Latest news with #Baltimore-based
Miami Herald
4 hours ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Under Armour Doubles Down on HBCU Sports with CIAA Extension
In a move that reinforces its commitment to innovation, performance, and cultural impact in the HBCU community, the CIAA has extended its exclusive apparel partnership with Under Armour through 2029. The announcement comes on the heels of the CIAA Board of Directors meeting, where another major deal was also finalized: keeping the storied CIAA Basketball Tournament in Baltimore through the end of the decade. For the CIAA and its member institutions, it's more than just a jersey deal. 'Under Armour continues to be a powerful partner in our journey, elevating the look, feel, and performance of our student-athletes while reinforcing our identity across the national stage,' said CIAA Commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker. 'We are proud to move forward together with a shared commitment to innovation and impact.' Under Armour's relationship with the CIAA began in 2018 after Russell Athletic exited the collegiate uniform space. Facilitated through BSN Sports, the deal gave CIAA programs exclusive access to UA uniforms, gear, footwear, and training equipment. It was a timely and strategic move, especially as other HBCU conferences were locking in similar partnerships. Since then, Under Armour has not just dressed athletes-they've leaned into storytelling. Their "Sisterhood in Style" campaign, launched earlier this year, spotlighted HBCU women and Black Greek life, featuring members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. on the campuses of Bowie State University and Morgan State University. With imagery by Baltimore-based photographer and activist Devin Allen, the campaign tied fashion, culture, and pride together, all wrapped in UA's pink-and-green UA Echo sneaker. This brand of authenticity isn't accidental. Under Armour's headquarters are just minutes from downtown Baltimore, and its ties to the community run deep. Morgan State, a flagship HBCU in Baltimore, has long been a partner institution. The renewed CIAA deal only strengthens the city's connection to both the brand and HBCU sports and culture. So when the CIAA announced that its hoops tournament-an economic and cultural crown jewel for the conference-would stay in Baltimore through 2029, it wasn't just a win for the city. It was synergy in action. A Baltimore-based brand. A Baltimore-hosted HBCU tournament. And a renewed focus on showcasing Black excellence, both on the court and in community storytelling. Beyond the CIAA, Under Armour also outfits HBCUs like Hampton, Howard, and Edward Waters. But this extended commitment with the nation's oldest historically Black athletic conference signals something deeper-a long-term investment in legacy, innovation, and visibility. For the CIAA, the fit remains perfect-on the court, in the culture, and with the City of Baltimore. The post Under Armour Doubles Down on HBCU Sports with CIAA Extension appeared first on HBCU Gameday. Copyright HBCU Gameday 2012-2025
Technical.ly
2 days ago
- Business
- Technical.ly
Baltimore will keep CIAA tournament through 2029, officials announce
An annual basketball tournament held during Black History Month and bringing a wide economic footprint will stay in Baltimore through the end of the decade, local officials announced. Public and private sector leaders on Wednesday gathered at the Baltimore Visitor Center in the Inner Harbor to announce the city won the bid to host the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) competition from 2027 to 2029. Baltimore has hosted the popular HBCU tournament since 2022, a start date that was delayed a year by the pandemic. Competition is intense to host the event, which features games between historically Black colleges and universities throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southern United States. With this latest win, Baltimore notably beat out Charlotte, North Carolina, which hosted the CIAA between 2006 and 2020. At the announcement, many speakers — including leaders from CIAA members Bowie State University and Lincoln University, Baltimore-based sports apparel giant Under Armour, Maryland's Department of Commerce, tourism arm Visit Baltimore and insurance company CareFirst — highlighted the tournament's impact and significance beyond the court. 'My favorite part of this relationship is the deep investment into community,' said Mayor Brandon Scott. 'The CIAA goes all out: financial literacy, health summits, skills camps … so that we're growing the generation of CIAA graduates to come back to Baltimore and go into communities to help make us the best version of ourselves.' This impact extends to the city's business and startup communities, which each earned a major spotlight during prior tournaments. In 2024, the city saw a total economic impact of $32.5 million, including $23.6 million in direct spending, according to Visit Baltimore. Al Hutchinson, the tourism agency's outgoing CEO (whom Mayor Scott recognized at the end of the Wednesday press conference), previously said that the tournament generated $81.7 million in total economic impact and funded an average of 1,326 jobs each year between 2022 and 2024. The 2025 financial figures dropped a little, with this year's tournament boasting $19.8 million in direct spending and $27.4 million in total economic impact. That said, the number of jobs created, by Visit Baltimore's tally, grew to 1,487. For the innovation community, the tournament offered the chance to showcase Baltimore's Black technologists, entrepreneurs and other sector players during the annual Tech Summit House program. The series of talks and pitch contests revolving around topics like AI, Africa's startup world and how to navigate an industry filled with racist disparities dovetailed with local boosters' broader goal of highlighting this predominantly Black city's unique assets. 