The Maryland Department of Health on Tuesday released the results of new youth surveys on behavior and tobacco use, revealing a decrease in depression and suicidal thoughts among high school and middle school students. The percentage of high school students who responded that they felt sad or hopeless within the past year had been steadily rising since 2014. The percentage peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic at 39%.

Morgan State University is in the aquaculture business, and its Patuxent Environmental Aquatic Research Laboratory program was just awarded more than $600,000. The money will go toward aquaculture growth and to address the urban coastline climate. 8-month-old soft-shell clams, also known as steamers, reside at the Hatchery.

A portion of Maryland could feel the ground shaking Monday night as a small earthquake struck Montgomery County. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 1.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Spencerville struck just before 11:30 p.m. at a depth of 5.9 kilometers. The USGS received over a dozen responses from its citizen scientist contributors.

After a big surge in fatal crashes that claimed the lives of pedestrians in recent years, a new report from the Governor’s Highway Safety Association showed nationwide there was a more than 5% decline in such crashes in 2023 compared to 2022. But as encouraging as that sounds, the numbers are still much higher than those recorded nationwide before the pandemic, and still over 77% higher compared to 2010.

Maryland saw a statewide decline in transportation, warehousing and utility jobs in the two months following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, though it’s not yet clear exactly how many Port of Baltimore workers lost their jobs during the 11 weeks the port’s main channel was fully or partially closed. Most of the roughly 20,000 jobs at and around the port are in transportation, warehousing and utilities, and the broader sector comprises about 109,000 jobs statewide, according to the Maryland Department of Labor.

Montgomery County residents may see more duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and small apartment buildings in single-family zoned neighborhoods after the county’s planning board earlier this month unanimously approved an attainable housing initiative. The Attainable Housing Strategies project would give developers and property owners the option to build “middle housing” in areas that had decades-old zoning policies for single-family homes.

Whether it’s been an educational challenge, praise for student achievement or even questionable state legislation, Cheryl Bost has usually had a few words to say about it. But Bost, an elementary school educator for 35 years who has served since August 2018 as president of the Maryland State Education Association, won’t be heard from so much come this August. That’s because she will retire from the education profession after July 31.

 

Annapolis City Council members are raising concerns about environmental risks associated with land being considered for affordable housing on the site of the old Department of Public Works building on Spa Road. At the beginning of May, the council sought to incorporate the Public Works property into a 722-home mixed-income neighborhood envisioned in a federally approved plan to redevelop two Eastport communities.

Two state education boards set aggressive new goals Tuesday for student achievement, attracting and retaining a diverse teacher corps and reducing chronic absenteeism. It was the second time this year that the Maryland State Board of Education and the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board held a joint meeting, and members said their decision to set higher targets is intentional.

 

Anti-trans comments from Easton Town Council members over the past several weeks have unified residents to combat discrimination. At a Town Council meeting in late May, Council President Frank Gunsallus said that the town shouldn’t use taxpayer dollars to purchase new Pride flags, which he said are representative of a “socialist ideology.”