In order for Maryland to more easily preempt emergencies, Gov. Wes Moore issued an executive order Monday establishing what will be known as state of preparedness declarations. “The safety and security of our residents is our top priority, and this executive order empowers us to act proactively in the face of potential threats,” Moore said in a statement Tuesday. Per Moore’s new order, a state of preparedness can be declared when an impending situation is likely to disrupt the lives of Maryland residents.

Once sequestered to the desert of Las Vegas, whispered about over pay phones, and deemed to be a threat to “the integrity of” football by the NFL’s commissioner, the practice of betting on sports has escaped ostracism and emerged as a ballyhooed favorite of sports leagues and fanatics. For decades, only racetracks and Las Vegas allowed sports gambling in the U.S. Pro leagues were so wary that they refused to even place a team in “Sin City,” lest athletes get caught up in the unseemly habit.

For Señora Bernal, the best of times quickly became the worst of times. The best of times was June 2023, when her then-first grader’s report card showed an overall “proficient” reading grade. MCPS believed her son was succeeding. The worst of times was October 2023, when her now-second grader’s standardized test results indicated poor reading fluency and comprehension. The exam showed her son was failing.

“We stand with Israel”; “Baltimore stands with Israel.” These are just two of the signs I’ve begun noticing during my almost daily walks around my neighborhood here in Pikesville. Just a few days ago, an American and Israeli flag meshed together as one was put up by a neighbor whose home sits across mine. It’s a clear showing that the highly charged emotions from the overseas Israel and Palestine conflict aren’t only taking root through mass protests in our capitals and cities across America, but have seeped in right here in our very own neighborhoods; places usually meant to be safe spaces of community and togetherness for all who live in them.

Two days before Zum’s roughly 200 brand-new buses would file out of their Jessup bus yard and pick up thousands of Howard County students for the first time, the transportation company was caught off guard — school system leaders had changed some of the bus routes, and some of them contained errors. Some routes that previously called for buses now needed vans. Some of the routes listed zero kids for pickup. And their new drivers, many unfamiliar with the area, wouldn’t have a chance to do a test run of the revised routes.

On a given day, the roughly 15,000 people in Maryland prison facilities might encounter trouble in a variety of forms: shoddy medical care, fears of violence, confrontations with correctional officers or unhygienic food, to name a few examples. And yet, while prisoners frequently file formal grievances with their facilities, they say those complaints are not always taken seriously.Lawmakers and advocates are increasingly optimistic those prisoners will soon have somewhere else to turn: an ombudsman’s office, which would operate as an independent wing of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, outside the confines of the prison system.

A legislative work group established to assess Maryland Higher Education Commission policies for authorizing degree programs was tasked with producing a report with recommendations by Dec. 1, but that’s not going to happen. Sen. Nancy King (D-Montgomery), a co-chair of the Program Approval Process Workgroup, said in a recent interview that a report may not be ready until January. So far no recommendations have been offered to improve the commission’s process for approving new academic programs.

 

Over the past few years, Anne Arundel County has incrementally upgraded its bus system, including launching an app that allows residents to track buses and expanding a feature that enables them to call a bus. Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman told state transportation officials at a meeting last week he was actively trying to improve transit service in the county. “There is the, ‘build it and they will come’ philosophy as opposed to, ‘well people aren’t riding it so let’s not bother to build it,’” he said.

Marylanders interested in handgun ownership still must apply for handgun qualification licenses despite Tuesday’s federal court decision deeming them unconstitutional. According to the Maryland State Police, which is charged with registering firearms owners, the portion of the 2013 Gun Safety Act requiring handgun qualification licenses will remain in effect until the federal court issues a mandate for the licensing process to cease.

A Maryland police union says a new law meant to allow access to officer disciplinary records should not apply to those created before the law took effect. Release of the records would be unfair to an officer, the union says, because he was guaranteed confidentiality when the investigation into his conduct took place. The argument is among those from Montgomery County Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 35 in a case widely seen as an early test of Anton’s Law, passed by state lawmakers in 2021 to ensure public access to complaints of police misconduct.