St. Mary’s County’s first school-based health centers are under construction at Spring Ridge Middle School in Lexington Park and Margaret Brent Middle School in Helen. They will launch with certain services by December 2020.

There’s not a lot of good news on the horizon, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot told a So.MD webinar, but the state is in a position to weather the pandemic-created economic downturn, and now it’s time to move some of that state money into the hands of small business owners to assure everyone recovers. Small businesses are leading the way — including pushing forward Franchot’s introduction of legislation permitting carry-out and delivery dinners to include a margarita.

Gregory Poling of the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative will lead the upcoming “Rock & Rules: American and the South China Seas” webinar Oct. 21. The Patuxent Partnership and St. Mary’s College of Maryland Center for the Study of Democracy will co-sponsor the event.