ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland young people are joining the growing number of content creators on TikTok despite the lack of a robust local community.

Digital content creation is among the rising jobs of 2021 as the labor market shifted during the pandemic, according to a LinkedIn report.

TikTok, the social media and video app, announced one billion users in September, directly thanking users like small businesses and creators for the milestone.

A recent study found  21% of U.S. adults have used TikTok and 48% of people ages 18-29 have used it, according to the Pew Research Center.

Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service spoke with some local creators about their experiences as TikTokers from Maryland.

Many of the creators featured in this article were found on , a website that connects marketers with content creators, all others were found through the search feature on TikTok.

@ninja.phlip

Phillip Chance Jr., a 24-year-old from Glen Burnie, produces comedic content on his TikTok channel but his real claim to fame are videos that feature him doing acrobatic flips and parkour, a type of free running.

Originally starting his social media career on Musical.ly, a defunct video sharing app, Chance has at least 162,000 followers on TikTok.

Chance lamented that there weren’t many other creators in Maryland, especially none that do what he does.

Chance acknowledges creators can make a livable wage off TikTok through brand advertising and staying involved with the app’s Creator Fund.

The TikTok Creator Fund is a payment program where TikTok pays creators for their work based on number of views, level of content engagement and practicing the app’s community guidelines and terms of service, according to TikTok’s website.

@call_me_cookem

Justin Carmona, 29, works as a bartender in the Federal Hill neighborhood of Baltimore at night while bringing his bartending skills and acquired bar knowledge to TikTok during the day, where he has about 729,000 followers.

Carmona aspires to use funds generated from social media to support restaurants and their workers who have struggled during the pandemic.

However, the content creator also acknowledges the unforgiving nature internet fame can bring.
“I get why so many people who are big on social media, why they don’t like to go out in public, why they are scared to make any single post, how any one thing can potentially be the end of what they have,” Carmona said.

Carmona only knows a handful of other local TikTok creators, and believes when creators become popular, they move to Los Angeles, but he would love a greater TikTok community in Maryland.

@realiferenovation

When Alex D’Alessio graduated with a degree in civil engineering, he didn’t think TikTok would be his full time job.

D’Alessio’s TikTok account, which has 163,000 followers, stemmed from an at-home renovation video that took place in the bathroom of his house in Baltimore.

Now he is a full-time TikToker at age 26, who regularly posts home renovation videos and home improvement tutorial videos, with a rosy outlook on the future of the internet.

“I think we are entering a generation where you can develop a community wherever you are. You could be in the middle of Kansas or Wyoming and find people to connect with and make a living,” D’Alessio said.

D’Alessio also believes businesses have shifted their advertising budget from television to social media because, in his opinion, people turn to their phones during commercial breaks now.

@washyourpillowcases

Kat Wellington, 23, started her TikTok career in March 2020 just before the pandemic lockdown ensued; she considers herself lucky for what happened next.

Wellington, who has over 333,000 followers, has a lifestyle and comedy TikTok channel that grew out of videos about her daily life.

But when it comes to collaborating with other creators, there isn’t much of a TikTok scene in Maryland, Wellington admitted in an interview with Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

She loves visiting Los Angeles because creators know each other and connect there, but she would not move there because her friends and family are all in Maryland.

Josh DeAngelis, Wellington’s manager, is head of talent at Palette Media and Management and acknowledges the perks of living around collaborators.

“Collaborating helps position creators on a (For You Page) they otherwise never would have landed. There’s also the shared brand equity & association aspect, along with shared general learnings, trends and updates,” DeAngelis said in an email.

Wellington is DeAngelis’ only client from Maryland.

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This is not unique to Baltimore City. Across the state, only fractions of county roadway systems include bike infrastructure, the markers, barriers and laws — like a reduced speed limit — that allow bicyclists to safely share the road with motorists.

A Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service data analysis of Maryland Highway Safety Office crash data found that of the average of 813 crashes that occurred each year from 2016 to 2020, only 4.7% occurred in a bikeway, a road or street path designated for bicycle use. An overwhelming majority of crashes took place on roads without bike infrastructure.

“Many U.S. cities are very heavily designed around the car,” said Romic Aevaz, a policy analyst at the Eno Center for Transportation in Washington, D.C. “Having protected bike infrastructure is incredibly important because it gives you the opportunity to safely bike around your neighborhood or your city without fear of getting into a catastrophic crash with a motorist.”

While Maryland ranks 14 in the country as a bicycle-friendly state, according to a 2019 report from the League of American Bicyclists, bike advocacy groups across the state have pushed for infrastructure changes and legislative action to protect bicyclists. These concerns are well-founded, as there is an 81% chance a crash will result in an injury, according to Maryland crash records.

But rebuilding roads to accommodate bikes takes funding, something smaller, local jurisdictions may not have the capacity to apply for without additional state support.

Current Maryland state funding for bike infrastructure comes from the Kim Lamphier Bikeways Network Program, with additional federal funding from the Recreational Trails Program and the Transportation Alternatives Program, the latter of which will increase by 60% by 2026 due to the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

It is with this funding that Governor Larry Hogan recently $16.8 million in September for bicycle and pedestrian projects.

The MDOT State Highway Administration is planning to provide an additional $118 million in funding for bike and pedestrian improvements between 2022 and 2027 and earlier this year implemented the latest update to the state’s five-year which places a “core emphasis” on bicycle and pedestrian improvements, said Sherry Christian, spokesperson for MDOT.

“Although the COVID pandemic has impacted all areas of our programs, the Maryland Department of Transportation is committed to continuing to invest in improving safety throughout the state and looks to add funding as it becomes available to areas where we have critical needs including our bicycle and pedestrian funds and Vision Zero efforts,” Christian said.

Across the state, Baltimore City has the highest number of crashes adjusted for population, and the highest overall.

In the city, where about one third of households don’t own a car according to the Baltimore City Department of Transportation, advocates say bikes could fill an obvious transportational need, but bike lanes don’t extend throughout the city.

This is especially dangerous for bicyclists crossing at intersections, where bike lanes rarely exist and the highest average percentage of crashes and injuries occurred over the past five years throughout the state.

A local advocacy group, Bikemore, is currently working on a plan to connect 85% of Baltimore neighborhoods with separated bike infrastructure. While the plan was approved under the former City Council, the group hopes the new council, under Mayor Brandon Scott, will be able to allocate financial support for the plan.

“If you build it, they will come,” said Jed Weeks, Bikemore’s interim executive director and policy director. “When you build that infrastructure the riders rapidly develop where they weren’t before.”

Researchers, like Aevaz and Daniel Rodriguez, associate director of the Institute for Transportation Studies at University of California, Berkeley, also said that adding bike infrastructure can help reconnect communities that have been torn apart by highways and road construction, making it difficult for people to travel to school or work.

“One of the key challenges of bicycle infrastructure in fact is that it’s very sensitive precisely to those barriers,” Rodriguez said. “Think about a river without a bridge. That’s exactly what that highway looks like.”

This issue exists in Worcester County too, where Route 50, which connects Marylanders to Ocean City, a popular beach tourist destination, and other highways segment the county. a shared use path along the final stretch of Route 50 across the bridge to Ocean City.

Complicating matters even more, Worcester County is unique in that it accommodates more than 300,000 visitors on a peak summer weekend to Ocean City, according to State Ventures LLC, pushing the population to look more like that of Howard County.

The state, however, only allocates funding to Worcester County based on its year-round population of 52,460, which does not take into account the county’s seasonal population surge, according to Patti Stevens, co-chair of the Worcester County Bike and Pedestrian Advisory Coalition.

“It’s hard to do [bike] education and outreach when you don’t have a standard population,” Stevens said.

She said it’s also challenging for smaller jurisdictions in the county to implement large bike projects because they don’t have the bandwidth or the workforce of a larger county.