'The tournament particularly uplifts Black-owned businesses, highlights our HBCU legacy,' Hutchinson previously told 'and adds to the vibrant mix of music, arts and culture that define Baltimore's Black community.' Although he didn't speak during Wednesday's presser, Mark Anthony Thomas, CEO and president of the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC), said he took part in a pitch to host the tournament last week. He and others only found out about the acceptance this week. For Thomas, the fact that none of Baltimore's HBCUs are in the CIAA (the closest being Bowie State in Prince George's County, near DC) was actually an asset. 'The most successful ends are when you don't have the natural advantages of other markets,' Thomas told before the press conference. 'We don't have any of the CIAA schools, we're not central to where they're located. And it means that Baltimore overperforms on charm, our ability to be collaborative and a great partner with the CIAA — and we actually put on a good show.' Just a day earlier, Thomas held a fireside chat at the GBC's Inner Harbor offices with Jonathan Bowles, executive director of the New York City-based Center for an Urban Future. For nearly an hour, the pair spoke before GBC members about topics including the growth of New York's tech economy, the Great Recession's lessons in economic diversification and what Baltimore can learn from the country's biggest city. One theme Bowles hit on was the importance of the cultural sector to a city's development. Thomas connected this to the current bid, and the way Baltimore's economy can build upon the prior tournaments. 'In our 10-year plan, creative and culture is one of the three opportunity areas, so this is central to that type of potential we see for the region,' he said. 'Obviously, it's a risk. Visit Baltimore initially pursued this, and so you think about the risk they took — to even believe that Baltimore had a chance at competing for this — and for it to have been successful, now twice, is a huge endorsement of the infrastructure they built.' community Slack and visiting the #baltimore channel.
Chicago Tribune
10-06-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Editorial: Dangerous Quad Cities plant incident gives us reason for concern about nuke operator's commitment to safety
Atomic energy is getting a surge of support these days, including from people who not too long ago opposed any expansion of its use. Gov. JB Pritzker, for example, now enthusiastically backs lifting Illinois' long-standing moratorium on new base-load nukes, a 38-year-old prohibition he previously urged retaining. Lifting the moratorium was part of a sprawling energy bill that — like many other major issues in Springfield this past spring — was left for another day to be completed. Another data point: In recent days, Constellation Energy Group, which owns all the nuclear power plants in Illinois, struck a 20-year deal with Facebook owner Meta to purchase all the capacity at Constellation's downstate Clinton plant. The deal ensures a facility that's been financially wobbly in the past will run at least another two decades and allows for Constellation to consider building another reactor at the site in the future. These are heady days for an industry that over the past decade has secured not one but two ratepayer-funded bailouts from the state of Illinois in order to keep plants from shuttering prematurely. So news recently that Constellation misled the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2023 about a significant screw-up at its Quad Cities plant in Cordova, Illinois, is a bracing reminder of the risks inherent in nuclear power — and the degree to which we all rely on operators to keep themselves honest. Illinois has the most nukes of any U.S. state and in an age in which climate change has elevated the status of nukes because they don't emit heat-trapping carbon, it's easy to forget the controversy that enveloped the industry for much of its existence. Memories are short when it comes to the terrible accidents in other parts of the world such as the 1980s-era Chernobyl disaster in the former Soviet Union and the 2011 Fukushima calamity in Japan. That's why the disclosure that Constellation employees had lied to regulators about the spillage of radioactive-contaminated cooling water at Quad Cities in 2023 was so alarming. According to the NRC, at least 1,200 gallons of the liquid was mistakenly drained at the plant, exposing workers. The NRC's report said at least two workers were sprayed in the face with reactor coolant water. The incident was serious enough that the Union of Concerned Scientists, a watchdog group, called it a 'near miss.' But at least as worrisome was a worker's attempts initially to cover up the problem. That senior reactor operator initially misidentified the issue as something more benign than what happened. It took 10 days for the truth to come out. The operator later explained that 'fear of a particular senior manager's anger kept him from providing complete and accurate information,' according to the NRC report on the incident. The NRC is in the process of determining what consequences Baltimore-based Constellation will face for the cover-up. The penalty should be harsh enough to provide effective deterrence of any repeat performance. In a statement to the media, Constellation said it fired the employees deemed responsible and proffered assurances there was no threat to the public or to workers. The company said it 'holds its employees and contractors to the highest standards of ethical conduct while promoting a culture of transparency, accountability and continuous learning.' Executives like to talk about their company cultures. Frequently, they use words such as the ones above. Actions, however, speak louder than words, and it's concerning indeed that a senior reactor operator was so frightened of his boss that he lied about a potentially dangerous incident at his workplace. Illinois' nuclear fleet — producing reliable power around the clock, employing thousands and generating tens of millions in tax revenue to local communities — is an asset to the region. Constellation should use this black eye as an opportunity for brutally honest self-examination. More than most companies, we need to be able to believe what Constellation says.
