As local election boards work around the clock to recruit and train workers before early voting starts this week, some Maryland counties are facing pressure to hire more Republican election judges. Elections officials across the state told Capital News Service they are still working through the challenge of hiring an equal number of Republican and Democratic election judges, who administer the vote and then count ballots.
How structurally sound are the more than 50-year-old spans of the Bay Bridge? According to an inspection report obtained by WUSA9, pretty good. However, there are some significant issues with a part of the bridge meant to prevent collisions. WUSA9 obtained a copy of the 2023 Safety inspection report through the Maryland Public Information Act. The Baltimore Sun had originally obtained a copy of the reports.
For nearly two decades, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts functioned like the proverbial well-oiled clock. In recent years, that machine and its relationship with city leaders have fallen apart. Year after year, the quasi-governmental event-planning organization founded in 2002 by former Baltimore Mayor Martin O’Malley mounted Artscape and other successful festivals that attracted more visitors every year. Year after year, BOPA operated in the black.
For three long nights last week, Alexis Geddes sat by her daughter’s hospital bed, staring at the monitors tracking the amount of oxygen in little Alma’s bloodstream. Doctors at Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson had warned Geddes they would need to transfer the 3-year-old to the pediatric intensive care unit if her lungs did not improve. For weeks, Geddes had heard stories swirling around their Rodgers Forge neighborhood of children with pneumonia.
At Downtown Baltimore Child Care, 3-year-old Jaylen Robinson emphatically pronounces the letter “O” four times, waving a black-and-white alphabet tile in the air and placing it to spell the word “octopus.” His classmate Layla, also 3, marches down the stairs from the dramatic play area in a bright red fire hat. Normally, the center charges $1,800 a month, but Jaylen attends for free through a state-funded prekindergarten expansion grant and a separate, state-funded child care scholarship, in addition to a teacher’s discount that his mom earns for working at the school.
A group of West Baltimore tenants seeking to hold their landlords and property manager accountable for failing to have a rental license will be able to take their case to trial next year after a judge sided with their unique legal argument. In an August ruling, Baltimore City Circuit Judge Kendra Y. Ausby allowed the case to proceed on four of five counts. One of them is a fraud and deceit claim — a somewhat rare allegation in landlord-tenant disputes due to the high bar required to prove it, legal experts who specialize in the practice area said.
After years of enduring interruptions of benefits, people in Maryland with disabilities may get relief following an agreement between the federal government and Maryland’s Department of Human Services to make public benefits more accessible. The settlement agreement, which was made public on Oct. 10, requires the DHS to take steps to ensure that people in Maryland with disabilities receive fair access to services that get funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the state’s temporary cash assistance program.
Oil prices were broadly steady on Monday, following a more than 7% drop last week on worries about demand in China, the world’s top oil importer, and an easing of concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East. Brent crude futures were up 38 cents, or 0.5%, to $73.44 a barrel at 0747 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 44 cents, or 0.6% to $69.66 a barrel.
In April, more than five tons – about the weight of a large pickup truck – of prescription medicines were collected in Maryland through the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) biannual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. On Saturday, Oct. 26, the DEA will host another Take Back Day. While this program is a good start, secure medicine disposal is a year-round need that encompasses both prescription and over-the-counter medicine. Luckily, Marylanders don’t have to wait until Oct. 26 to conveniently dispose of household medicines.
“Sometimes wars do settle things though it’s unfashionable to say so.” These words from William F. Buckley Jr. carry a poignant truth often lost in the noise of modern diplomacy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows well that wars, when waged with moral clarity, are not intended to end in compromise, but in victory. Such is the nature of Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas—a battle that cannot be concluded by half-measures or ephemeral ceasefires.