Stevens hopes the coalition, which was recently created in June 2020, will encourage increased collaboration across the Eastern Shore, so that they can organize more effectively as a regional unit for increased bicycle infrastructure.

According to Christian, MDOT continues to seek feedback from local program sponsors as they problem solve how to improve the administration of TAP funds. MDOT recently updated the TAP manual and application to streamline the process.

However, in order to build bike infrastructure, counties need legislative and financial support from the state and federal government.

In this upcoming legislative session, bike advocates across Maryland are currently supporting three bills meant to make roads safer that already have sponsors in the House of Delegates, according to the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s board member Peter Gray.

The first, if passed, would mandate the SHA to investigate any crash involving a fatality and provide recommendations within six months of the crash regarding how to prevent it from happening in the future. The second would mandate the SHA spend a certain amount of money to fix road networks where crashes take place, and the third would enable localities to reduce speed limits on state roads.

While the state and federal government have programs in place to fund state bike projects, advocates say smaller jurisdictions need more support in applying for grants and implementing projects. Additionally, while advocates said they are appreciative that the government has allocated funds in support of bike infrastructure, they said the recent $16.8 million allocation is only a drop in the bucket compared to what the state really needs to bolster its bike infrastructure.

“All of this is preventable with the right type of investment, not just in Baltimore City, but statewide,” Weeks said. “All that is preventable. But we’re not spending the money that way.”

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On Nov. 3, the Board of Public Works agreed to dedicate money to “(Restoring) the exterior of the Maryland State House and grounds within State Circle, including stabilization and potential restoration of the Old Treasury Building,” according to the panel’s agenda.

The project will include two phases, according to Nick Cavey, the director of communications for the Department of General Services.

The first part of the project will focus on structural repairs to the dome related to water infiltration, painting and window work, Cavey wrote in an email to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service. He said renovations will also ensure the dome has continuous protection from lightning and fire.

The second part of the project will center mainly around the State House and surrounding areas, according to Cavey.

“Phase two will consist of restorations to the State House and grounds, including masonry cleaning and restoration, roof edge and window restoration, restoration of the historic south portico, renovation of the main north entrance, (disabled) accessibility improvements, stabilization of the existing rubble foundation, repairs to the perimeter retaining wall around State Circle and stabilization of the Old Treasury Building,” he wrote.

The term of the funding for this project runs from November 2021 to February 2023. However, the project is estimated to take until late 2024, according to Cavey.

MCWB Architects, based in Albany, New York, was selected to complete the repairs. The state chose this firm for the project because they specialize in historical upkeep, according to the Nov. 3 Board of Public Works agenda.

MCWB has previously helped with renovation and preservation efforts of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and James Madison’s Montpelier, according to the agenda.

Comments made on the agenda by the Department of General Services said that, “The firm also has specific and relevant experience working on four historic state capitols located in New York, Tennessee, Vermont, and Maryland. Within the Maryland State House, MCWB Architects successfully completed the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber and work on the restoration of the James Brice House,” a nearby historical home.

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High fuel costs have led to high feed prices, according to a local farmer, leading some to raise turkey prices while others absorb the hit.

At Springfield Farm in Sparks, Maryland, it’s time for “turkey weekend,” according to farm owner David Smith.

No, not those long, lazy days of cold turkey sandwiches and watching football after Thanksgiving, but the Saturday and Sunday before.

Smith expects about 400 people to come to his farm and pick up pre-ordered turkeys over this coming weekend.

Add in deliveries to restaurants and private companies, and Springfield’s sales this year are around 700 turkeys, he said.

Smith said the farm sold out of turkeys earlier this year than in the past, even with slightly higher prices — 50 cents more per pound.

Smith said he sold turkeys at $10 per pound this year — the Springfield Farm site advertises birds between 13 and 18 pounds.

He said costs to run the farm are up, including for feed and electricity.

Smith said he probably should have raised prices more, to the tune of $1.50 to $2 per pound over last year’s price.

“We didn’t want to be greedy, but by the same token we have to watch our bottom line,” Smith said.

The urge to keep prices down, despite rising costs, extended to Carriage House Farms northwest of Baltimore.

“By rights, just in terms of mortality alone, I could …. push price up to $12 or more a pound,” said Gaylord Clark, president and owner of Carriage House.

Death came earlier in the turkey season, when Clark said he lost lots of birds to cold weather.

He said he’s down to 50 turkeys from a starting flock of 225.

Clark said instead of raising the price, he’s kept it at $7.25 a pound, a cost Clark said he’s “acutely aware of.”

“This is not an easy thing for our customers to do,” Clark said. “We want to hang onto them and be reasonably profitable.”

Clark said his farm has turned away business, but tries to refer people to friends who also raise turkeys.

Many shoppers decide to go the grocery store route.

Despite warnings earlier this month of a potential turkey shortage, especially for smaller birds, local grocers Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service contacted said supplies are holding up.

Bob Fitzpatrick is a general manager for two Graul’s Market locations in Annapolis and said he’s able to stock all sizes of fresh turkeys, though one order was split between two deliveries.

For other Thanksgiving items, Fitzpatrick said he’s been able to substitute in different brands.

“Some of the staple items, we’re getting some but we’re having to substitute some,” Fitzpatrick said. Earlier this season, problem items included yams and sugars, he said.

Patrick Kinsella, meat supervisor for the Geresbeck’s Food Market chain, hasn’t seen a shortage of turkeys either.

“Turkey sales are doing just fine,” Kinsella said.

He also says for customers who don’t wait until the last minute to shop, prices shouldn’t be too much of a concern.

“They’re up a little but they’re not up as extraordinary as I’m hearing out there on the news,” Kinsella said.

According to a USDA report issued earlier this month, the price per pound of frozen tom turkey was up about 20 cents relative to 2020 — to about $1.36.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices, including food, are up about 6 percent over the past year.

But even without a shortage at the supermarket, the demand for local turkeys is real.

Robin Way owns Rumbleway Farm in Conowingo, Maryland, and said it’s been a busy year with “last-minute phone calls looking for fresh, local turkeys.”

Many of Way’s customers have been buying from her for a long time, she said.

That means they know the drill when it comes to the turkey season, which will end soon at Rumbleway.

“Most of our customers are trained well,” Way said. “If they want a turkey for Christmas, they order two now.”

Way hasn’t raised turkey prices, but has had trouble finding grit, a type of small granite stone that she says helps turkeys digest their food.

For Drew Kinohi of Kinohi Poultry in Davidsonville, Maryland, like other farmers, feed has been the primary disruption.

“There’s been a couple of times when we are stretching the last bag because the feed store’s order hasn’t come in yet,” Kinohi said.

Despite the challenges, David Haberkorn of Morris Hill Farm in Tracy’s Landing, Maryland, is proud of his pasture-based process, in which he said turkeys rotate to fresh ground.

Haberkon called his turkeys a “very, very high quality product.”

Outside of prices and demand for turkeys, Haberkorn has seen another change in the run-up to this Thanksgiving.

“People are definitely more eager about the holiday than they were last year.”

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Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service compared the makeup of the 2021 Maryland General Assembly to the population of Maryland — looking at race, age, gender and political party affiliation — using data collected from the Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey, the Maryland State Board of Elections and the Maryland General Assembly.

Sen. Cory McCray — a representative for Maryland’s 45th district — spoke to the diversity of the General Assembly, noting the various milestones the legislature has made over the past three years.

In 2018, there were more women than ever before elected to the General Assembly, McCray said. Additionally, he said the Congressional Black Caucus makes up more than a third of the legislature for the first time ever.

“When you have a single gender, a single race, a single age group of men making decisions, they’re going to do things that enable themselves to be successful, and other folks are going to be on the menu,” McCray said. “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.”

Another important aspect of increased diversity within the legislature is the visibility of representation, McCray said. He added many of the challenges in poor communities are due to the fact young people don’t see role models, such as doctors, in their day-to-day lives.

