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Dempsey’s is now SuperBook.The Orioles last month closed Dempsey’s Brew Pub, a restaurant staple at Oriole Park at Camden Yards since 2012, and will replace it with SuperBook Bar & Restaurant. A worker was painting the “SuperBook” sign outside of the B&O Warehouse Tuesday.AdvertisementSuperBook Sports bills itself as “the world’s largest sportsbook,” but the themed restaurant at the Baltimore ballpark will not operate as a sportsbook. It will be a “sports lounge,” per an Orioles news release last year. Patrons will be able to place wagers on their mobile device, just as they can elsewhere in the state; online sports wagering was launched in November.SuperBook Bar & Restaurant will replace Dempsey’s Brew Pub at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. It will open by Opening Day. (Hayes Gardner / Baltimore Sun)“The sports lounge will be highlighted by a social atmosphere, including food and beverages, as well as a comfortable seating [area] for fans to enjoy the game and place live sports bets,” the press release from August said. “It will feature the amenities and viewing experience of a live sportsbook with the ability to place bets from the palm of your hand.”AdvertisementWhile the lounge was announced in August, it was not yet officially known where it would be located. It will be open for opening day, an Orioles spokesperson confirmed to The Baltimore Sun on Tuesday.There have been a few changes at Camden Yards this offseason. The club in January replaced its longtime concession operator with a new company and, in February, took down the “The Sun” sign, which had been a prominent feature of the park since it opened in 1992.This article will be updated.

A bill before the Anne Arundel County Council that would require special event sponsors to obtain certain permits to verify their events have adequate public safety resources received pushback at Monday night’s meeting from event promoters who argued the bill was vague and unnecessary.The bill, sponsored by Council Chair Pete Smith, a Severn Democrat, on behalf of County Executive Steuart Pittman, would create a process for special event organizers to follow as they develop safety and welfare plans for their events. It lays out requirements like having enough bathrooms, refreshments and trash cans and recycling bins for each event.AdvertisementWhile representatives from the fire department, police department and emergency management office said they’ve rarely seen a major emergency occur at a special event in the county, the goal of the bill is to be proactive and prevent an issue before it happens, said Office of Emergency Management Director Preeti Emrick. The bill took about one and a half to two years to develop, she added.“One only had to look at recent events involving vehicle rammings, shootings, excessive capacities, etc. to understand it is not if but for when [emergencies] happen,” Emrick said.AdvertisementWithout providing specfic examples, Pittman’s Chief Strategy Officer Pete Baron further explained that county events have had issues that resulted in public safety personnel scrambling to address them in the past.“The county currently does not have a process in place to address public safety and resource needs of special events. This has resulted in instances where events have had inadequate crowd control, sanitation facilities, security, traffic management or first aid coverage,” Baron said.Smith said he’d received emails from residents who may be affected by the bill complaining there weren’t enough opportunities for members of the public to share their input as the legislation was developed.While drafts of the bill were shared with stakeholders back in early 2022, according to Baron, and the Office of Emergency Management has met with event promoters, more than a dozen residents affiliated with county events came to testify against the bill. Many said they felt the language of the legislation was too open-ended and allowed for too much interpretation by county staff.Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds Vice President Martin Hardy explained that the lack of specificity in the legislation could poorly impact the fair’s prospects.“The main source of funding for the fair comes from the rentals that we’re able to put on so our concerns around the bill as it stands today are the vague wordings around things such an inadequate toilet facilities, inadequate refreshments,” Hardy said. Those things are raising concerns with our renters and they’re not quite sure if they’re going to be returning next year if this bill passes because they can’t really forecast what it’s going to take to rectify inadequate toilet facilities, for instance.”Managers of the state’s beloved Renaissance Festival, hosted in Crownsville, said they felt they should be exempt from this bill as they’ve proven for decades they can safely host their event. The festival employs 1,300 people annually and has been located in Anne Arundel since 1985, said Jules Smith, co-owner of the Maryland Renaissance Festival.