With increased scrutiny on "influencer culture"—the phenomenon of social media stars providing endorsements for all kinds of products, events and services—there is the potential for government regulators to crack down if and when the trend enters the political arena. So says Roberto Cavazos, Executive in Residence in the University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business and a veteran economic analyst with extensive experience in financial, data and health care fraud.

It seems that even during these uncertain times, when you get a chance to celebrate—you do it! That is exactly what the Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance-Jacob France Institute at the University of Baltimore recently did—they celebrated their 20th anniversary with one of the most compelling week of events.

Traditionally BNIA-JFI offers a one-day series of community-oriented workshops to delve deeper into Baltimore’s data and the annual Vital Signs report. But this year, one day wasn’t going to address the magnitude issues being covered so the event has expanded to become “Baltimore Data Week.” Over the course of a week, the workshops helped city neighborhoods access data for their communities and helped policy leaders better understand the nuances of each neighborhood, a little better.

In an Oct. 25, 2019 post on Forbes.com contributing author John Byrne wrote a piece titled “Profs Plan A Rival To The Harvard Business Review,” that prominently featured Kalyan Singhal, professor of operations management in the Merrick School of Business and UB’s Doris E. and the Robert V. McCurdy Chair in Business, for his new project that will rival Harvard Business Review.

Before the Maryland legislature adjourned early due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan proposed cutting income taxes for retirees. Before considering what more we need to do to reduce Maryland income taxes for this class of taxpayers, let us look at what we are already doing. First, Maryland does not tax Social Security benefits. This is in stark contrast to the fact that 13 states that do tax Social Security benefits.