“They can’t even envision themselves as the scientists or in STEM and things of that nature because it’s never been embodied and is being removed day by day in their communities,” he said.

But just because it’s the best it’s ever been now doesn’t mean there isn’t more work to be done, McCray said.

The Maryland General Assembly’s membership profile broke down race into four categories: Caucasian, African American, Asian and other.

Census Bureau data shows that 55% of the state population is white, compared to the General Assembly’s makeup of 65% white members. Black and Asian representation is much closer between the state and General Assembly. Black people make up around 30% of both the General Assembly and the state’s general population. Asian representation is a little less in the General Assembly than the state, representing 5% and 6%, respectively.

Of the 186 legislators counted, one person identified their race as “other.” The membership profile does not describe what races count as “other.”

Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service consolidated the American Community Survey’s race categories — excluding white, Black and Asian — to create an “other” category that is comparable to the legislature’s “other” category. This consolidation includes people who identify as American Indian and Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander, and it makes up about 9% of Maryland’s population.

Maryland’s population in accordance to gender is split almost down the middle, with 52% female and 48% male. In the General Assembly, the ratio gets much larger with 41% female and 59% male.

And when looking at the state Senate separately, the ratio gets larger again, with twice the number of male senators as female senators. The House is most representative of Maryland as a whole, with 56% male and 44% female.

Sen. McCray noted that every statewide elected position is filled by men. This includes attorney general, governor and other influential positions. The fact that a single woman hasn’t been elected into one of these positions left him frustrated, especially given that women make up half the population.

“We definitely are falling short,” McCray said.

When looking at five other states with similar race and gender demographics, Maryland’s legislature is more representative of its state’s general population than the other examined states.

Census data shows Delaware, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina and South Carolina are similar to Maryland demographically, but the legislatures in those states are more predominantly white and male.

When looking at an age breakdown, most legislators in the General Assembly are between 35 and 64 years old. There are only 11 members of the General Assembly — 6% — that are between the ages of 20 and 34 years old. Twenty percent of Maryland’s general population are in this age group.

But District 30 Sen. Sarah Elfreth — currently the youngest senator — says age differences aren’t felt in the General Assembly. There’s a feeling of seniority in terms of positions, but they all rely on each other and value each others’ opinions.

“We have some very real challenges in these jobs and in our districts and we just need to lean on each other, people who kind of similarly understand the role, and to work through those challenges,” Elfreth said.

Where the General Assembly is most similar to the state is political party affiliation.

According to the Maryland State Board of Elections, 55% of Marylanders are registered as Democrats, 25% are registered as Republicans and 20% are affiliated with some other political party.

In the General Assembly, 69% of legislators identify as Democrat, and 31% identify as Republican.

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Against a backdrop of container ships in the Port of Baltimore, President Joe Biden on Wednesday called his just-passed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill a “once-in-a-generation investment” that eventually will ease supply chain congestion and boost the nation’s economy.

The Baltimore facility, which Biden called “one of the best ports in the country,” is set to benefit from the infrastructure legislation passed by the House on Friday. The measure, which funds highways, bridges, water projects and public transportation, will be signed into law on Monday, the White House announced shortly before the president’s visit.

“This bipartisan construction bill is a major step forward,” Biden said.

The infrastructure package includes $17 billion for ports around the nation, a sum that the president said “represents the biggest investment in ports in American history.”

The Port of Baltimore is an economic driver in Maryland, responsible for the import and export of cars as well as farm and construction equipment. Over 15,300 people work directly at the port. It generates an additional 139,000 jobs in the region.

Investment in ports comes as the national supply chain has been disrupted amid the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting many industries and driving up consumer prices.

Biden’s Baltimore visit was the first of what are expected to be several presidential trips in coming weeks to tout not only the infrastructure bill but a second, larger measure that would provide $1.75 trillion in new social program spending. That second bill remains in negotiations among House and Senate Democrats.

“We’re already in the midst of historic economic recovery,” Biden told a gathering of local and port officials, accompanied by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Maryland Democratic Reps. John Sarbanes, Kweisi Mfume and “Dutch” Ruppersberger.

“And thanks to both steps we’re taking, very soon we’re gonna see the supply chain start catching up with demand,” Biden added. “So, not only will we see more record-breaking job growth, we’ll see lower prices, faster deliveries as well. This work is going to be critical as we implement the infrastructure bill, and as we continue to build the economy from the bottom up.”

“We need to unlock the full might and dynamism of our economy,” Biden said.

A portion of the infrastructure bill’s port funding allocation will go toward a $2.25 billion Port Infrastructure Development and Grants program through the Department of Transportation that the Port of Baltimore can apply for.

About $5 billion in additional funding will be funneled through the Army Corps of Engineers for construction projects including ports and inland waterways.

Before Biden took the stage, he was preceded by Hogan, a Republican, and other government officials.

Hogan said the overhaul of Baltimore’s Howard Street Tunnel to allow trains to carry double-stacked containers between the city and Philadelphia will increase production and add up to 10,000 new jobs.

“This landmark bipartisan legislation will help us grow jobs, expand economic opportunity and enhance security,” Hogan said.

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Lawmakers and advocates for the legislation, known as Anton’s Law, said its intent was always for public disclosure of these records, which were previously hidden from the public.

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service sent a public records request earlier this month to the Prince George’s County Police Department requesting records of complaints against department officers and investigations of officer misconduct.

Prince George’s Associate County Attorney John Mitchell denied the request, writing: “There is a common misconception that these records are now open for public review. That is not actually true.”

Police misconduct records are now considered investigative and subject to discretionary denial by Maryland law enforcement agencies, according to the state Public Information Act manual.

“It is not in the public interest to release these files,” Mitchell wrote in denying the request.

Mitchell declined to explain on the record why disclosing the records would not be in the public interest.

A representative for the Prince George’s County Police Department declined to comment. Prince George’s County Attorney Rhonda Weaver and County Executive Angela Alsobrooks also did not respond to requests for comment.

Anton’s Law, passed in the 2021 legislative session, was designed to increase transparency around police discipline, said bill sponsor Sen. Jill Carter, D-Baltimore. The law also tightened requirements for no-knock search warrants and instituted other new restrictions for search warrants.

The Legislature passed the law and then overrode a veto from Gov. Larry Hogan, R. The law took effect Oct. 1.

Carter called Prince George’s County’s denial “improper,” and part of a pattern from the county.

“It seems they intend to use that same, arrogant, above the law, modus operandi,” Carter wrote to the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service in a text message.

Carter said the Legislature thought about the impact of the law before passing it.

“The public has no trust in the integrity of these secret investigations now. They have no faith that justice will be done. Disclosure would allow us to see that complaints are taken seriously and fully investigated,” Carter wrote.

During public testimony in January, the Fraternal Order of Police, Maryland State Lodge, argued that the release of the records could hamper police work.

“Exposing these personnel files will only serve to embarrass law enforcement officers for prior conduct, regardless of whether that officer has even been adjudicated as guilty of what was previously charged,” a lodge official wrote in materials presented to the Legislature.

Any release of misconduct records would include information about whether an officer was cleared of misconduct allegations. Carter said disclosing the records will allow the public to see whether the decision to clear an officer was justified.

Carter also noted that she believes disclosure would benefit people who might file complaints. “They are currently afraid of police retaliation. It is in their interest to have their complaints made public as a safeguard from retaliation and abuse,” she said.

The Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service have sent identical public records requests seeking records of complaints and investigations of misconduct to more than 100 law enforcement agencies across Maryland.

At the time of publication, the Prince George’s County Police Department was the only agency to offer a blanket denial in response to those requests.

