MediterraneanGrocery Wholesalers in Baltimore, MD

TOWSON, Md. — Apple store employees in a Baltimore suburb voted to unionize by a nearly 2-to-1 margin Saturday, a union said, joining a growing push across U.S. retail, service and tech industries to organize for greater workplace protections.

The Apple retail workers in Towson, Maryland, voted 65-33 to seek entry into the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union's announcement said. The vote could not immediately be confirmed with the National Labor Relations Board, which would have to certify the outcome. An NLRB spokesperson referred initial queries about the vote to the board's regional office, which was closed late Saturday.

Apple declined to comment on Saturday's development, company spokesperson Josh Lipton told The Associated Press by phone.

Union organizing in a variety of fields has gained momentum recently after decades of decline in U.S. union membership. Organizers have worked to establish unions at companies including Amazon, Starbucks, outdoors retailer REI and Google parent company Alphabet.

The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers and the Apple employees who wanted to join said they had sent Apple CEO Tim Cook notice last month that they were seeking to organize a union. The statement said their driving motivation was to seek "rights we do not currently have." It added that the workers had recently organized in the Coalition of Organized Retail Employees, or CORE.

"I applaud the courage displayed by CORE members at the Apple store in Towson for achieving this historic victory," said IAM International President Robert Martinez Jr. in the statement. "They made a huge sacrifice for thousands of Apple employees across the nation who had all eyes on this election."

Martinez called on Apple to respect the election results and to let the unionizing employees fast-track efforts to secure a contract at the Towson location.

It remained unclear what steps would follow the vote in Towson. Labor experts say it's common for employers to drag out the bargaining process in an effort to take the wind out of union campaigns.

The IAM bills itself as one of the largest and most diverse industrial trade unions in North America, representing approximately 600,000 active and retired members in the aerospace, defense, airlines, railroad, transit, healthcare, automotive, and other industries.

The Apple store unionization comes against a backdrop of other labor organizing nationwide — some of them rebuffed.

Amazon workers at a warehouse in New York City voted to unionize in April, the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the retail giant's history. However, workers at another Amazon warehouse on Staten Island overwhelmingly rejected a union bid last month. Meanwhile, Starbucks workers at dozens of U.S. stores have voted to unionize in recent months, after two of the coffee chain's stores in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize late last year.

Many unionization efforts have been led by young workers in their 20s and even in their teens. A group of Google engineers and other workers formed the Alphabet Workers Union last year, which represents around 800 Google employees and is run by five people who are under 35.

Media Contacts:

Deidre McCabe, Director of Communications, 410-767-3536

Chase Cook, Deputy Director for Media Relations, 410-767-8649

Baltimore, MD—Maryland Department of Health (MDH) Secretary Dennis R. Schrader and representatives from the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) and Johns Hopkins Medicine today visited the State Center Vaccination, Testing, and Treatment Site (300 W. Preston Street) to highlight Maryland’s expansion of COVID-19 Test To Treat provider infrastructure and successful vaccination efforts. The State Center site offers one-stop COVID-19 services, including vaccinations, testing, and therapeutics, at no charge to visitors.

The State Center is operated jointly by MDH, UMMC, and Johns Hopkins Medicine and is a critical component of Governor Larry Hogan’s COVIDReady Maryland initiative to keep Maryland families safe.

Representatives from the Maryland Department of Health, The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for Pandemic Preparedness, University of Maryland Medical Center, and Johns Hopkins Medicine toured the State Center Vaccination, Testing, and Treatment Site on Friday.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic evolved, Governor Hogan, the Maryland Department of Health, and our partners throughout the state worked, and continue to work, day-in and day-out in a coordinated manner to proactively stay in the fight against this still deadly virus,” said MDH Secretary Dennis R. Schrader. “State Center is an excellent example of our adapting to meet the current needs of the pandemic and is helping Marylanders stay COVID Ready.”

State Center began offering on-site Test to Treat services in May to enhance and expand existing testing and vaccination efforts. Pictured here (left to right) are Lisa Hoemeke, P.A., Bnita Bhusal, Glorimar Rivera, Ruth Woldesenbet, MDH Secretary Dennis R. Schrader, Dr. Matthew Hepburn, Dr. Charles Callahan, Dr. Mindy Kantsiper, and Dr. David Marcozzi.

Through the Test to Treat program, which launched nationally in March, people can get tested and – if they are positive and treatments are appropriate for them – receive a prescription from a health care provider (either on-site or through telehealth) and have their prescription filled all at one location. Maryland now has more than 85 Test to Treat locations that can be found by visiting the testing locator at covidTEST.maryland.gov.

