A Workforce Development Learning Management System Rapid Skill Development for the Workforce of Today and Tomorrow (BALTIMORE – August 13, 2026) – STEM City USA Ascend LMS™ is a scalable skill-building and workforce development platform designed to prepare people for career opportunities in months, not years. After this first formal reference, the platform is referred to as Ascend LMS. Ascend LMS brings together workforce training, employer knowledge, career development, emerging technology, and digital learning within the STEM City USA ecosystem. The concept is simple: build skills faster, expand access to opportunity, and help people ascend to the next level of…

BALTIMORE, MD (August 13, 2026)  – Today, Mayor Brandon M. Scott and the City Council of Baltimore filed lawsuits in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City against prediction market operators Kalshi and Polymarket and their affiliated companies. The lawsuits allege that the companies violated Baltimore’s Consumer Protection Ordinance (CPO) by operating illegal, unlicensed sports-betting platforms and misleading consumers about the legality and regulatory status of their products. According to the complaints, Kalshi and Polymarket allow Baltimore residents to wager on game winners, point spreads, point totals, player statistics, and other propositions commonly offered by licensed sportsbooks. Although the companies describe these…

Baseball did not simply lose Black children. The game became too expensive for working-class families—and the Baltimore Orioles became disconnected from the city they call home. (BALTIMORE – August 8, 2026) – A dear friend of mine and Morehouse brother is Robert “Robbie” Scott, the son of the late Pat Scott. Pat was the last surviving member of Baltimore’s famed Goon Squad, but he preferred to be remembered as an artist and a professor at Morgan State University. At one point, Robbie was a Little League baseball coach. And boy, did I hear some stories about his experiences coaching. But Robbie…

Wayne Grube Jr. built upon six decades of family manufacturing experience to help create SEAL Hemostatic Wound Spray as TEDCO invests in Baltimore innovation (BALTIMORE – August 4, 2026) — Behind BC3 Technologies’ projected 500% revenue growth, its FDA-cleared wound spray and a new $200,000 investment from TEDCO is a Baltimore family manufacturing story that began more than six decades ago. Wayne Grube Jr., the Black CEO and co-founder of Baltimore-based BC3 Technologies, did not enter the medical technology industry from nowhere. His father, Wayne Grube Sr., began working in the filling and packaging industry in 1964. After approximately 36…

First annual conference and Futurist Awards will connect employers, talent and training systems at the Baltimore Convention Center (BALTIMORE — August 3, 2026) — Artificial intelligence is changing how America works. Now, a major new workforce conference is coming to Baltimore to help ensure that employers, educators and workers are prepared for what comes next. The inaugural AI NEXTGEN America Conference and Futurist Awards will take place October 9–10, 2026, at the Baltimore Convention Center. Presented by Career Communications Group and powered by STEM City USA, the two-day gathering is projected to attract more than 1,000 attendees, 50 exhibitors and…

Baltimore’s “Dr. KSAL” has built an empire spanning education, performing arts, television, radio and youth development (BALTIMORE — July 31, 2026) — Dr. Kimberly Hawkins-Salley, the Baltimore educator, entrepreneur, media personality and business leader widely known as Dr. KSAL, will be honored at the Black Wall Street Summit 2026 on Wednesday, August 5, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center, 1315 Division Street in West Baltimore. Presented by BMORENews.com, the summit will feature leadership and Black wealth forums, followed by the Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards. Since 2011, the awards have honored Black entrepreneurs,…

(BALTIMORE – July 31, 2026) – Ever drive past Island Quizine? You see one in Woodlawn. Then you see one on Liberty Road. Then you find out the owner, Donovan Murphy, is now serving jerk chicken in Montgomery County, too. This is not a game. Island Quizine is about their business. Count them up: Reisterstown. Pikesville. Woodlawn/Windsor Mill. Milford Mill. Towson. Silver Spring in Montgomery County. Murphy says the count is actually seven stores strong, plus a catering business and a vending business layered on top — and that’s before you even get to the trucks on the road. Baltimore…

Harlem recognition celebrates more than 30 years of media, advocacy and community leadership (HARLEM, N.Y. — July 27, 2026) — New York State Senator Cordell Cleare, representing the 30th Senate District, presented Baltimore journalist, entrepreneur and BMORENews.com publisher Doni M. Glover with a New York State Senate proclamation on Saturday, July 25, 2026. The surprise presentation took place during a Joe Manns Black Wall Street Awards ceremony hosted in Harlem by respected community leader Vito Jones and Harlem, Inc. Glover traveled to New York intending to recognize a distinguished group of entrepreneurs, professionals, and community servants. Midway through the ceremony,…

One unforgettable coat traveled across four social-media platforms—and revealed the value of an audience BMORENews has spent decades building. (BALTIMORE – July 21, 2026) – The coat was gray mink. It required approximately 40 skins, was designed by Kevin Scott and carried a price tag of $10,500. Mean. Savage. Vicious. Relentlessly immaculate and made for distinction. When Mike Brown put it on inside Benedetto Haberdashery at 119 W. Mulberry Street in downtown Baltimore, I knew we had captured something special. Brown, a member of Dunbar High School’s legendary 1983 basketball team, brought another unmistakable layer of Baltimore history into the…

The Mayor for Life used government contracts, development opportunities and political power to build Washington, D.C.’s Black business class. (BALTIMORE – July 20, 2026) – Invariably, when I meet people from Washington, D.C., and the conversation turns to Marion Barry, I hear some version of the same statement: “Marion Barry gave me my first job.” I have heard it repeatedly from Washingtonians of different ages and backgrounds. To me, that is one of the most revealing measures of the man’s legacy. Long before “workforce development” became fashionable political language, Marion Barry understood that a young person’s first job could change…