Several agencies have indicated that they plan to release records of police misconduct. One agency — the Taneytown Police Department — has already disclosed investigative records in response to a request from the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism and Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

Frank LoMonte, director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information at the University of Florida, said the statute doesn’t “clearly affirmatively entitle the public to access,” but instead attempts to close a loophole in the state’s Public Information Act.

He called the justification offered by Mitchell, the Prince George’s County associate attorney, a “plausibly defensible interpretation of what the words say on the page.”

But, LoMonte said, Prince George’s County’s justification for not releasing police misconduct records goes against the intent of the law and of the exemption cited.

Anton’s Law, also known as the Maryland Police Accountability Act of 2021, re-categorized police misconduct records from personnel to investigative records.

Personnel records are not open to public inspection under Maryland’s public records law, but investigative records can be released at the discretion of a police agency.

An agency may decide not to release investigative records if they believe the release would be “contrary to the public interest.” But if an investigation is closed, an agency needs a “more particularized factual basis” for why the release would not be in the public interest, according to Maryland’s Public Information Act manual.

“In general, the investigative exemption to public records laws is supposed to be for ongoing investigations where the request would disclose something confidential that ruins the investigation,” LoMonte said.

Anton’s Law also opened the records to requests from the people directly involved — such as a complainant — and from certain high level state attorneys. It exempts records of minor rule violations where an officer was not interacting with the public.

When releasing police misconduct records, agencies are required to redact certain personal information.

A representative for Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh, D, said his office has not issued an opinion or advice letter with guidance on how the law should be interpreted.

Anton’s Law was part of a group of police and criminal justice laws that passed in 2021 in the wake of George Floyd’s death and a national reckoning around race and policing.

Prince George’s County’s population is majority Black. A report released earlier this year within the Prince George’s County Police Department “result in complaints” from officers and civilians and that issues of “racial harassment or discrimination are not being treated appropriately.”

Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service’s Kassidy McDonald contributed to this report.

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“I can’t afford to bear the cost of a big shipment so I pre-order fabric, but this season because of delays, there is no way for me to know exactly when it’s coming in,” Habimana told Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

With the holidays approaching, small businesses like Habimana’s are feeling the brunt of supply chain delays that have drawn the intercession of the White House and the attention of Congress.

“I can’t remember a time in history when (the supply and demand model) has been inverted, where one side dictates to the other in a way that has never happened before,” Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Baltimore, said at a Wednesday hearing of the House Small Business Committee’s oversight, investigations and regulation subcommittee. The panel heard testimony about the impact of supply chain disruptions on small companies.

The pandemic forced many factories overseas to shut down, dramatically reducing production. There are also shortages of ships, containers and truck drivers.

The lack of coordination among transportation and logistics industries is at the root of the disruptions, said Dr. Martin Dresner, professor of logistics and public policy at University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business.

“Just saying ‘let’s have more throughput at the port’ probably will not solve the problem if there’s not enough truck drivers to take those containers away from the port,” Dresner said.

The Port of Baltimore, however, is an exception to supply bottlenecks.

“The Port of Baltimore is not experiencing supply chain congestion issues that are impacting other ports,” Maryland Port Administration Executive Director William P. Doyle told CNS in a statement. “In fact, due to congestion at other ports we have recently attracted two new container services totaling 21 new ships.”

He added that the port “has been preparing for over a decade for the expanded Panama Canal and we are one of the only ports on the East Coast with a 50-foot deep channel and berthing for ultra large vessels.”

“In addition, our local market has built up an efficient warehousing network over the past six years with millions of square feet of distribution, sorting, and fulfillment centers spread throughout Maryland and the mid-Atlantic — Amazon, Home Depot, IKEA, Fed Ex, and Floor and Decor to name a few,” Doyle said.

Nevertheless, some Maryland small businesses are struggling with supply chain disruptions.

“It’s not a new problem, it’s something that’s been going on for a really long time,” said Patty MacCrory, owner and president of AwardsPlus, a company that makes trophies, plaques and promotional items in Clinton, Maryland. She said she has seen supply chain problems since January 2020.

Larger companies like Walmart and Target have leverage to demand products in a way smaller businesses just cannot do, said Rich Weissman, adjunct professor of supply chain operations at Lesley University in Massachusetts.

“Big business gets what they demand and small business doesn’t,” Weissman said.

Supplies on ships at a standstill out in the ocean are causing cash flow issues for these small businesses, said Michael Kelleher, executive director of the Maryland Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a non-profit funded by industry and the state of Maryland that works in coordination with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Each state has a similar program.

U.S. manufacturing that migrated overseas needs to be re-established domestically, according to Kelleher.

“Long term this is very eye-opening for Maryland, and for domestic manufacturing, in that we need to bring some things back on shore and build back some of the expertise that we’ve lost domestically over the last 20 years,” Kelleher said.

In addition, Kelleher said, “most of what we make in Maryland is not direct to the consumer and most of it goes into other products.”

“Those delayed repercussions tend to have an exponential effect as they trickle downstream,” he said.

Kelleher’s program aids small businesses in handling supply chain backlogs by showing them how to communicate with customers, manage customer expectations and adjust cash flows.

Such steps can help to save small businesses from devastating consequences, Kelleher said.

Habimana, who began purchasing locally-made fabrics when shipping costs first skyrocketed, said she will return to buying fabric in China and West Africa once prices go back down.

China is the only reliable manufacturer she has found, Habimana said. With a customer base predominantly purchasing her African-printed fabrics, Habimana wants her purchases to benefit the people living in those countries.

Still, even with a domestic supplier of materials, inventory selection has been greatly affected, MacCrory said.

Customers have been reasonable and understanding when it comes to product availability, MacCrory said, but the current situation has really impacted her ability to get inventory, especially wood.

When a customer requests an item that is not in stock, MacCrory said she turns to a stockpile of substitute products that she offers instead.

To accommodate the growing alternatives, MacCrory said she will add a second warehouse next month.

Teaching small businesses how to manage during supply chain disruptions is imperative because the current shortages are not an isolated event, Kelleher said.

In an effort to alleviate the supply chain backlog, President Joe Biden last week won agreement from the nation’s busiest port, the Port of Los Angeles, to remain open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

That follows a similar expansion in operations at the neighboring Port of Long Beach. The two ports together account for about 40 percent of container shipments into the United States.

“…The commitments being made today are a sign of major progress in moving goods from manufacturers to a store or to your front door,” the president said.

But there is no immediate fix, something consumers and businesses will need to adjust to, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg warned.

“A lot of the challenges that we have been experiencing this year will continue into next year,” Buttigieg said on CNN Sunday.

Weissman does not believe regulation or government intervention will make a difference in the supply chain disruptions in the coming months.

“We need to realize we have been through a massive economic shock and it’s not over,” Weissman said. “Let the system play and let it work.”

For small business owners especially, the next few months could determine who survives and who goes under.

After holiday shopping sprees last December, many of her customers stopped spending for a bit, Habimana said.

“I try to make sure whatever we are doing we try to circumvent those profitability issues that could hurt us this season,” Habimana said.

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ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Vending machines in Maryland can now stock everything from allergy relief to some contraception along with candy or chips under a new state law.

Over-the-counter medications, which can be bought off of store shelves without prescriptions, were banned from vending machine sales sometime before 1957, according to fiscal analyst Amber Gundlach. Until this month, Maryland was one of only four states to ban vending machine sales of most OTC medicines.

In 1994, the Maryland Department of Health allowed a specific exception for non-prescription pain relievers like aspirin, in specific forms and in small doses, as well as condoms.

Twenty-seven years later, on Oct. 1, SB499 and HB107 went into effect, repealing the ban and removing it from regulatory code.

The new law “simply repeals the prohibition,” Gundlach wrote in an email to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service. Now, any over-the-counter drug or medicine may be sold in vending machines without the need for the state health department to craft new regulations.

There is no regulation requiring that OTC items be sold in a different machine from food and beverages.

