Business

Howard Countians can take advantage of this week’s warm spell with an ice cream cone from The Charmery. The Baltimore-based scoop shop has announced plans to open its newest location, in Columbia’s Merriweather District, on Friday evening. The 1,390-square-foot space on the ground floor of the Juniper Apartments complex will be the fifth location for the local chain, which got its start in Baltimore’s Hampden neighborhood.

Maryland casino revenues took another tumble in February, with all six of the state’s casinos reporting drops compared with the year before. In all, the industry pulled in $126.2 million last month, a 16.6% year-over-year decrease, according to the latest numbers released Friday by Maryland Lottery and Gaming. Once again, Baltimore’s Horseshoe Casino saw the biggest dip. Horseshoe’s February revenue, $14.3 million, was down 20% compared with a year ago. The casino has reported year-over-year declines each month since reopening last June.

After being closed for eight years as a concert venue in downtown Towson, The Recher is set to reopen March 19 for limited-capacity shows. The Kelly Bell Band will perform at the grand reopening of the venue previously known as The Recher Theatre. The show is for those who are 21 and over and tickets are $20. Doors open at 7 p.m.  Because of the coronavirus pandemic, masks must be worn at all times except when seated at the table, and there will be temperature checks at the door. Groups that plan to sit together must arrive and enter at the same time. Each table will be spaced at least 6 feet apart and the closest table to the artists onstage is at least 15 feet.

Anne Arundel County officials publicized the scheduled health inspection at Cancun Cantina on Saturday night to deter other establishments from skirting COVID-19 restrictions as infections drop and restrictions are eased. County Executive Steuart Pittman received several complaints from residents about the club to his government email account, he said, after a local ’90s tribute band, Doc Marten and the Flannels, played a show on Feb. 20, and people posted videos of the crowded bar to Facebook. Upon learning the health department had already scheduled an inspection on Saturday, the county executive suggested health officials invite the news media, including The Capital.

The U.S. is getting a third vaccine to prevent COVID-19, as the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two. Health experts are anxiously awaiting a one-and-done option to help speed vaccinations, as they race against a virus that already has killed more than 510,000 people in the U.S. and is mutating in increasingly worrisome ways. The FDA said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against what matters most: serious illness, hospitalizations and death.

Gaming companies — and those hoping to climb aboard the sports gambling bandwagon — on Thursday urged a House panel to greatly expand the number of licenses for mobile-device-based betting. They said states that have leapt ahead of Maryland in the sports betting arena have done so, in part, because they allowed more players onto the field. Jason Tosches, director of government affairs for TheScore, a Canadian sports betting app that launched in 2007, urged the House Ways and Means Committee to amend House Bill 940 to allow for 24 mobile-only sports betting licenses. Currently the bill allows 10.

Private sector jobs in Baltimore dropped 25% in 2020, wiping out hiring gains made during 2019, the city’s economic development arm revealed on Thursday. There were just 6,200 new jobs created in the city last fiscal year amid Covid-19. That is a stark contrast to the 31,900 new jobs during the same period in 2019, a report from the Baltimore Development Corp. showed. The report provided a micro-level snapshot of the local hiring landscape amid the pandemic.