“We already work closely with fire, police, public works, health and any other department or agency that approaches us,” Smith said, adding that a burden of this bill is it allows the county to choose to deny the permit or cancel the event if they see fit which would be problematic for those whose income depends on the festival.AdvertisementOne of those festival workers is Susangrace DuBose, an Annapolis resident and public school teacher.Maryland Policy & PoliticsWeeklyKeep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials.“It would not be an exaggeration to say that my incredible life in Annapolis is because I own a business at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. Rapunzel’s Hair Braiding hires and trains local peoples from all walks of life,” DuBose said. “The money that these people make at the festival is what helps them support their lives in the great state of Maryland.”The council voted on amendments aimed at clarifying the bill language and alleviating the burden on event hosts. One amendment, sponsored by Smith would waive the $50 special event permit application fee.Democrats Allison Pickard, from Glen Burnie, Julie Hummer, from Laurel, and Lisa Rodvien, from Annapolis, said $50 seemed like a small fee for large event organizers and voted against the amendment. However, Smith and Republican Nathan Volke, from Pasadena, said that, since the legislation still considers special events gatherings of over 50 people, they thought it could be taxing.Smith, Volke and Republicans Amanda Fiedler, from Arnold, and Shannon Leadbetter, from Crofton, voted to waive the fee rendering the amendment adopted.The bill will be heard at the council’s next meeting April 3 and members are likely to continue drafting amendments to address the concerns of event hosts.Advertisement“We have two very important interests that we need to balance and one is the public safety,” Rodvien said. “On the other side, we also have a very important interest in making sure that event holders who invest a lot of time and money into their facilities, into their events, can also go forward and not feel like they are on edge.”Another bill aimed at making it easier for residents to build accessory dwelling units on their properties was amended for the third consecutive meeting and will be heard again, and likely voted on, at the April 3 meeting.

A Western Maryland craft brewery will venture east this summer.Cushwa Brewing Co., a Williamsport brewer known for its New England-style hazy IPAs, will open an outpost in Columbia, co-founder Scott Coleman told The Sun. The brewery has signed a lease to take over the former Frisco Tap House space at 6695 Dobbin Road.Advertisement“We just wanted an opportunity to expand around Maryland, to get our beer a little bit closer to the city,” Coleman said.The Columbia location will be the second taproom for the brewery. Coleman and partners Garrett Chambers and Marcus Thomas launched Cushwa Brewing Co. near the West Virginia border in 2016.Advertisement“We started extremely small,” said Coleman, who worked as an engineer before helping to open the brewery. “We were three friends local to Washington County; none of us had any experience. We wanted to get some beer to the local area which didn’t exist, especially the New England-style hazy IPAs.”More than six years later, Cushwa’s tap list features a wide variety of brews, including lagers, traditional brown ales and fruited sours. The brewery releases new beers on a near-weekly basis, and Coleman said the Columbia location will have 44 taps. Customers will be able to buy four- or six-packs of beer to take home.The new spot will also serve food from Rad Pies, a pizzeria that already has a presence in Cushwa’s Williamsport taproom. In Columbia, customers will be able to order whole pies, including a Detroit-style offering that won a “best pan pizza” award at last year’s International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas.Rad Pies owner Kenneth MacFawn said the pizzeria will serve New York-style pies, too, plus sandwiches, salads and a rotating array of desserts like chocolate cookies stuffed with Nutella and “Italian hangover cake,” a lemon ricotta Bundt cake topped with whipped cream.The Western Maryland brewery will join a thriving Howard County craft beer scene, which is already home to breweries like Black Flag Brewing Co., Hysteria Brewing Co., Manor Hill Brewing and Jailbreak Brewing Co. The former Frisco Tap House recently moved to a new space on McGaw Road in Columbia, where it rebranded as Reckless Shepherd Brewpub and Entertainment.Cushwa’s Columbia taproom is slated to open in July. Brewing operations will continue to take place in Washington County — the Howard County spot is “just a Cushwa and Rad Pies-themed taproom,” Coleman said.The brewery has an eye on growth in the years to come, he added: “I think we will be looking for additional opportunities for expansion.”