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Debate heats up as Ocean City wind farm moves forward
The Maryland Department of the Environment has made a final determination to approve permits for Baltimore-based US Wind Inc. to build the first large-scale offshore wind project near Ocean City. According to MDE, 'The proposed construction and commissioning of the offshore wind project would not cause violations of any applicable air pollution control regulations.' The decision, issued Friday, is the latest move in a multi-year, controversial effort to bring the plan to fruition. U.S. Wind has proposed 114 turbines that would be about 11 miles from shore at their closest, according to documents filed by the company with the Maryland Public Service Commission. The project would deliver 1,710 megawatts with turbines about 10 miles from Ocean City, according to its Maryland PSC application. The build-out would occur in several phases, with the first turbines intended for operation in 2028, according to the commission document. Opponents of the project, who include Ocean City Mayor Richard Meehan, argue that the wind farms could harm the environment and wildlife, degrade air quality and damage the region's tourism economy by marring the beach view. 'It is unconscionable to believe that the Maryland Department of Environment is ignoring pre-established permitting deadlines and fundamentally ignoring every shred of feedback offered by those who will be directly involved if this poorly conceived and potentially disastrous offshore wind project is allowed to move forward,' Meehan said in a statement Friday, following the MDE decision. 'The entire economy of our coastal resort town is dependent on tourism, our eco system, and commercial fishing, all of which will be significantly impacted if hundreds of these giant eyesores are constructed 10 miles from our beaches.' In October, the town of Ocean City filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging the wind farm that is closest to beginning construction along its shoreline. The ongoing suit alleges that the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management violated federal law when it approved the construction plan for US Wind's project. There are several groups circulating petitions against the wind farms, including nonprofit Save Ocean City and Indian River High School Engineering Students Class Of 2025 & 2026. Ocean City resident Spencer Rowe said he is concerned about the environmental impact of the wind farms. 'In my experience, more and more people are starting to question the proposed wind farms, although many of them are not motivated enough to sign [petitions],' Rowe said in an email to The Baltimore Sun. 'Traveling [around] town, one sees a lot of bumper stickers and restaurant signs displaying opposition messages. I talk to a lot of people about this, and nearly everyone is opposed now that they are learning more about all the detrimental impacts, both to the offshore environment and to our priceless viewshed.' Maryland has made significant investments in wind energy in recent years. The US Wind project is projected to create 13,000 jobs and net more than $6 billion in economic benefits. For fiscal year 2025 alone, $5 million was allocated to build a wind energy workforce and supply chain. Under state law, Maryland must reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. The state also aims to develop up to 8,500 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2031. Despite some expressing environmental and economic concerns, others continue to support the development of offshore wind farms. In a letter to The Sun, Berlin resident Larry Austin Ryan outlined 10 reasons why people should not sign a petition recently sponsored by the Town of Ocean City to push wind turbines more than 26 miles off Maryland's coast. 'Wind power is the fastest growing energy industry in the world! Jobs in wind turbine technology are also one of the fastest growing areas of employment in living wage jobs,' Ryan wrote. 'The Ocean City area is guaranteed 60 jobs and there will be many more jobs in Salisbury and Baltimore in the manufacture and distribution of wind turbines and their components. With the addition of this many jobs, more visitors will have more discretionary income allowing them to enjoy the fruits of their labor in Ocean City.' 'Electricity produced by offshore wind will supply more than 750,000 homes and businesses on the Eastern shore,' Ryan added. 'It will ensure a large-scale improvement of our already inadequate electrical grid here on the shore and avoid a surcharge to Maryland ratepayers for having to import electricity from out of state. This will allow continued economic growth for all the shore in the 21 st century.' A petition to review MDE's decision must be filed by July 14 in the circuit court for the county where the permit application indicates the proposed activity will occur. 'The permits were issued after a thorough review of US Wind's application and following a public process,' an MDE spokesperson said in an email Saturday. 'Due to significant public interest, the Department of the Environment extended the time for the public to provide input. All feedback was carefully reviewed.' Aside from public debate, US Wind's project is facing legal and political hurdles. On May 5, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown sued President Donald Trump's administration for freezing the development of offshore wind energy projects. Brown and a coalition of 17 attorneys general allege that the executive order threatens states' abilities to secure affordable energy sources, meet the increasing electricity demand, meet climate goals and disrupt billions of dollars in infrastructure and supply chain investments, according to the lawsuit. 'The president's actions violate federal law and will make it harder for us to help Marylanders keep the money they make. One of the best strategies for driving down utility costs is ramping up clean energy production through wind power,' Gov. Wes Moore said in a statement at the time. 'At a moment when families are feeling the strain of high energy bills, we should focus on cutting red tape, not halting critical infrastructure projects.' Have a news tip? Contact Todd Karpovich at tkarpovich@ or on X as @ToddKarpovich.
