Members of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee picked one of their own Thursday to fill a vacancy in the House of Delegates. The central committee voted to forward the name of Teresa Saavedra Woorman, a 32-year-old aide to Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) with a wealth of Annapolis experience, to Gov. Wes Moore (D) for approval. Woorman prevailed over eight other Democrats who had applied for the open House seat in District 16.

Whether the federal government will pay 90% or 100% of the new Francis Scott Key Bridge — a difference that is expected to be roughly $170 million — was at the center of a discussion Wednesday in a U.S. Senate hearing. President Joe Biden, a Democrat who is up for reelection this fall, has pledged full federal support and Maryland’s congressional legislators introduced a bill in April that would completely fund the Baltimore bridge with federal money.

Marylanders should assume that their personal health care information was included in a recent wide-reaching data breach and should take steps to protect their identity and health information as a precaution, the attorney general’s office said Thursday. Change Healthcare, the nation’s biggest electronic data clearinghouse and a unit of UnitedHealth, was the victim of a ransomware attack in February that “interrupted operations for thousands of doctor’s offices, hospitals and pharmacies,” according to the press release.

New, healthier food options, like locally grown produce and more cultural dishes, are coming to Howard County Public Schools. In response to concerns about the taste, freshness and healthiness of school meals, the Horizon Foundation, a health philanthropy, launched a countywide survey and brought the results to the school system. From there, an ongoing conversation and partnership formed between Horizon and the school system to establish initial steps to tackle the food concerns. The plan was announced Thursday morning at Guilford Park High School.

 

There are now just over 1.68 million Marylanders enrolled in Medicaid, the government health program for low-income residents, an increase of more than 262,000 people from before the coronavirus pandemic began, new health data shows. The Maryland Department of Health, like other states, was required by federal officials to stop removing people from the Medicaid rolls during the public health emergency but began the effort to figure out who remained eligible a year ago.

When the Pentagon wanted a giant underwater robot, it turned to a little-known factory on the Chesapeake Bay with a history of doing new things. You may have seen pictures of the results online — a sleek, gray sub called Manta Ray. This $50 million unmanned underwater vehicle was developed by Northrop Grumman over four years and constructed at its plant outside Annapolis. That’s a source of pride for the people who work there.

The discourse around the Baltimore City Public School System naturally tends to focus on the district’s most acute challenges, such as absenteeism, with 67% of high schoolers chronically absent, or test scores, which show a large majority of students lack proficiency in math and English. Many of the city’s education policy proposals and reforms are, rightfully, shaped by these challenges.

More people know the cost of losing someone to a drug overdose than you might realize. More than 40 percent of Americans say they know someone who died from an overdose, and 13 percent say such deaths have disrupted their lives, according to a study this year from the RAND Corporation. This research lays to rest the misconception that there’s anything rare or isolated about the impact of the opioid overdose crisis.

Gen Xers can’t stop talking about our childhoods spent running wild in the streets. We were out there, “Goonies”-like, doing hits from rusty garden hoses and climbing jagged jungle gyms as our Keds melted on the asphalt, our parents unsure of where we were until dinner or the streetlights came on. That independence continued into our teens, though we switched to running the halls of various malls, holding court at the food court and trying on the bounty of sweaters at Gap.

Kids these days seem to be doing everything but studying: starting up tech companies, leading assorted extracurriculars and, of course, protesting on the lawn. This may sound like a classic “back in my day” spiel from an out-of-touch old man, but it’s actually my firsthand experience. I recently graduated from Harvard University, and was struck by how little time my peers and I spent hitting the books to earn our diplomas.