A new music festival is set to heat up Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion this summer.“Summer Days,” a single-day event put on by Live Nation, will take over the live music venue at the Inner Harbor on June 24. Lucky Daye and Muni Long, both acclaimed R&B stars, will be joined by singer Joyce Wrice, rapper John Wells, who hails from Baltimore, and more.AdvertisementDaye is known for his 2021 EP “Table for Two,” which won a Grammy for Best Progressive R&B Album, and for “Candydrip,” his sophomore album released in March of last year. Long’s single “Hrs and Hrs,” released in 2021, has topped charts.Tickets for the music-packed event will go on presale Thursday, March 23, at 10 a.m. A general sale will start the following day on Ticketmaster.com.AdvertisementA little over a week before the “Summer Days” festival, rock band 3 Doors Down will embark on its “Away From The Sun Anniversary Tour” (named for its sophomore album) in Baltimore, with an opening show at Pier Six Pavilion on June 14.“We still have so much more life to give our fans,” Brad Arnold, the band’s lead singer and drummer, said in a statement. Presale for the show began this morning and will be followed by a general sale on March 24 at 10 a.m.

Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby closed a nearly yearlong saga over a legal-defense fund formed in his name by complying with a Board of Ethics order.The order, issued in May after the board found Mosby violated city law, directed the council president to accept no payments from the fund and to ask organizers to stop raising money on his behalf. Mosby was also ordered to request from the fund a list of all donors and donations for the ethics board.AdvertisementA statement released Tuesday by the Board of Ethics said the board was “confident” Mosby had complied with the order “within the time frame set by the board.”Last month, a Baltimore Circuit Court judge upheld the ethics board’s findings that Mosby violated city ethics law by indirectly soliciting donations for the fund and by failing to disclose its existence on his ethics filing in 2022, which covered activity in 2021. AdvertisementThat ruling kicked off a 30-day window for the council president to appeal the decision to a higher court; he chose not to take the case further. After that, the Board of Ethics gave Mosby five days to comply or face penalties of up to $1,000 a day. Monday was the deadline for compliance.The fund was established for the legal defense of the council president and also his wife, former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, as federal authorities investigated their financial dealings. Nick Mosby was not charged, but Marilyn Mosby is facing charges of perjury and making false statements related to early withdrawals from her city retirement account and the purchase of two Florida houses. Her trial has been delayed until at least the fall.Marilyn Mosby lost her 2022 reelection bid and left office in January. Last week, Nick Mosby announced he will seek a second four-year term as council president in 2024. They are Democrats.The Board of Ethics found that Nick Mosby raised money for the fund indirectly. Both direct and indirect fundraising are prohibited by the city’s ethics ordinance. Records showed the council president was aware of the fund’s existence by at least August 2021, when the board raised concerns with him about the fundraising effort.The board also found that Mosby should have disclosed the trust on his annual ethics filing with the city. Such filings require candidates and city employees to disclose entities with which they do business. Mosby’s attorney, Robert Dashiell, had argued the trust should not be considered a business entity.Judge Lawrence Fletcher-Hill sided with the Board of Ethics on both of those findings.“He could have formally disclaimed that membership interest,” Fletcher-Hill said of Nick Mosby. “He could have said, ‘I do not want to be a beneficiary. I do not want to receive any proceeds from this trust.’ But he did not do that. In the absence of having done that, I find that he had an ownership in the trust.”Maryland Policy & PoliticsWeeklyKeep up to date with Maryland politics, elections and important decisions made by federal, state and local government officials.Fletcher-Hill sided against the Board of Ethics regarding its third finding: that the council president accepted gifts from controlled donors. Those are people who seek to do business with certain government officials or entities.AdvertisementAccording to the Board of Ethics, the Mosby’s legal defense fund received $5,000, its largest individual contribution, in August 2021 from the “resident agent” for a contractor that is a city-certified minority- or woman-owned business. The business was a subcontractor on a deal considered by the city’s spending board in 2020, the board reported.It also received a $100 donation from the executive director of a nonprofit organization that was awarded a multi-thousand dollar grant by the city in March 2022.The ruling did not name those donors or further identify their connections to the city, but the board found both to be “controlled donors” under city ethics law, which bars elected officials from receiving contributions from such donors, solicited or otherwise.The list of donors Nick Mosby was ordered to request would be the first public accounting of donations to the legal-defense fund. Such funds are not covered by campaign finance, laws which required detailed reporting of donors to campaign committees.Prominent supporters and community leaders encouraged contributions to the fund, posting information about it on Facebook and appearing at news conferences to promote it. According to the Board of Ethics ruling, the fund received $14,352 in donations as of a year ago from 135 individual donors.The list has not yet been supplied to the Board of Ethics. The board’s order requires only that Nick Mosby request the list from the legal-defense fund’s trustee.