A license must be obtained from the local jurisdiction for a vending machine; fees are $2.50 statewide.

In a February report urging that the repeal pass, bill sponsor Del. Robbyn Lewis, D-Baltimore, noted that the pandemic has revealed cracks in Maryland’s health care system. Many who live in rural areas or racially segregated urban neighborhoods live in “pharmacy deserts,” regions that lack easy access to a pharmacy.

The average Marylander lives five miles from a pharmacy, but only 5% of pharmacies are open 24 hours a day — and those that are constantly open are not spread evenly to Western Maryland or the Eastern Shore, according to a 2017 research article published in PLOS One journal cited in the report.

"In neighborhoods with low access to pharmacies and other health resources, strategically placing vending machines could help mobilize existing assets such as community centers and churches as hubs for health education," she wrote.

Lewis also noted that OTC vending machines can decrease traffic to existing health clinics, where there is high-volume traffic of potentially sick people — a useful tactic to reduce COVID-19 exposure and spread during a pandemic.

On average, surveyed primary care physicians said that about 10% of patient visits result from minor ailments that could be self-managed, potentially with OTC medications, according to a 2011 research article by Paul A. London and Associates written for the Consumer Healthcare Products Association.

Self-managing half of these ailments could save $5.2 billion annually from taxpayers and consumers by reducing doctor visits, relieving the already strained health care system, the article estimates.

Despite the focus on equitable access to OTC medication and pharmacies, neither Lewis nor Maryland Department of Health representatives knew of any efforts in the state to bring OTC vending machines to underserved communities.

On Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus, a Student Health and Wellness Center hosts a "wellness-to-go" medication vending machine, according to the university's website.

The machine dispenses everything from melatonin and emergency contraception to antibacterial ointment and itch cream, each for $8 or less, and is accessible 24/7.

University Director of Media Relations Jill Rosen said the machine was installed in late 2020 and is popular among students. It is not accessible to the public, only to those with a university ID card.

Rosen did not respond to questions about how the university arranged an OTC vending machine before the state ban was repealed.

Pharmabox, an OTC medication vending machine company, calls itself the first automated system of pharmaceutical products in the country, and has 46 locations nationwide.

Arundel Mills Mall hosts one of two Pharmaboxes in Maryland; the other is in a shopping center in Clarksburg. The machine, dull white and shaped like a first aid kit, sits separated from stores or kiosks in a poorly lit center corridor in the mall.

Shoppers can peruse name brand remedies like Excedrin, DayQuil and Neosporin in small quantities, as well as toothbrushes, deodorant and disinfectant spray. Information about a selected product is displayed on a touch screen before purchase.

In the three years since Maryland's Pharmaboxes went online, the company didn't seek to place more kiosks because pain-relief products were restricted to "travel size;" now that size and medication type restrictions are repealed, the company might look into more locations in the state, according to company representative Mariana Circelli.

An Arundel Mills Mall manager declined comment on vending machines.

In 2016, a Regulatory Review and Evaluation Report recommended that the Maryland Department of Pharmacy add a definition to the pain reliever selling exemption to distinguish a vending machine from an automated pharmacy kiosk, which vends prescribed medications.

The Department reportedly considered the comment, but decided against adding a definition because it did not believe there was any likelihood of confusing the two types of machines.

InstyMeds, a company from Minneapolis, makes automated prescription dispensing machines, which fall in the second category and were not subject to the OTC medication ban.

Robert Bang, the vice president of sales and account management, said the machines require at least one local health care provider to partner with InstyMeds and coordinate prescription dispensing.

The machine triple-checks a barcode printed at a provider's office and accepts insurance and payment before dispensing only what the provider ordered for the user.

These machines cost much less than a full pharmacy, especially considering a $1,050 fee for a Maryland physician dispensing license and the cost of pharmacy staff and inventory, Bang said.

Bang said that Potomac Pediatrics, a primary care office in Rockville, has had an InstyMeds kiosk in its lobby for over five years, quickly dispensing everything from ear infection medicine to baby vitamins.

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More than 120,000 people who identify as Native American live in Maryland, but without public-facing numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths, it is a mystery how many the disease has affected — and how many resources should be allocated to help them.

“Not only is that bad public health, but it’s also very dehumanizing for American Indians and Alaska Natives on our native lands,” Kerry Hawk Lessard, executive director of the health services nonprofit Native American Lifelines of Baltimore, said to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

The Maryland Department of Health puts American Indians and Alaska Natives in the “Other” category for COVID-19 cases and death numbers “due to low statistical occurrence given the population of Native Americans in the state,” department spokesperson Andy Owen wrote in an email to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

However, American Indians and Alaska Natives are at the highest risk for death and hospitalization from COVID-19 among all races and ethnicities, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“There is no regulation that requires this manner of reporting,” Owen wrote, when asked if any regulation requires Maryland to put American Indians and Alaska Natives in the “Other” racial and ethnic category.

Race and ethnicity are self-reported data points, Owen added.

However, the Maryland Department of Health does not publish the number of self-identified Native Americans or Alaska Natives who contracted COVID-19 or died from the disease.

Owen did not specify which other races and ethnicities are included in the “Other” category of the state’s COVID-19 dashboard.

In Maryland, 31,845 people identify as American Indian and Alaska Native alone, comprising 0.5% of the state’s total population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census.

“So our lives don’t matter because there aren’t enough of us?” Hawk Lessard, who identifies as a descendant of Shawnee, Assiniboine, and European people, said to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

An additional 96,805 people in Maryland identify as American Indian and Alaska Native in combination with one or more races, according to a Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service analysis of data from the 2020 census. This group comprises an additional 1.6% of the state’s total population.

Nationally, American Indian or Alaska Native people are more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other race or ethnicity, according to a September CDC report.

Compared to their non-Hispanic white counterparts of a similar age, American Indian or Alaska Native people are 1.7 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19, 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 2.4 times more likely to die from the disease, the CDC found.

In Maryland, “there is an invisibility to Native people that is amplified by the state’s refusal” to publish COVID-19 case and death numbers for American Indians and Alaska Natives, said Hawk Lessard, who also serves as a governor-appointed member of the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs.

“It means that we don’t know what the health status of Native people is,” Hawk Lessard said, which negatively impacts COVID-19 outreach, testing and vaccination efforts.

Not all Maryland jurisdictions follow the state’s example.

Baltimore City, for instance, includes “American Indian or Alaska Native” and “Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander” as options in its COVID-19 dashboard, though the Maryland Department of Health does not.

Jennifer Hunt, a civil servant for the federal government and a former board member of Native American Lifelines, helped convince the Baltimore City Health Department last year to begin publishing Native people’s COVID-19 data.

“We noticed that our race was not on the city dashboard,” said Hunt, who identifies as a descendant of the Choctaw tribe.

In July 2020, Hunt co-wrote a letter with Baltimore City Councilman Zeke Cohen requesting the city’s health commissioner to add American Indians and Alaska Natives to all data collection efforts.

“Within 48 hours, we were up and running on the Baltimore City COVID dashboard,” Hunt said.

The story is markedly different in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, where some of the largest Native populations in Maryland live, according to data from the 2020 census.

Neither county’s COVID-19 dashboard lists “American Indian or Alaska Native” as a category. Like the state of Maryland, Montgomery County also puts Native people in the “Other” category.

“Collapsing racial-ethnic groups with small cell counts is standard practice when reporting health data to avoid unintentionally identifying anyone,” Mary Anderson, a spokesperson for Montgomery County Health and Human Services, wrote in an email to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

To comply with federal health privacy laws, the Montgomery County health department avoids publishing COVID-19 case and death numbers that are smaller than 25, Anderson explained.

As of Sept. 15, there were 170 cases of COVID-19 among American Indians and Alaska Natives in Montgomery County, Anderson added.

Though the case number was higher than 25, the county did not publish it.

