jobs and workplace
- The management of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is unnecessarily coercing its musicians.
- Harford County teachers will receive a roughly 5% salary increase next year, thanks to additional funding from the state's Kirwan Commission.
- Water has been restored to Poe Homes but the health care needs of many low-income Baltimore residents are still not being met.
- Maryland lost 1,200 jobs in May, but the state’s unemployment rate remained the same at 3.8%, according to the latest federal jobs report.
- Baltimore Police officer Julie Pitocchelli, who has more than doubled her salary with overtime has recently been suspended,
- Baltimore police face worse hardships than the occasional bad apples in the ranks.
- Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s leadership has chosen to make decisions that are causing unnecessary damage to the institution, including locking out musicians.
- Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises said the findings demonstrate that the district is failing students.
- The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced it will lock out its musicians starting Monday after it could not reach an agreement with their union.
- The starting salary for Carroll County teachers will now be $48,000, up from $45,787. Superintendent Steve Lockard called that “very competitive.” He’s right.
- Baltimore police commissioner Michael Harrison has ordered the arrest of a sergeant over an incident with a bystander, and the police union has fired back.
- Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians are facing numerous challenges in the wake of the news that the summer season may be cancelled.
- Robert Reich: The jobs problem today isn't just stagnant wages, it's also uncertain incomes.
- Going into the early hours of Tuesday morning, the Howard County Board of Education balanced its upcoming fiscal $607.2 million operating budget.
- Maryland legislative leaders are calling on Gov. Larry Hogan to release $1.6 million in funding set aside for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.
- The Baltimore County County Council approved a school budget that meets needs despite tough fiscal times and the need to raise revenue.
- Legg Mason has cut its corporate workforce by 12 percent, laying off 120 people, including 100 spread evenly between Baltimore, New York and Stamford, Conn.
- Johns Hopkins is under scrutiny once again for taking the most financially-strapped patients to court over unpaid medical debt.
- Robert B. Reich: Voters know Donald Trump's economy isn't good for most Americans.
- Superintendent Sean Bulson said he would work with those teachers to keep them in the school system and get them certified — if they so choose.
- The Carroll County Board of Education and the Board of County Commissioners remain locked in negotiations that center on a $1 million shortfall.
- County Executive Olszewski should spend more time cutting unnecessary spending and less seeking tax increases.
- Check the status of bills that would establish a $15 minimum wage, let school boards decide whether to start classes after Labor Day, ban the use of plastic foam, and other measures.
- Members of Gen Z — those born after 1996 — soon will be making their presence known in the workplace. Employers want to be ready.
- Thanks to the growing list of people put on leave during Mayor Catherine Pugh's absence, Baltimore is paying $1,600 a day for people not to work.
- The unemployment rate in Maryland ticked up to 3.8% in March from 3.7% the previous two months, but still below the 4.1% of a year ago. The state rate was the same as the national rate of 3.8% for March,
- Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. is seeking the county’s first income tax increase in nearly 30 years — plus new fees on development and additional charges on residents’ monthly cellphone and cable bills.
- Gov. Larry Hogan has vetoed three bills passed by state lawmakers that would have increased the state's hourly minimum wage to $15, allowed local school districts to decide when the academic year starts, and moved alcohol and tobacco enforcement to a new commission.
- Under Armour CEO and chairman Kevin Plank earned $6.6 million last year, with the value of that compensation totaling about half that amount, Under Armour reported.
- Maryland lost 5,800 jobs in February in several categories such as education and health, manufacturing and transportation, but the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent.
- Leonard Pitts Jr.: There is an object lesson in the college admissions scandal beyond disgust.
- Maryland’s lawmakers have agreed on the details of how to increase the state’s minimum wage to $15 per hour, allowing the measure to move to Gov. Larry Hogan, who opposes such a significant increase.
- Maryland added more jobs in January, continuing slow and steady gains.
- Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is proposing raising the state’s minimum wage to $12.10 an hour, instead of a $15 hourly wage backed by state Democratic leaders.
- Despite the intent that they would fund jobs and capital investments, the 2017 tax cuts have largely funded share buybacks, which hit a record $1.1 trillion in 2018. The big winners were corporations, large shareholders and top corporate executives.
- The Maryland House of Delegates has approved a bill that would gradually increase the state's minimum wage from $10.10 per hour to $15 an hour in 2025. The debate now moves to the Senate, which has not yet taken action.
- Bryce Harper's 13-year, $330 million give him the richest guaranteed contract in baseball history, but Manny Machado got the higher average salary. So who won?
- Under Armour is laying off 50 people at its Locust Point headquarters as part of a restructuring announced in October.
- Sen. Bob Cassilly says the push to increase the minimum wage in Maryland to $15 an hour raises issues that are more complex than suggested by the advocates’ simple plea that everyone is entitled to an annual living wage of $31,000 from the moment they start their first job.
- Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski called for cuts to school budget within hours after it was passed Tuesday night.
- As chair of unemployment insurance subcomittee, Del. Mary Ann Lisanti is working to address critical issues as a result of the extended federal government shutdown and its impact on our citizens.
- If the Ravens want to build on last season’s playoff run, they can look to the Patriots for blueprints.
- Baltimore’s spending board has approved a 5-year contract for the incoming police commissioner. The deal gives him valuable perks and a far higher salary than his predecessors, but at also makes him easier to fire. Michael Harrison would make $275,000 a year. He starts Monday.
- In this time of stark divisions, more than three-quarters of both Republicans and Democrats support the concept of a guaranteed retirement account (GRA) — an account into which employers and employees make modest, regular deposits that grow into a reliable nest egg.
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Amid Baltimore's persistent violence, police department failing to fill 500 patrol officer positions
The Baltimore Police Department is not only failing to fill vacant patrol positions in the face of steady street violence, which officials have called a priority, but suffered a net loss of 36 sworn officers in 2018 — hiring 184 officers but losing 220, data obtained by The Baltimore Sun show. - Just 10 years later, the Newseum is shrinking into an uncertain future, the distress sale of its building to Johns Hopkins University marking the end of a troubled tenure that has become a cautionary tale of bloated budgets and unrealized ambition.
- Harford County leaders were glad to hear Gov. Larry Hogan strike a bipartisan message in his State of the State speech for 2019, but some have concerns about the economic impact of his calls for tax cuts.
- Robert Reich: We may be witnessing a rebirth of the early 20th century movement toward "industrial democracy."
- Concerned about the effects of a recently ended partial federal government shutdown, Maryland lawmakers are considering ways to cope should politicians force another closure. Unemployment benefits for nonessential employees, pay for contract workers and help with utility bills are on the table.