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Business Standard
07-06-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
US Supreme Court gives DOGE access to sensitive social security data
The decision allows DOGE, once led by Elon Musk, full access to personal data in the Social Security database while the case moves forward on appeal Bloomberg By Greg Stohr and Zoe Tillman The US Supreme Court gave the Department of Government Efficiency access to sensitive Social Security information, lifting restrictions a judge said were needed to protect the privacy of millions of Americans. Over three dissents, the high court on Friday granted a Trump administration request to put US District Judge Ellen Lipton Hollander's order on hold. The decision lets DOGE, the office once led by Elon Musk, have full access to personally identifiable information in the Social Security Administration database while the case proceeds on appeal. 'Under the present circumstances, SSA may proceed to afford members of the SSA DOGE Team access to the agency records in question in order for those members to do their work,' the court said in a three-paragraph order, which didn't lay out the majority's reasoning. The court's three liberals — Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson — dissented. In an opinion joined by Sotomayor, Jackson said the court was 'creating grave privacy risks for millions of Americans.' In a separate decision, the high court said a different judge went too far by requiring DOGE officials to testify and produce records to a watchdog group. The order came in a case about whether the DOGE office is covered by US public records laws. The Supreme Court liberals dissented from that decision as well. The cases are the first Supreme Court clashes involving DOGE, the office set up by President Donald Trump to weed out what he says is wasteful spending across the federal government. Sensitive Data Musk recently left his formal government position within the administration and is now publicly feuding with Trump. In the SSA case, US Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the Supreme Court that 'the government cannot eliminate waste and fraud if district courts bar the very agency personnel with expertise and the designated mission of curtailing such waste and fraud from performing their jobs.' The disputed data includes Social Security numbers, addresses, birth and marriage certificates, tax and earnings records, employment history, and bank and credit card information. Hollander said two labor unions and an advocacy group for retired people were likely to succeed on their claims that unfettered access would violate the 1974 Privacy Act. 'For some 90 years, SSA has been guided by the foundational principle of an expectation of privacy with respect to its records,' the Baltimore-based judge wrote. 'This case exposes a wide fissure in the foundation.' Hollander's order allowed DOGE team members access to anonymized data only after completing the type of training and background checks required for SSA employees. She said DOGE employees could get 'discrete, particularized and non-anonymized' information if they submitted a written statement explaining why the information was needed and why anonymous data was insufficient. Hollander also ordered people affiliated with DOGE to delete data they've already acquired. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals kept Hollander's order in place on a 9-6 vote. In her dissent, Jackson said the lower courts had crafted an order 'tailored to the needs of the moment.' She said the Supreme Court had 'truly lost its moorings' by granting the government's request without requiring it to show that it was suffering any harm. 'The 'urgency' underlying the government's stay application is the mere fact that it cannot be bothered to wait for the litigation process to play out before proceeding as it wishes,' she wrote. Democracy Forward, the legal-advocacy group that represented the challengers, said it was a 'sad day for our democracy and a scary day for millions of people.' White House spokesperson Liz Huston hailed the decision. 'The Supreme Court allowing the Trump administration to carry out commonsense efforts to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse and modernize government information systems is a huge victory for the rule of law,' she said in an email. The case is Social Security Administration v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO, 24A1063. DOGE Records The Supreme Court's action in the records case blocks a Washington federal judge's order for the administration to answer questions, produce documents and make DOGE administrator Amy Gleason available to testify at a deposition. US District Judge Christopher Cooper had authorized the group that brought the public records case, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, to gather evidence about DOGE's activities as it fights with the Justice Department over the office's legal status. The Supreme Court majority faulted Cooper for requiring the government to disclose internal DOGE recommendations and to say whether those suggestions were followed. 'Separation of powers concerns counsel judicial deference and restraint in the context of discovery regarding internal executive branch communications,' the Supreme Court said in its two-page order. Sotomayor, Kagan and Jackson didn't explain their reasons for dissenting. CREW has argued that the DOGE Service should be considered an agency under the federal Freedom of Information Act, which empowers the public to see a wide range of government records. The Trump administration disagrees, arguing that DOGE plays a purely advisory role within the White House and is exempt from the law. Musk served as the public face of DOGE, but government lawyers stressed in court that Gleason is the formal head of the DOGE office. CREW's underlying public records request seeks to pry loose new information about the Tesla Inc. chief executive's role in dramatic cuts to federal spending and the workforce. The lawsuit also aims to reveal more broadly what DOGE-affiliated staff have been doing and the structure of that effort across US agencies. The case is US DOGE Service v. CREW, 24A1122.