“The counts of cases among Native Americans were too small to allow for reporting when stratifying by other variables (age, sex, month, etc),” Anderson wrote.

Adrian Dominguez, chief data officer at the Urban Indian Health Institute, told Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service that he disagrees with the county’s decision to not publish the data.

According to Dominguez, the department can publish the aggregate number — 170 COVID-19 cases among American Indians and Alaska Natives in Montgomery County — without publishing the smaller numbers corresponding to those individuals’ age, sex and month of infection.

“Either they don’t know what they’re doing, or they’re intentionally not wanting to show this information,” Dominguez said.

In addition to Maryland, 13 other states do not clearly publish data about American Indians and Alaska Natives in their COVID-19 dashboards, according to a February report by the Urban Indian Health Institute.

The states are Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.

“In a world where data is dollars, erasing people from data is essentially erasing them from the system,” Meredith Raimondi, director of congressional relations and public policy at the National Council for Urban Indian Health, said to Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

“If we don’t have adequate data to show this need is there, then the money won’t come and the resources won’t come…I’ve seen in the past year and a half how much it literally impacts lives,” Raimondi said.

As of Oct. 4, 2021, . The states are Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia, according to a February 2021 report from the Urban Indian Health Institute. (Map: Trisha Ahmed/Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service)

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“The goal of this march is to increasingly consolidate our base for the work to come,” Women’s March Executive Director Rachel O’Leary Carmona told Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service. “The theme of the day is rally for abortion justice.”

The debate over reproductive rights has been revived by legal challenges to the nearly 50-year-old Supreme Court precedent set by Roe v. Wade, in which the court ruled the right to an abortion is protected under the Constitution.

Saturday’s rally will not be a traditional Women’s March, but rather it is a coalition effort, with more than 660 “sister marches planned the same day around the country, Carmona said.

“Everything that’s happening locally is going to be critically important,” she said.

Isabel Blalock, the field director of Abortion Access Campaign at NARAL Pro-Choice Maryland, said the organization has been active in planning the Annapolis rally.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what the legislators in the Maryland General Assembly are going to say,” Blalock said. “We are hopeful that there’s going to be some really exciting pro-choice and proactive legislation introduced this year in Annapolis.”

Saturday’s Washington program will begin with a faith gathering, followed by a rally at Freedom Plaza and a march to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carmona said there will not be any members of Congress on the stage; however, speakers will include abortion providers and women who will tell their stories about abortions. Busy Philipps, an actress, and Schuyler Bailar, a transgender collegiate swimmer, are scheduled celebrity guest speakers.

Roxanna Murray, a 58-year-old abortion rights activist, is traveling from Indiana to Washington with members of Women United For Progress Allen County.

“And we’re just really excited and looking forward to doing this because we are all determined that women deserve to have equal rights,” she said. “Women should be equal in every way. And that means that we should have total sovereignty over our own bodies.”

There all of kinds of reasons why women might need abortions, Murray said, adding that she doesn’t think its ever an easy decision. Regulating that decision and shaming people for it without having any idea why they made it needs to stop, she said.

Bridget McQuate, a freelance writer and a communications specialist at a hospital in West Philadelphia, said in an email to CNS that she recalled when women were considered second-class citizens.

It has gotten a lot better, but only “because brave women have come forward to call it out, to name names, and to demand justice and equality,” she said.

McQuate, who attended the massive 2017 Women’s March the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration as president, said her 16-year-old daughter is coming with her to the Saturday Washington march because she wants her to know she has to stand up and fight for her rights.

Saturday’s gathering will be two days after an emotional House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing Thursday on the state of abortion rights in the country.

“Nearly one in four women in the United States will have an abortion in their lifetime,” Committee Chairwoman, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., said in her opening statement.  “But with a hostile Supreme Court, extremist state governments are no longer chipping away at our constitutional rights — they are bulldozing right through them.  We must take bold action to protect and expand abortion care rights and access.”

Early in the hearing, several congresswomen detailed their own experiences with abortion as they testified in defense of protecting a person’s right to choose.

“For me, terminating my pregnancy was not an easy choice, but it was my choice,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., told the hearing. “And that is what must be preserved, for every pregnant person.”

According to Carmona, Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., and Jayapal, have been sent invitations to attend the event on Saturday.

Other hearing witnesses discussed the medical, legal and social implications of legislation like the new law in Texas that prohibits abortions six weeks after conception. The law also establishes the right of a private citizen to sue those who may have helped someone obtain an abortion in the state.

During one contentious exchange fueled by legislators, two obstetricians clashed. Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, a witness called by pro-choice Democrats, called part of the testimony of Dr. Ingrid Skop, a witness called by anti-abortion Republicans, misinformation after Skop claimed the country keeps poor records on deaths related to abortion.

Following Skop’s comments, Moayedi responded to a question from Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., about the reporting of deaths and complications related to abortions, saying, “I’d like to first remind all OBGYNs that the American Board of OBGYNs has recently warned that spreading medical misinformation can result in loss of board certification.”

Asked for clarification by Connolly as to whether she’d just heard misinformation, Moayedi responded, “I did just hear misinformation.”

Skop later responded when prompted by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz.: “There is data available to support everything that I have said today,” adding that she believes the politicization of abortion has affected the medical field.

In response to the Texas law, the House narrowly passed the Women’s Health Protection Act last week, attempting to codify the right to abortion services under federal law. The bill is now in the hands of the Senate.

“It’s really hard because there are some folks — for example, Senators (Joe) Manchin (D-W.Va.) and (Bob) Casey (D-Pa.) — who have said they are not in favor of abortion access,” Carmona said. “It’s really challenging when anybody inside of Congress will vote in ways that are not supported by the people.”

Separately, the Supreme Court is scheduled on Dec. 1 to hear oral arguments in a case involving a Mississippi law that would ban abortions in the state after the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. That case is Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.

In terms of counterprotesters, Carmona said there are some groups that consistently show up and, “we respect their First Amendment rights to be out in the streets.”

Students for Life of America, a social welfare anti-abortion organization, will hold counter-demonstrations in 24 cities nationwide on Saturday, including in Washington.

“Telling anti-abortion women that they aren’t welcome at the Women’s March excludes about half of us from a conversation on what women need to thrive,” SFLA’s Kristan Hawkins said in a statement.

Another anti-abortion group, Priests for Life, is scheduled to hold a prayer rally in front of the Supreme Court on Saturday afternoon. The same group has scheduled prayers, a religious service and a vigil at the court on Sunday.

“In my three decades of full-time national anti-abortion work, I have always been confident that the anti-abortion side was winning,” Father Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life, said in a statement. “But now I am more convinced than ever that the days of legal abortion in America are numbered.”

According to Carmona, this weekend’s reproductive rights demonstration is not meant to “solve everything.”

“The opportunity to get more people involved and to be a part of the process of shaping values and shaping public policy is an honor and I am really looking forward to that,” she said.

Source

Early and immediate newspaper printings of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well as historic engravings of the declaration, are on display, free to the public, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily until Nov. 14.

Labels accompanying the newspaper printings describe a race to print nation-changing text.

The copy of the Constitution, appearing in the Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser two days after it was ratified in 1787, was a re-pressing of type set for copies sent to Congressional Convention committees.

There are also beautiful vellum and paper engravings sent as gifts to politicians; one 1823 copy of the Declaration of Independence is more commonly used in textbooks than the original.

The collection, era-accurately and ornately framed and enclosed in dark wood displays, is on loan from Maryland native and billionaire philanthropist David Rubenstein.

Rubenstein’s Americana Collection adviser Mazy Boroujerdi said the documents were collected over several years for the purpose of exhibition. Before they were on display, these historical artifacts were carefully conserved, he said to a Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service reporter in an email.

“The tricky part of doing an exhibition in the Maryland State House is also the reason the setting has such promise. The building is less of a museum than an artifact itself,” Boroujerdi said.