For all the attention given in recent days to the “Will they or won’t they?” speculation over the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump to the latest claim of liberal “wokeness” in some educational venue, you can bet that Americans will not spend nearly enough time educating themselves on the latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The tragedy of this is readily apparent. It is another reminder of the old saw about how to boil a frog: If you drop it in boiling water, it will jump out to save itself. But stick it in a pot of lukewarm water and light a fire underneath, and the frog won’t realize its disastrous circumstances until it’s too late. For those who have not bothered to read about the IPCC report that came out on Monday, here’s a quick summary: We are the frog. The earth is the pot. And we have about a decade left before the big catastrophe.Let’s be clear: We’re not here for the political finger-pointing. There simply isn’t time for that. And if we did engage in it, we’d have to acknowledge that neither of the political parties is free from blame. A lot of Republicans may be in science denial mode, but President Joe Biden’s recent decision to approve the Willow Project in northern Alaska suggests insufficient concern about the additional 9.2 million metric tons of carbon that oil drilling project is anticipated to unleash annually upon the world. Those new jobs must sure be important if they are worth dooming so many other human beings around the planet — including many fellow Americans. But maybe that’s just what the frogs who have noticed we’re sitting in a hot pot are saying.AdvertisementWhat leading climate scientists have concluded is that a drastic transformation is needed if we are to prevent catastrophic global warming within the coming decade. That means getting off fossil fuels a lot faster than is currently happening. Without that, the world will see the feared 2.7-degree Fahrenheit temperature increase in the first half of the 2030s, a point at which it will be much more difficult to address the resulting flooding, droughts, heat waves and other weather disasters, lost crops and pandemics that will be unleashed. A lot of nations agreed to try to meet this target in the Paris climate agreement eight years ago. But continued greenhouse gas emissions have demonstrated energy policy changes to date have been woefully insufficient.Does that sound alarmist? It should. This is science. These are facts. Rising global temperatures are already well studied. And yet we continue to have idiotic squabbling about the price of a gallon of gasoline or the fear that we’ll lose gas stoves or, to bring the matter painfully close to home, the possibility that offshore wind turbines might be viewed from the beach in Ocean City. That’s right. A resort community that could easily be overwhelmed by sea level rise and worsening hurricanes has elected leaders chiefly worried about whether a wind farm is visible from 15 miles away. And this is only possible if people are in complete denial, if they see climate change as some kind of wonky liberal plot to destroy Big Oil — or whatever conspiracy theory one cares to imagine.AdvertisementWhat the IPCC report strongly suggests is that we can no longer afford ignorance or blame-shifting. Worried about how much China contributes? That’s certainly fair, but it can’t keep Western nations from taking more aggressive action. Otherwise, we guarantee only that all of us frogs get boiled together. Nor can this be about red states or blue states. In Annapolis, Maryland lawmakers should speed the state toward California’s electric vehicle standards. But then, so should the Biden administration. So should Texas for that matter. Or are we going to decide that some places are worth saving and some are not? What will it take to convince the naysayers? Maybe that’s the real tragedy here — that nations, states, communities and individuals can’t put their short-term self-interests aside and act in their own long-term (if a decade even fits that description) collective good.Can we cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 and stop carbon loading the atmosphere altogether by 2050 as the IPCC recommends? The answer is yes, certainly. But the question really appears to be: Will we? And that answer looks far more grim.Baltimore Sun editorial writers offer opinions and analysis on news and issues relevant to readers. They operate separately from the newsroom.

