The concept of block-based computer programming seems simple enough: drag and drop puzzle-like pieces together instead of typing out long strings of complex commands to get a computer to comply. What is more commonly known as block coding has become an exciting and accessible way to introduce kids to the basics of computer science. But two Howard County Public School colleagues at Running Brook Elementary School discovered that block coding could go beyond introductory games: these interlockin

Meghan Rodo is like many 20-year-olds, leading a busy life with friends and her boyfriend, and planning for the day she can move out of her parents’ Reisterstown home and in with a roommate. A few months away from her 21st birthday, Meghan is cherishing a sense of stability and freedom that she and her parents found elusive just a few years ago. A long-sought diagnosis of autism at age 15 finally put pieces of a scattered puzzle together. “Meg’s life had been one big research project,” said N

The distinctively delicious cookies that our customers know and love as Grandma Taylor’s Gourmet Dipping Cookies first originated over 70 years ago. Our family recipe made its first public introduction after I asked my grandmother to teach me her baking secrets. I knew her Mondel Bread was special. After learning her recipe, I decided to see if I could sell it at a few local festivals and markets. I had some experience in the baking business—my first job was for Dunkin’ Donuts when I was 16—but

BARCS – Then and Now Jennifer Brause would walk into the deplorable conditions at her new job and be reminded of the work ahead of her: To help save the lives of those who could not help themselves. The cages at the Baltimore City Municipal Animal Shelter had holes big enough for dogs to wedge their heads through and become stuck. Roaches crawled across the ripped-up floors, which were also missing necessary drain covers. That was in 2005. Baltimore City’s underfunded and understaffed Bureau

Sgt. First Class Kaaba Jones stood securely at the top of a 100-foot rappelling tower at Camp Fretterd, a military reservation in Reisterstown, securing one young anxious Civil Air Patrol cadet after another to ropes that would get them back down to solid ground. As a breeze and the ascension of more cadets up the steep sets of stairs swayed the wooden tower just slightly, Jones gave firm instructions on how to control the speed of the cadets’ descent down the perfectly vertical wall. With

Aaron Michael Manko was remembered on Monday, June 27, as a loved and creative young man who died as he had lived—in the words of his father, “fast and furious.” Manko died last week in a violent car crash on Hanover Pike in Upperco. He was 25. “He did not fear death, therefore, he had no fear,” said his father, Dr. Gary Manko, who practices at in Reisterstown. Hundreds of mourners filled the Levinson Chapel at in Pikesville to share in the grief of a family who watched a young man in a “stea

Residents near Cherry Hill Road in Reisterstown are anticipating that a decade of traffic woes will stop once a long-awaited bridge extending the road to Owings Mills Boulevard opens next month. The $8 million road extension and bridge is tentatively scheduled to open on July 19 after a year of uninterrupted construction. “Oh, we’re happy, but we would’ve liked to have had it years ago,” said Charlie Smith, who has lived on nearby Kingsbury Road for 47 years. “But it’s better than not at all.”

Madeline Eastwood delivered what the crowd of family and friends had waited more than an hour for—her dad flinching and groaning in pain as she deftly tore a waxing strip from just the right spot on his chest. Steve Eastwood willingly endured more than two dozen waxing strips, which removed most of his body hair on Saturday, to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS). The LLS provided support for his family when his wife, Christina, started cancer treatment in 2008. The Eastwoods reached