News man covers the county
In a world of disappearing small-town newspapers, a new source of news has emerged in Howard County. The Howard Courier is an independent, web-based news platform that endeavors to report on local happenings with integrity and without bias. Founded by Ricardo Whitaker, the Courier is less than a year old and has already provided Howard County and surrounding areas with information on... READ MORE
Football pro turns college coach
Football fans may be familiar with the name Jimmy Johnson, the former coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Now another Jimmie Johnson (no relation), a famous name in the NFL ranks, has come to Baltimore. Last year, the athletic department at Morgan State University hired Johnson as an assistant football coach. “I started playing football in Augusta, Georgia at age six. At 58, I’m still a... READ MORE
Gail Kohn makes connections
Capitol Hill resident Gail Kohn has always been somewhat of a matchmaker. Throughout her 40-year career in the aging field, she’s found ways to connect people — with a neighbor, plumber, mayor and even a future spouse. “I make a lot of connections,” said Kohn, who recently named her new limited liability corporation Linking Partners LLC as a nod to her superpower. “I know lots... READ MORE
Dolly Parton’s books for kids
Every month, when Eris Doweary’s 4-year-old daughter sees a book arrive in the mail, she “gets excited,” her mother said. “She’ll yell at me, ‘Mommy, I got a new book!’” said the D.C. resident. “It’s a treat for her when the books come into the house.” Doweary’s daughter, who has been receiving free books from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library since she... READ MORE
Archaeologist uncovers shipwrecks
From the thousands of miles of waterways that crisscross Maryland to the murky depths of the Chesapeake Bay, Dr. Susan Langley knows an underwater museum waits to be discovered. There, she excavates the past, carefully studying each site and artifact, piecing together stories that time and tide have sought to erase. For more than three decades, Langley has served as Maryland’s State... READ MORE
Growing a nonprofit for kids
Just before the pandemic in 2020, Columbia resident Steven Porter was reading a book that mentioned a Baltimore organization called Threads — a nonprofit that connects at-risk high school students with adult mentors. It sounded to Porter like a success story of community involvement in an increasingly isolated society. Recently retired, he and his wife, Susan, had been... READ MORE
Local twins are soup-meisters
Keith and Kevin Mullaney started a soup business 25 years ago and are still stirring, selling and serving fresh, hot soup together. The identical twin brothers, 60, grew up in Mayfield in Northeast Baltimore. They started their company in California but came home in 2007 to be closer to their mother. In 2008, they opened a shop in Mount Vernon, and ever since, Soup’s On has... READ MORE
Descendants carry the torch
The theme for this year’s Black History Month is “African Americans and Labor,” highlighting how African Americans helped build the United States — voluntarily and involuntarily. Both free and enslaved African Americans constructed the U.S. Capitol, the White House and the Smithsonian Institution’s first building, the “Castle.” They laid out the first streets of the... READ MORE
Producer’s second chance at life
One Friday morning 12 years ago, Robert Neal Marshall paced back and forth in his living room in Columbia, Maryland, feeling that something was wrong with his body. Phone in hand, he wondered if he should call 911. Despite that hesitation, he made the call. “That Friday for me, on August 3 of 2013, was like any other day. I had no idea that that could have been my last day on this... READ MORE
A life of music and adventure
When Betty Scott retired after nearly 40 years of teaching music to Prince George’s County elementary school students, she didn’t stop molding young musicians. Instead, she began a new career launching and directing the Artists in Residence (AIR) program at Strathmore Music Center in North Bethesda, Maryland. Even now, 20 years later at age 81, she welcomes a new cohort of young... READ MORE