A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Baltimore Police Department from Demetric Simon, the man who had a BB gun planted on him after convicted ex-police Sgt. Wayne Jenkins ran him over with a car.According to an opinion filed Saturday, Judge Julie R. Rubin found Simon’s lawsuit was time barred, meaning the statute of limitations had passed, and that the police department enjoyed a claim of “sovereign immunity” under Maryland law. At the time the lawsuit was filed, the police department was a state agency, and state agencies are generally immune to civil lawsuits, Rubin wrote. The lawsuit was dismissed with prejudice, meaning the same claims cannot be re-filed.AdvertisementBaltimore residents overwhelmingly voted in favor of the city having control of its police department last November, and the process of what that looks like is ongoing.Simon, through his attorneys Michael Wein and Lawrence Greenberg, was suing a cadre of current and former officers, as well as the department, for a violation of his civil and Constitutional rights among other claims. He was seeking $17 million in damages.AdvertisementThere is no dispute as to what happened to Simon. In March 2014, Jenkins, the leader of the now-defunct Gun Trace Task Force, saw Simon, and believing he was dealing drugs, chased Simon down with his car and ran him over in Northeast Baltimore. But Jenkins could not find any drugs.Enter ex-BPD Sgt. Keith Gladstone.Working with two other officers, his subordinates Carmine Vignola and Robert Hankard, Gladstone got a BB gun and drove out to the scene where he dropped the gun. Simon served 317 days in jail on the bogus gun charges, and in a letter to the court last year, called the whole experience “dehumanizing.”Vignola and Gladstone would later lie to the grand jury about their roles in the incident.Vignola, Hankard and Gladstone have been convicted for their roles in the gun-planting scheme.In sentencing Gladstone, Judge Catherine C. Blake called his conduct “a very egregious abuse of trust.”Jenkins was sentenced to 25 years in prison for a host of other crimes.AdvertisementBreaking News AlertsAs it happensBe informed of breaking news as it happens and notified about other don't-miss content with our free news alerts.Rubin wrote that Simon’s lawsuit should have been brought earlier, and that the three-year window for civil rights claims began ticking in 2015, when he was released from custody.“His release date is the latest possible date on which he had actual notice and knowledge that a criminal proceeding had been instituted against him without probable cause,” Rubin wrote.Simon’s lawyers had previously argued his claim for damages began in March 2019, when federal prosecutors sent him a letter that said he was a “victim of Officer Gladstone and others.”The city’s lawyers have been able to get other lawsuits involving the Gun Trace Task Force dismissed under the statute of limitations.A lawsuit against former Baltimore detective Daniel Hersl was dismissed in 2020 because the misconduct in question happened in 2007, and when the plaintiff was released from custody in 2008, a judge determined the countdown clock should have begun then.Hersl had a reputation on the streets of Baltimore as an allegedly abusive cop even before the Gun Trace Task Force came under investigation by federal prosecutors. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison in 2018 for his role in the task force’s schemes to rob people, deal drugs and steal overtime.AdvertisementThis story may update.

Lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly weighed dozens of education-related legislation this session ahead of Monday’s deadline for the two chambers to pass bills to each other.Bills passed to either the House or Senate before the cutoff, referred to as “crossover day,” face fewer hurdles to becoming law during the remaining 90 days of the session.AdvertisementHere’s how some of the bills related to K-12 public education in Maryland have fared through the session.One of the biggest education issues in front of lawmakers this year centers on funding the state’s ambitious reform plan for public K-12 schools, called the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future.AdvertisementGov. Wes Moore kicked off the session in January with a proposal committing an additional $500 million in funding for the reform plan, which is set to inject billions of dollars annually into the state’s public schools over the next decade. House delegates on Friday advanced a $62.5 billion state budget plan boosting that amount to $900 million.Negotiations are ongoing between the Senate and House, leaving the specifics unsettled for the time being. Other facets of the budget that could prove to be sticking points for lawmakers include funding for the state’s school choice program called Broadening Options and Opportunities for Students Today, or BOOST. The program provides public financing for students from low-income households to attend private schools in Maryland.Moore’s budget proposed reducing BOOST funding by $2 million in 2024. A different version of the state’s budget plan being advanced in the Senate would restore that funding.Another notable funding bill this session sought to alter the terms of the Built To Learn Act of 2021, which increased annual funding for school construction projects throughout the state by about $125 million. The legislation would have given school systems more flexibility to use the funds for smaller renovations, but it has since been withdrawn by sponsor Sen. Katie Fry Hester, who represents portions of Howard and Montgomery counties.Although curricula decisions in Maryland have historically fallen to local school systems, lawmakers are considering a change this year that would give the state superintendent more power over school boards when it comes to educational content.The bill originally concentrated on updating the Maryland State Department of Education’s comprehensive health education framework but underwent significant revisions in recent months.[ Maryland General Assembly bill tracker: What happened with key legislation ]House Bill 119 is currently poised to give the state superintendent authority to withhold 10% of a school system’s funding from the state if discrepancies over curriculum, courses of study, resource material or other teaching aids are not resolved within 30 days. If the discrepancy is not resolved within 90 days, another 10% may be withheld.The bill, which has passed to the opposite chamber, drew opposition from the Maryland Association of Boards of Education even before it underwent changes. Its consideration comes at a time when school boards, parents and educators are feuding nationwide over how to teach children about a variety of topics ranging from gender identity, race, sexuality and U.S. history.AdvertisementOther bills that sought to require curriculum on financial literacy and the Sept. 11, 2011, terrorist attacks have not been passed to opposite chambers.Delegates have passed a bill to the Senate to consider an update to Maryland criminal law that would expand the definition of a “person in a position of authority” within the context of sexual offenses with a minor.Del. Sara Love, a Montgomery County Democrat and one of the bill’s sponsors, said in February the legislation closes a loophole that excludes adults who often work closely with children outside traditional educational settings.A bill seeking to close the loophole on corporal punishment in schools has also passed to the Senate. House Bill 185, introduced by Del. Eric Ebersole of Baltimore County, would order the Maryland Department of Education to eliminate any use of corporal punishment in schools and would explicitly prohibit it in nonpublic schools and registered family child care homes. It would bar the State Board of Education from certifying any noncollegiate educational institution that lacks a policy banning the practice.Ebersole said in February that he was inspired to sponsor the bill by his wife, Tara Ebersole, who is writing a novel partially inspired by her early experiences using the form of punishment as a teacher in Tennessee in the 1980s.AdvertisementA House bill that sought to protect children by requiring tech companies to design their products with children’s well-being in mind is now in front of the Senate for consideration.Parents were also the subject of several bills this session — with some seeking to bolster their rights or to hold them accountable when their children misbehave.The Evening SunDailyGet your evening news in your e-mail inbox. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com.Delegates have passed along a version of House Bill 294, which would place the burden of proof on local school boards during due-process hearings for children with disabilities or the provision of a free appropriate public education.If approved, the bill could have significant benefits for families who seek specialized services for students with disabilities, such as speech or physical therapy. Although parents who believe their students are not receiving the services they need can file a complaint and take their case to a judge, Maryland parents rarely prevail in these legal battles. The bill would give them more clout in such disputes.Meanwhile, the Parent and Guardian Accountability Act, introduced by Del. Robert Long, has not passed to the Senate. The bill would require a primary caretaker to participate in counseling with their student after receiving notice of repeated violent or disruptive behavior on school premises or during school-related activities. Parents who flout this proposed law could face court-ordered community service. Similar legislation was introduced in 2020 and again in 2022.A bill introduced in the House this session would protect employees of any public, private or parochial school in some cases from civil liability in a personal injury or property damage dispute concerning a student.AdvertisementLawmakers sent House Bill 137 to the Senate, where it awaits committee referral. Del. Robin Grammer, a Baltimore County Republican sponsoring the bill, said in February that the state needs to find ways to stabilize educational settings at a time when educators say they’re seeing discipline issues among students. Grammer said some educators have shared with him that they’re afraid to intervene in physical altercations between students for fear of getting sued.Another bill regarding teachers that made it to the opposite chamber involves the right to collectively bargain over class sizes. If passed, it could could in theory increase the number of teachers a local school system must employ, as well as the number of classrooms needed, if lawmakers decide to approve it without change.Baltimore Sun reporters Hannah Gaskill and Sam Janesch contributed to this article.

Dear Sis,I see you arriving to work an hour early. I see you asking your manager to lead higher-visibility projects to raise your profile. I see you applying for senior-level positions only to get rejected time and time again. I see you sis, because you are one of the “onlys,” the only Black woman in the room.AdvertisementI hear you sis — another microaggression? What was said this time? You use your hands too much when you talk? Did someone refer to your luscious, beautiful hair as “ghetto braids,” or did you overhear everyone talking about a BBQ that you weren’t invited to?I think about you all the time, sis. The typical headlines that cycle through the news, “Black women leaders are more ambitious but less supported at work” or “Women are advancing in the workplace, but women of color still lag behind” won’t let me forget about you because you are always on my mind.AdvertisementI know you enjoy what you do and like “most of” the people you work with; however, you wonder how to stay ahead and not let corporate America leave you behind. My advice is to start with the most important point, which is: Do your job and do it well. Act as if you are already the VP or C-level executive and exude executive presence in every meeting. What’s executive presence? Executive presence is your ability to inspire and lead, especially in stressful situations. Executive presence is your knowledge, attitude, behavior and appearance. You may need to shift your priorities and not always be your authentic self to remain in corporate America.If you decide to stay in corporate America, that’s the raw truth, sis.Sis, don’t wait for sponsorship to knock at your door, go find it. Keep in mind that sponsorship (someone who can help to advance your career) is different for mentorship (someone who helps to guide your career). Sponsorship starts with being noticed by your executive team. Don’t wait for the higher-visibility projects to come. Rather, demonstrate your intelligence by asking thoughtful, revenue-generating and mission-driven questions.I know what you’re thinking: How do I know what to ask if I’m not involved in the discussions? You must do what you have always done, make a way. Reach out to other departments to understand their challenges and goals, read the annual reports, attend optional meetings (especially investor meetings), and get more comfortable with financial reporting. Sis, this may feel like a second job, but if you want to be an executive in corporate America, it is required.Maybe there is another way. Consider this headline, “Black women are worn out from discrimination in Corporate America. They’re leaving to launch their own businesses, creating a hole for talent across industries.” Sis, were you tired of being the scapegoat when something went wrong or having to explain why you were laid-off this time? Did you forget that Black people are the last to be hired and first to be fired? I bet you were too trusting and thought you were safe.Stay strong, sis, because surviving and recognizing those obstacles brought you to where you are today — saying goodbye to corporate America and starting your own business, which brings new challenges such as getting access to capital, making the right connections and building business equity. However, I am confident you will do everything to increase your financial knowledge, expand your network, improve your data analytics, marketing and digital advertising skills. These skills and your lifelong learner mindset will take you from sole proprietorship to corporate CEO.You got this sis, because you are my reflection in the mirror. You are my shadow. You are the voice in my head and what my gut tells me when something doesn’t feel right. You are the love in my heart and the spirit that guides my path. I love you sis because you are me, and I am you.Rockelle M. Morris (rockelle@flentroymorrisgroup.com) is CEO and founder of the Flentroy Morris Group LLC, based in College Park, Maryland.

