they decided they wanted to launch their own brand of tequila. “This is something that we just wanted to do really as a passion project,” Henson said. “We hit the ground running from the start.”

While Department of Labor officials say that new leadership and plans for procedural changes have put the state on track to solve a yearslong backlog of unemployment insurance claims, claimants and their attorneys, who have yet to see definitive progress following a 2022 settlement, remain dubious. The top Republican lawmaker in Annapolis has also called on his fellow legislators to bring in labor officials for a hearing about why they “habitually cannot deliver this critical service.”

Unionized employees at the Apple store in the Towson Town Center voted “overwhelmingly” to ratify their first contract with the tech giant, the union said Tuesday night. IAM International President Brian Bryant said in a statement that the contract “sets a new standard for Apple retail workers nationwide.” The employees in Towson were the first in the United States to form a union of Apple store workers in 2022, and then in late June became the first in the country to reach a tentative contract agreement after protracted negotiations.

There ain’t no party like a Ravens or Orioles party. And that’s thanks, in part, to Brian Snyder. Snyder, a Baltimore native and father of three, knows how dedicated the city’s football and baseball fans are. He’s been creating unforgettable tailgating experiences for years as the founder of BMORE Around Town, a sports fan event, experience and travel company based in Baltimore.

CSX railroad’s second-quarter profit slipped 2% — even though the volume of its shipments was up by that same rate — as it scrambled to respond to the Baltimore bridge collapse in March that disrupted coal exports. CSX said Monday that it earned $963 million, or 49 cents per share, in the second quarter. That’s down from last year’s $984 million, or 49 cents per share.

A new league featuring a team from Baltimore is trying to take the very American sport of football to an international audience. The upstart International Football Alliance announced Friday that it will add a Baltimore team when the league’s inaugural season kicks off next summer. The team, known as the Baltimore Lightning, will make the jump up to the semi-professional ranks after playing in developmental leagues for the past three seasons.

Dailey Jogan was pleased to learn she would get $15 an hour and a handful of perks as the head swim coach for a metro Detroit team. Her older brother’s reaction looked more like surprise. At 18 years old, Jogan has spent the summer organizing meets as staff leader of the 250-person team. She also gets some freebies for facilities housed within the park where they practice, like access to the gym and a few comped tickets to the movie theater.

South Mountain Creamery in Middletown has been awarded more than $1 million in grants related to enhancing animal waste technology at the creamery’s farm by the state of Maryland and other organizations. On July 22, the Maryland Department of Agriculture announced South Mountain Creamery as the winner of an animal waste technology grant of more than $505,000.