People can also be tested and treated by their own health care providers, healthcare clinics in their community, and telehealth providers who can appropriately prescribe the oral antivirals to locations where the medicines are distributed.

Dr. Matthew Hepburn speaks after a tour of the State Center Vaccination, Testing, and Treatment Site on Friday. Accompanying him are (left to right) Dr. David Marcozzi, Dr. Charles Callahan, Secretary Dennis R. Schrader, and Dr. Melinda Kantsiper.

“We are here today with a team from the White House to say thank you,” said Dr. Matthew Hepburn, Senior Advisor, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. “This operation is extraordinarily impressive and unique. We can take lessons from visits like this, and that can inform our national response.”

For more information on COVID-19 resources, visitcovidLINK.maryland.gov.

To schedule a COVID -19 vaccination appointment, visitcovidvax.maryland.gov or call the GoVAX Call Center at 1-855-MD-GOVAX.

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The Maryland Department of Health is dedicated to protecting and improving the health and safety of all Marylanders through disease prevention, access to care, quality management and community engagement.

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A severe thunderstorm watch has been issued for 12 Maryland counties, plus Baltimore city, Thursday afternoon and evening.

MARYLAND — Thursday evening could be rough across half of Maryland with quarter-size hail, heavy lightning and 65 mph winds possible.

A severe thunderstorm watch is in effect until midnight for 12 Maryland counties: Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Cecil, Charles, Frederick, Harford, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and Washington counties, plus the city of Baltimore.

Cities in the watch area include: Aberdeen, Annapolis, Arnold, Bel Air, Bethesda, Bowie, Camp Springs, Catonsville, College Park, Columbia, Dundalk, Edgewood, Eldersburg, Elkton, Ellicott City, Essex, Frederick, Gaithersburg, Germantown, Glen Burnie, Greenbelt, Hagerstown, Havre De Grace, Joppatowne, Laurel, Odenton, Pikesville, Rockville, Severn, Severna Park, Silver Spring, Suitland-Silver Hill, Towson and Westminster.

Storms with up to 65 mph wind gusts and possible hail will move across the Baltimore region, the National Weather Service said. There is also a tornado risk, prompting the service to issue a hazardous weather outlook for parts of Maryland.

Isolated showers and storms will become more numerous into this evening. Some may become severe with damaging wind gusts, large hail, or even an isolated tornado. Stay weather aware, the weather service said.

Storms will be at peak intensity across parts of New York, central and eastern Pennsylvania and northern portions of Maryland and Virginia Thursday evening, AccuWeather said.

"People in these areas should be prepared for rapidly changing weather conditions where fast-moving and strengthening storms can bring frequent lightning strikes, damaging winds, large hail and flash flooding," AccuWeather meteorologists say.

Here's the latest Maryland forecast:

Thursday: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 86. South wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Thursday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 2am. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 72. South wind 5 to 8 mph becoming calm in the evening. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Friday: Sunny, with a high near 94. West wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Friday Night: Clear, with a low around 65. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.

Saturday: Sunny, with a high near 77. Northwest wind 11 to 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph.

Saturday Night: Clear, with a low around 56.

Sunday: Sunny, with a high near 80.

Sunday Night: Mostly clear, with a low around 58.

Monday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 82.

Monday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 65.

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The strawberry supermoon lights up the Maryland sky this week. Here's when to see it.

MARYLAND — Get ready to see a spectacular sight in the sky in this week! This week's full moon will appear bigger and brighter than usual — and worth getting outside to check out.

It's a supermoon, and it rises around 8 p.m. Eastern Time over Maryland. The June full moon is also known as the full strawberry moon because this is the time of year that strawberries ripen.

Weather permitting in Maryland, it'll be quite a treat. The AccuWeather forecast for Tuesday calls for temperatures in the low 80s with heavy thunderstorms and a breeze. The evening should be mainly clear and humid.

The National Weather Service calls for showers and thunderstorms as well as partly sunny skies both days.

Look toward the southeast just after sunset, and watch as the moon rises over the horizon. "There," The Old Farmer's Almanac wrote, "it will appear large and golden-hued."This is the stuff lasting childhood memories are made of.

Anyone who hasn't stretched out on a blanket and made up stories about kids around the block playing with a beach ball or some other fantasy has been cheated out of one of the greatest pleasures of childhood.

So by all means, make the supermoon watch party a family outing. If you miss this one or the weather doesn't cooperate, here's some good news: This is the first of three consecutive full moons that qualify as a supermoon.

Supermoon isn't an astronomical term, but one coined by astrologer Richard Nolle in 1979 to explain the effect of perigee — the moon's closest approach to Earth in a given orbit — when it occurs during a full moon.