Members of an organization whose members have doxxed a University of Maryland, Baltimore County student and her father are suing university staff members. In a Friday filing, the group says its First Amendment rights were violated after it was barred by a federal court from protesting in several areas of the country earlier this year, which caused UMBC to prohibit the group from reserving campus spaces for demonstrations.Doxxing occurs when someone’s personal information is published without permission, often with the intent of causing harm.AdvertisementThe group has held demonstrations at UMBC since late last year, handing out flyers featuring the UMBC student and her father while displaying signs and U.S. and New Federal State of China flags. The group has also made many online posts about the student, her father and their family, sometimes taking pictures and videos of their residences. A federal injunction was put in place by a Connecticut U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge on Jan. 13 and bars the New Federal State of China from engaging in protesting, picketing, parading or distributing “harassing material at any time” in the vicinity of several locations, including in Baltimore.The New Federal State of China is an organization created by exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui and conservative strategist Steve Bannon, who advised former President Donald Trump. The group believes the student’s father is a member of the Chinese Communist Party, which the New Federal State of China opposes.AdvertisementPlaintiffs Jian Wyatt, Hao Li, Yudong Zhang and Li Chen are suing University of Maryland President Darryll Pines, UMBC Campus Life Operations Director Joel Dewyer, UMBC Chief of Police Bruce Perry, the UMBC student and her father. The plaintiffs seek a jury trial, as well as punitive and compensatory damages.The plaintiffs claim they have demonstrated at UMBC since early December and that Dewyer knew the subject of the peaceful protests concerned a UMBC student and her father. They paid to reserve the UMBC Commons area by Dewyer’s recommendation, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs argue it is their “duty” to share their distaste toward the UMBC student, her father and the Chinese Communist Party.The plaintiffs also argue that the Jan. 13 injunction does not pertain to them. The injunction centered around Wengui’s finances but states that anyone “in active concert or participation” with him is affected, including the New Federal State of China organization.The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (Algerina Perna / Baltimore Sun)The plaintiffs said they applied for another permit to protest in January but were told they could no longer hold signs, distribute flyers or stream their events online. They said they were asked to conduct their activities at a distance from the UMBC Commons. The lawsuit states that on Feb. 3, police officers arrived at one of the protests and told the plaintiffs “to cease all demonstrations and leave the Commons.” The plaintiffs were then told they could “exercise” their First Amendment rights in a different, more secluded campus area. During this time, the plaintiffs argue, Dewyer had granted the plaintiffs’ their requested permit, which cost $950. The plaintiffs said they were told they could resume protesting at the Commons Feb. 6.The Evening SunDailyGet your evening news in your e-mail inbox. Get all the top news and sports from the baltimoresun.com.The plaintiffs’ allege the UMBC student they doxxed “made demand to the administration of the university to stop the plaintiffs and the other protestors,” according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs said on Feb. 7, two U.S. marshals appeared and delivered the Jan. 13 federal injunction during another protest at the Commons. Afterward, the plaintiffs said Perry and other officers ordered the protesters to leave immediately.Protesters resumed later that afternoon, when UMBC police officers again told plaintiffs to cease their protests, threatening arrest if they did not comply. The plaintiffs argue that the officers were not federal enforcement agents. The plaintiffs’ permit to protest was revoked that evening.AdvertisementPlaintiffs said they returned to the UMBC Commons Feb. 8 and were asked to leave by UMBC police officers, who were present prior to their arrival.UMBC did not respond to request for comment Monday.Baltimore Sun reporter Lee O. Sanderlin contributed to this article.