Business

A College Park startup that aims to increase the speed of food safety testing recently reached a milestone with the certification of its test sample preparation process. Pathotrak’s process enables food safety testing to occur in. The product is now certified by the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists International to detect salmonella and E. coli in romaine lettuce. The AOAC, founded in 1884, sets industry standards for food safety technology.

When Freeman Hrabowski, the longtime leader of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who led the once-little-known commuter school for three decades, announced his upcoming retirement, the central question on everyone’s mind was who could replace such a towering figure. Enter Valerie Sheares Ashby, a veteran university administrator, the current dean of Trinity College of Arts & Sciences at Duke University, a chemist by training, and, soon, the first woman to lead UMBC.

Eight Schools in Maryland are sharing in $1 million in Green Lab Grants awarded to dozens nationwide by Exelon Corporation, the parent company of Baltimore Gas and Electric, which are developing projects to advance STEM education in under-resourced communities.

Maryland added 3,900 jobs in March as a decline in coronavirus caseloads helped the economy continue its recovery, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor. March marks two months in a row of job gains for Maryland. The state’s unemployment rate also fell to 4.6% during the month, compared to 5% in February. The unemployment rate is at its lowest point since before the pandemic. The improvements in Maryland came as the U.S. economy overall continued to surge. The U.S. added 431,000 jobs in March while the national unemployment ticked down from 3.8% to 3.6%.

In the past year, Temple has hired a new president, athletic director and football coach, all Black men. The moves have made Temple just the second school that plays major college football to have an African-American in all three of those high-profile positions, along with Maryland. Temple is also the only school among 131 that compete at the highest level of Division I to have Black people leading the university, the athletic department, the football program and both the men’s and women’s basketball programs.

Amtrak is turning to eminent domain in an attempt to take control of D.C.’s Union Station so it can move ahead on expansion plans and other improvements at the busy rail station. According to a complaint filed Thursday, Amtrak is looking to seize the property interests in the station owned by Union Station Investco LLC, a subsidiary of Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp., which operates the property through a sublease from nonprofit Union Station Redevelopment Corp. that runs through 2084.

Talbot Goes Purple this week announced prescription medication collection from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. April 30, in St. Michaels, as part of National Drug Take-Back Day.  National Drug Take-Back Day is an annual collection event sponsored by the Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA also sponsors a collection event each October; that event saw 372 tons of medications collected across more than 4,900 sites, including two in Talbot County. For this month’s event, Talbot County Sheriff’s deputies will collect unused prescription medications at the St. Michaels Volunteer Fire Department at 1001 South Talbot St. in St. Michaels. Medication collection here in April filled an entire barrel.