Towson University has a new four-legged friend on campus: A yet-to-be-named chocolate Labrador retriever puppy who will work as a comfort dog with the university’s police department. The dog will “offer emotional support and companionship as part of TU’s community-oriented approach to public safety,” the university said in a news release. The dog’s handler, Jafar Taru, is a corporal with the Towson University Police Department. He has another dog at home, a bichon. The new puppy is the first one Taru has worked with professionally, though.

 

Coming out of the pandemic, students in Maryland and across the nation, had a hard time getting back into the habit of being in school buildings, with classroom rules and the need to communicate with friends and teachers in person. The result was that the percentage of schools with consistently high numbers of absent students almost doubled.

 

Less than a week after a Maryland Senate committee reviewed a proposal that would require four-year public colleges and universities to guarantee admission for first-year students, a House subcommittee discussed the same issue Monday during an overall review of higher education in the state. One of the topics before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education and Economic Development focused on direct admission, which allows high school students to go through a less rigorous college application process without formally applying to an institution.

The Angelos family has reached an agreement to sell the Orioles to private equity billionaire David Rubenstein, three sources with direct knowledge of the deal told The Baltimore Sun. Rubenstein, who has a signed agreement, according to one of the sources, is set to take over as the team’s control person as part of the deal, which values the team at $1.725 billion. The Angelos family has owned the team since Peter Angelos bought it for $173 million in 1993.

Only one Maryland county is electing an executive in 2024. That’s in Cecil County, where voters choose their executives in presidential election years instead of in gubernatorial years like their counterparts across the state. This year, Cecil County Executive Danielle Hornberger (R) is battling for a second term. But depending on the outcome of this year’s U.S. Senate election, there could be a special election in Maryland for a county executive position in early 2025.

On Wednesday, top lawmakers in Annapolis will provide their answer to the outcry for public safety when it comes to crimes committed by children and unveil their plans to build more accountability into the juvenile justice system. Though youths commit a fraction of overall crime, including crimes of violence, state and local officials have spent months weighing criticisms over steps they’ve taken in recent years to prioritize rehabilitation over incarceration.

Gov. Wes Moore has proposed competitive grant funding of up to $10 million annually for communities across the state with high rates of child poverty, but those eligible will first need to establish comprehensive local plans for combating generational poverty. The governor has proposed $15 million for the first year of the grant program in the state’s $63 billion budget and is planning to bolster the grant funding with private and philanthropic investments.

If you’re planning a trip from Charm City to New York City, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has a tip for how to get there: High-speed rail. “That’s the only way you can go Baltimore-to-New York is by Amtrak Acela — if you drive or do anything else, I don’t know what’s wrong with your mind,” Scott said, as a shiny blue Acela speedster hummed idly behind him.

Allegany County officials said Thursday they will pursue the creation of a board to study ways to invest nearly $1 million received so far from Maryland’s opioid settlement. Maryland was awarded $400 million as a result of a class action lawsuit litigated in 2022 against several pharmaceutical companies stemming from the opioid crisis. The funding is being distributed to counties across Maryland for use in battling the crisis.

In the past year, there has been a rise in the brazenness with which our young people commit crimes. How can you tell? You can’t. The Maryland General Assembly essentially legalized crime last year by passing a law that prevents children under the age of 13 from being “charged with a crime” unless the offense was violent. This must be reversed. The legislature also made it difficult or even unlawful for law enforcement officials to conduct interviews with children who were accused of committing crimes by “prohibiting the interrogation of a child by a law enforcement officer until the child has consulted with a certain attorney and a notice has been provided to the child’s parents, guardian, or custodian” when a child has been taken into custody — yet another way in which lawmakers restricted the authority of law enforcement. It too, must be changed.