The display revolves around an original letter George Washington penned: his 1783 resignation as commander in chief of the Continental Army, complete with crossed-out words and darker writing where he re-inked his quill.

Washington read the letter to the Senate in the same State House that stands today.

“To walk through the old Senate chamber is to feel as the members of Congress did when Washington resigned as commander in chief of the Army,” Boroujerdi continued.

The letter connects the exhibit to the State House and is situated chronologically between the declaration and the Constitution.

The letter, owned by the Maryland State Archives, has been on display in the building since 2015.

When Deborah Dixon arrived at the State House this morning for training to lead Historic Annapolis tours through the exhibit, she expected the documents to be already visible. Instead, all but the letter were covered in thick, black sheets, which were pulled off and folded before orientation began.

“Annapolis was the national capital for 10 months. It’s so neat that these documents are coming back to us,” she said.

As sunlight streamed through the State House windows to fall on the cabinets and the protected documents, tour-guides-to-be talked in hushed, awed tones about bleached colors, pointing through where they would lead their groups through the building.

Janet Hall, who is organizing the Historic Annapolis guided tours, said even today’s First Maryland Regiment re-enactors, who dress in period clothing and educate the public, are to tour the exhibit tomorrow, turning the State House into a bubble from the past.

What Hall called an “iconic and unique” exhibit isn’t just for the knowledgeable. “This is something that every child, every adult should go see,” Hall encouraged.

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In what some are calling the “quantum space race,” governments around the globe are funding quantum computing research in an effort to become the world’s leading innovator. China spends about $2.5 billion on quantum research annually, more than 10 times what the U.S. spends, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.

The quantum competition, reminiscent of the U.S.-Soviet era Sputnik space race, is expected to heat up under the Biden Administration, which plans to commit $180 billion to research and development and “industries of the future,” including quantum computing. That spending could provide a boost for IonQ, which was founded just six years ago.

“Both Congress and the president have made clear they plan to invest in the research, technology and talent needed to keep the United States in the global vanguard of innovation,” said Kara Sibbern, a IonQ spokesperson. “At IonQ, we will be working with policymakers to support this effort however we can.”

But whether new companies such as IonQ can compete in the brave new world of quantum computing is unclear. IonQ will be up against many U.S. and international companies, including heavy hitters like Google, Microsoft and IBM Corp.

Investors on Wall Street are closely watching the young company. In March, IonQ filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to go public on the New York Stock Exchange by merging with dMY Technology Group Inc. III, a special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, based in Nevada. The deal is valued at about $2 billion. If the SEC approves the transaction, IonQ would be the first company in the U.S. focused specifically on quantum computing to go public.

Like many other companies that use SPACs to raise capital, IonQ is hoping that merging with an acquisition company will allow it to raise capital faster than by using a traditional initial public offering. Merging with dMY “affords us greater speed to market, flexibility and ability to focus on business execution,” said Sibbern. The deal is expected to be completed this year, but the company couldn’t provide an exact date.

The stock offering marks a huge step for a computing technology that not long ago was widely thought to have little promise beyond the theoretical.

Quantum computers use the power of quantum physics to quickly solve problems and perform tasks faster than a conventional computer. The technology could speed up calculations related to finance, drug development, materials discovery, artificial intelligence and others.

Quantum computers function differently from conventional computers, which accounts for their speed. Conventional computers use a large number of tiny transistors, which represent information as either a “1” or a “0.” Quantum computers differ in that they use qubits, which can represent and work with both numbers simultaneously. This is due to what’s known as superpositioning.
To understand the principle of quantum superpositioning, it is often compared to a coin. Think of a single, stationary coin sitting on a table. It will be in only one of two states: heads or tails. Similarly, a transistor can only be either “0” or “1.” But if you spin the coin, you can say it’s both heads and tails at the same time until the moment you stop it and see what it lands on. This is like a qubit. Until you measure it as a “0” or “1,” it can exist in several different states at the same time.

So far, quantum computing is still in the research phase, far from widespread commercial use. IBM unveiled its first commercial quantum computer in 2019, IBM Q System One, but the device is not for sale. Rather, it’s a cloud-based product that customers can access over the internet to perform calculations.

However, executives at IonQ and other companies believe the industry is close to developing scalable products that can serve business needs.

“We believe quantum computing will power the next technological revolution for humankind and that the dawn of the quantum age is here,” said Chris Monroe, who co-founded IonQ and serves as the company’s chief scientist. “Like the information age, quantum is expected to have far-reaching impacts across every facet of our society.”

According to Monroe, any corporation with an optimization problem can yield results from quantum computing. “We’re seeing exciting advances in artificial intelligence by applying quantum to machine learning,” which can lead to even greater results, he said.

Important hurdles still exist for quantum. Eddy Zervigon, CEO of Quantum Xchange, a quantum-focused cybersecurity company in Bethesda said that while quantum computers can potentially lead to significant advancements, their speed and power could make it easier for hackers to break into the systems because current encryption methods won’t be able to keep up.

This critical point in quantum computing is known as “Q-Day”, or the day in which quantum computers can render current encryption methods useless. “No one is questioning if, but when” this day will come, said Zervigon. Quantum Xchange, recently named one of the 20 most promising startups by Technical.ly DC, is dedicated to preparing companies and organizations for Q-Day by offering quantum-safe data protection.

IonQ was founded in 2015 by Monroe and Jungsang Kim. Both are professors in  electrical engineering and computer engineering at Duke University in North Carolina. Both have also taught at the University of Maryland and are currently visiting professors in Maryland’s Physics Department.

The two previously spent more than two decades combined researching quantum physics and engineering. Monroe and Kim would later combine their efforts to publish a scientific paper, “Scaling the Ion Trap Quantum Processor,” which was published in 2013, and detailed how to build and scale a programmable quantum computer. The paper was noticed by Harry Weller, a venture capitalist with the Maryland-based New Enterprise Association, which provided IonQ with $2 million in seed money.

Between 2015 and 2018, IonQ raised an additional $20 million in funding from Google Ventures, Amazon Web Services and NEA. IonQ would later raise more than $55 million from investors such as Samsung Group, Lockheed Martin Corp. and others.

If IonQ succeeds, it could foster growth of other quantum computing and related companies in Maryland and the Washington area and “drive billions of dollars of economic improvement over the next decade” in the region, said Monroe.

He added that the University of Maryland’s support is contributing to the industry’s growth. In 2020, IonQ opened a new Quantum Data Center, a 23,000-square-foot center in Maryland’s Discovery District. The site was made possible in part due to a $5.5 million investment from the university.

Charles Winthrop Clark, a fellow at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Joint Quantum Institute, offered a more measured but still optimistic view of quantum computing’s potential in the region. He notes that while a quantum industry won’t do for the Washington metro region what the digital revolution did for Silicon Valley, “there will be a lively quantum ecosystem in the DMV.”

Source

Alster, an information technology project manager for a pharmaceuticals company, left Pittsburgh and moved nearly full-time to Deep Creek with her family as the coronavirus crisis was spreading. Then her company closed its Pittsburgh location and she started working entirely remotely. “We came and never left,” she wrote in an email, later adding that the family now spends 80% of their time at the Deep Creek house and plans to sell the Pittsburgh house by the end of the year.

Garrett County, located on Maryland’s western-most point along the border with Pennsylvania, has long lagged the rest of the state in income and population. In 2019, Garrett’s median household income was $52,600 compared to $95,572 for the state overall, according to the U.S. Census.

But as some families migrate away from city centers amid the pandemic and move to more remote locations — a trend that is occurring nationwide — home sales and prices in these once quiet outposts are booming. If the trend continues, economists believe it could trigger a resurgence for communities that have been in decline.