No one paid much attention to Nolle's definition until 2011, "when the full moon arrived at an exceptionally close perigee, coming within 126 miles (203 kilometers) of its closest possible approach to Earth," Joe Rao wrote for Space.com.

The heavens over Maryland hold another delight this month: a rare planetary alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn that won't occur again until August 2040, according to AccuWeather. You'll be able to see the parade of planets through the end of the month, but the best date to mark is before 5 a.m. local time on June 24, when a crescent moon joins the planetary parade.

Also, with the summer solstice later this month comes a chance to see rare noctilucent clouds, sometimes called "electric blue clouds" because of their color, according to AccuWeather.

And who knows? You may see a meteor or two. There's no shower expected, but meteors are always flying, and several shooting stars an hour are usually visible on any given night, according to NASA.

The next meteor shower — the Delta Aquariids — doesn't start until July 12. It runs through Aug. 2, peaking on July 28-29. Mark your calendars for that one, because a new moon means excellent viewing conditions for this shower, which produces about 20 meteors an hour at the peak.

Consider it a warmup act for summer's main shooting star event, the Perseids, famous for their fireballs. That shower runs July 17-Aug. 24, producing up to 60 shooting stars per hour at the Aug. 12-13 peak.

Experts urge residents to report the invasive spotted lanternfly as Maryland expands its quarantine. Here's how you can stop the pest.

MARYLAND — Spotted lanternflies have already hatched in Maryland, but there's still time to stop them in their tracks before they can fly.

A quarantine order first issued by the state secretary of agriculture three years ago for Harford and Cecil counties is still in effect, but has been expanded this year to also include: Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Kent, Montgomery and Washington counties, as well as Baltimore City, the Maryland Department of Agriculture said.

This quarantine took effect in January, and restricts moving materials that might contain the spotted lanternfly in any of its life stages, including egg masses, nymphs, and adults. Residents are asked to check backpacks, bicycles, trash cans, lumber and other material before moving it.

"While they are not known to pose any serious human or animal health concern, the spotted lanternfly is a destructive invasive species that has negatively impacted agriculture operations throughout the mid-Atlantic region," said Secretary Joe Bartenfelder in a release. "MDA has taken steps to expand the quarantine zone out of an abundance of caution as we remain vigilant in controlling the spread of this destructive insect."

The Maryland Extension Service and the Maryland Department of Agriculture urge residents to report lanternfly sightings and take steps to reduce the spread of the invasive sap-feeding plant pests.

Spotted lanternfly is considered a major threat to Maryland's agricultural industries, affecting grapes, peaches, apples, walnut, hickory, oaks, maples and pines.

The pest also feeds on basil, horseradish, blueberries, cherries and cucumbers.

One approach the Department of Agriculture is using to slow the spread of the spotted lanternfly is to issue quarantines. A quarantine requires businesses and government agencies to acquire permits to move certain items known to harbor the destructive insect, such as landscaping, remodeling and construction materials.

"For residents, we urge everyone to check their personal vehicles for hitchhiking lanternflies and to be cautious when moving any materials that could potentially contain the insects, such as cut wood, pallets, trailers, stone and boxes," Sumpter said.

Native to China, lanternflies first appeared on the eastern U.S. coast in 2014 in Pennsylvania, most likely arriving on a shipment of goods from Asia, according to Dr. Michael Raupp, insect specialist with the University of Maryland Extension, also known as "The Bug Guy" for his popular "Bug of the Week" blog. The invasive species was first reported in Maryland in 2018.

As of August 2021, there are declared infestations and isolated sightings of the spotted lanternfly throughout the mid-Atlantic region. "I have heard they may be as far south now as South Carolina," Raupp said.

Lanternflies damage host plants in two ways, Raupp said. Adults deposit eggs on a host plant and when the nymphs emerge, they insert their sucking beaks into leaves and stems and feed on the tissue, robbing the plant of valuable nutrients. During feeding they produce large quantities of waste, called "honeydew" because of its rich sugar content. The honeydew serves as a base for growth of a sooty mold that impairs photosynthesis and disfigures fruit and leaves.

"Lanternflies are lethal to vineyards," noted Raupp. "While an infestation won't kill trees, they can become a real nuisance. The honeydew, with its high sugar content, attracts stinging insects like wasps and honeybees."

Backyard or garden infestations can be minimized, Raupp said, with ready-to-use natural pesticides such as pyrethrum, permitted under National Organic Standards rules, when used on lanternflies in early stages of development. In later stages, more potent — and more toxic — chemicals become necessary. Large-scale infestations require the services of professional arborists, he says.

To report a sighting of a spotted lanternfly or any egg masses, contact the Maryland Department of Agriculture at (410) 841-5920 or [email protected].

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