“When more people move in, it becomes more attractive for new businesses to serve them, and the overall tax revenues for the county increase,” said Leonard Arvi, an economics and finance professor at Salisbury University. “It’s a very positive cycle.”

In Garrett, home sales jumped nearly 37% last year while average prices rose 26% to $436,946, according to data from the Maryland Association of Realtors Inc. The trends accelerated during the first quarter of 2021. In March, sales in Garrett were up 71% compared to the previous March, while average prices more than doubled to $567,688. That’s a big turnaround from 2018, when sales in Garrett declined 3.4% and prices slid 8.4%.

Sales didn’t rise nearly as fast last year in the larger suburban counties close to big cities. In Montgomery, one of the state’s wealthiest counties that is located next to Washington, D.C., sales were up 5.4% last year and average prices rose 6.3% to $589,409.

Real estate agents note that prices in counties like Garrett were skewed somewhat because a larger number of higher-end homes sold while inventory of moderate priced homes was low. Nevertheless, they said the change in buying activity has been substantial.

Jon Bell, a real estate agent with Railey Realty in Garrett County said Deep Creek has become more “lively” since the boom. “Businesses are making more money than ever,” he said, as more homeowners spend big on boat rentals, movies and restaurant meals. The spending has spurred hiring.

Other rural counties are seeing similar trends, including Talbot, Kent and
Dorchester, all on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, an area that has suffered in recent decades from the loss of manufacturing jobs.

Bill Ingersoll, the city manager of Chestertown, a college town in Kent County, said the area is already feeling the effects of the housing boom. He said there had been just two or fewer requests in Chestertown to build new homes in the past six years. But in 2020, there were five single family homes built, plus one duplex and two triplexes, for a total of 13 new homes.

High home values and the addition of new homes could reverse some of the negative impact from declining values that occurred after the 2007-2009 recession.

“A housing market like the one we are in now has the impact, at least over time, of raising assessments of property — which have really been lower since the Great Recession — as properties sell for higher amounts across the town,” Ingersoll said.

That, in turn, could boost the economy. “This increase in housing construction and improvement will lead to growth in the economy, employment and tax revenue,” said Zifeng Feng, a finance professor at Frostburg State University.

Real estate agents note that the counties benefiting the most from the change in movement have plenty of outdoor attractions and are within a three-hour drive from Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis and Pittsburgh.

Garrett County’s Deep Creek Lake community is a popular vacation destination featuring skiing in the winter and kayaking, rafting and other lake activities in the summer. Talbot and Kent counties are located close to Ocean City, Maryland, a popular beach location that accommodates eight million visitors each year.

Even before the pandemic, Garrett County was gearing up to be a telecommuting hub.

“Most of our areas have high speed internet…we have the infrastructure for people to telecommute,” Bell said. “But we just never saw them do it until recently.”

The main draw to Deep Creek, Bell said, is that residents can naturally socially distance because the area isn’t crowded and houses are on larger lots than you would typically find in suburban or urban areas. “I jokingly say that you can sneeze as hard as you want to from the deck and you’re not gonna affect your neighbors,” he said.

One of the biggest problems in Garrett and similar counties is lack of inventory. “We have such a demand that the supply is not keeping up,” said Dee Dee Miller, the president of the Maryland Association of Realtors. “It’s been the most robust early spring market that we’ve seen in years.”

But rising prices are hurting some existing residents. Coard Benson, a real estate agent at Benson and Mangold Real Estate in Talbot County, said some older homeowners who want to sell their homes to downsize but cannot find smaller, more affordable homes to purchase due to the lack of supply. Inventory in Talbot County has fallen from 6.2 months of supply in 2020 to 1.5 months supply this year. (Months of supply measures how many months it would take for the current inventory of homes on the market to sell. Six months of supply is considered a balanced market.)

Miller believes that the market will begin to balance itself once the federal moratorium on evictions is lifted in June and supply reenters the market.

CNS’ Pierce Panagakos contributed to this article.

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NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland is planning to put a new deep-space telescope into operation in October. The James Webb Space Telescope will replace the Hubble Telescope and have greater capabilities to see farther into the universe than was previously possible.

Goddard began the telescope project in 1996 and originally aimed to launch it into space in 2007. But the complex instrument ran into design and technical issues, prolonging final development by over a decade.

With the delays, costs also soared. Originally a $500 million telescope, the Webb is now estimated to be close to $10 billion, according to a January 2020 Government Accountability Office report.

Construction concluded in 2016 and the telescope and its components have been undergoing testing. The Webb is finally set to launch on Oct. 31, according to NASA.

Delays are inevitable with projects of such scale, but there are no more holdups expected, Dr. Daniel Weisz, associate professor of astronomy at the University of California Berkeley, told Capital ˛ÝÝ®´«Ă˝ Service.

“That’s basically how any major space mission goes,” Weisz said. “And the milestones now are really all positive, the odds of it being delayed from this year are really, really low.”

The telescope will be launched on a heavy-lift space launch vehicle, called an Ariane 5 rocket, from the European Space Agency’s Guiana Space Center in French Guiana. Weisz said the components of the telescope will start shipping to South America in August.

The Webb’s main mission is to expand on the discoveries of the Hubble. Launched into low-Earth orbit in 1990, the Hubble has helped scientists understand more about the formation of the Earth, other planets and the solar system. It also has peered closely at planets found in other solar systems. The telescope also has contributed to astronomers’ knowledge of the formation and evolution of stars.

The new telescope — named after James Webb, the NASA administrator who oversaw the early years of planning the Apollo manned moon missions — is going to provide the world’s astronomers more deep-space knowledge than ever before.

Weisz said the Webb will be orbiting Earth out past the moon, essentially giving it a clear view of space.

“You can put James Webb way out there and the technical part is that there is a gravitational stability that it can orbit, but really it’s way out there and it’s much more efficient that way,” Weisz explained. “It can observe all the time, the Earth blocks Hubble for large parts of the day where James Webb is going to be operating 24/7.”

Dr. Begoña Vila, an instrument systems engineer for the James Webb Space Telescope at Goddard, said the telescope will serve as “an observatory for scientists around the whole world.”

“In fact the observations from all the submissions for the General Observers Program have just been selected, including examples of all the awesome science James Webb Space Telescope will give us,” Vila said.

The Webb telescope will be able to see back in time 13.5 billion years to discover new information on the first stars and galaxies ever formed.

The Webb’s infrared technology also will allow astronomers to view the faintest details in space history, according to Vila.

Closer to home, the telescope will be used to observe planets, moons and other terrestrial objects within our own solar system.

Since the universe is constantly expanding, the light emitted from objects in space is moving further away from Earth. This also means that astronomers must observe light through dense clouds of dust. Webb will be able to penetrate that dust.

There are many different materials on the telescope that will allow it to function in the unforgiving space environment.

“Many of those materials have been chosen because they behave well and are stable at the very cold temperatures James Webb operates, around 40 K (-388 F),” Vila said.

Just getting the complex telescope into space will be an impressive feat, Vila said.

The fully-deployed Webb is the size of a tennis court, much larger than Hubble. But it weighs less.

The new telescope has to be folded to fit into the spacecraft, and then unfolded once in space. Vila admitted that procedure makes him and other scientists nervous.

“The ability to launch into space a telescope of this size that needs to be folded to fit inside the launch vehicle and deployed once on orbit will be a great achievement and demonstration for future missions,” Vila said.

Weisz said he hoped the public could appreciate the years of effort that scientists have put into the telescope and the payoffs that are coming.

“We are talking about one telescope that’s doing all these things that Hubble scratched the surface, and now we have this whole bigger, modern machine that’s going to take that little bit that Hubble did and blow it way up,” Weisz said.

Goddard has been working with many international space organizations in order to finish the Webb project, including the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.

The primary contractor throughout the project has been Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. The Space Telescope Science Institute will operate as mission control for the Webb telescope after launch.

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