Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks announced Monday a new median beautification program led by the county’s Department of Public Works and Transportation. The program aims to revitalize medians throughout the county by planting trees, shrubs, flowers and ornamental grasses. The Woodlawn neighborhood is one of 10 designated areas in the county with eight others also in the works.

A global transportation company has moved its headquarters to downtown Frederick and is involved in the historic preservation of the building it bought. Transportation Management Services (TMS) purchased a roughly century-old building at 46 S. Market St., on the south bank of Carroll Creek, for $1.35 million. The building has been vacant for more than four decades.

 

With about $6.5 billion in new investment headed to Baltimore by 2028, plans to revamp the city’s image in the coming few years need to “go big,” veteran developer Bill Struever said on Monday. Struever’s charge was issued during a nearly four-hour forum that drew dozens of local stakeholders to debate and detail ongoing projects they say will help reinvent Baltimore and spark a transformation for generations to come.

The benefits and risks of artificial intelligence took center stage during a panel discussion at a regional technology forum last week at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. During the Maryland Tech Council Chesapeake Regional Chapter’s Emerging Industries Forum on Wednesday, panelists expressed bullish enthusiasm on how AI might become a new powerful economic engine for our region. But there was also a great deal of concern about the nature of the technology itself.

Maryland drivers are getting a respite from high fuel costs as gas stations are posting dipping fuel prices even amid the current military conflict in the Middle East. According to GasBuddy, a main source for prices and the only for station-level data, the average gasoline prices in Maryland have fallen 8 cents per gallon in the last week, averaging $3.33 per gallon as of Sunday, Oct. 15.

One patient at MedStar Harbor Hospital in South Baltimore had uncontrolled asthma. Another had chronic skin infections related to an autoimmune condition. Their diseases were different but caused the same problem. “They had a significant number of visits to the emergency room,” said Jenna Everett, a physician assistant in Harbor’s emergency department. “Getting resources for them was essential.”

A 60-mile pedestrian and cycling trail in Arkansas, an electric street sweeper in Oregon and truck parking facilities in Florida don’t appear to have much in common — let alone any similarity with a conversion of California highways to toll roads or a roundabout in Michigan. But all of the projects will be paid for by the Carbon Reduction Program, a five-year, $6.4 billion federal program to reduce the tailpipe emissions that contribute to global warming.

As students begin another schoolyear throughout the United States, a troubling trend is taking shape. Political leaders, seemingly hostile to complete and accurate history, are determined to shape lesson plans in line with their own agendas, at the expense of the truth. This summer we saw shocking commentary from Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, defending a proposed school curriculum that watered down the horrors of slavery.

The Maryland Department of Health plans to ask the Board of Public Works next week to convert 144 contractual positions to regular ones — a move the department said won’t cost the state additional money if it also eliminates some contractual positions. The Board of Public Works, the body tasked with approving how the state government spends tax dollars, is authorized to create additional positions under the Fiscal Year 2024 budget bill so long as it abolishes 1.25 full-time contractual positions per new regular position, state health department spokesman Chase Cook wrote in an email.

The Maryland Department of Health plans to ask the Board of Public Works next week to convert 144 contractual positions to regular ones — a move the department said won’t cost the state additional money if it also eliminates some contractual positions. The Board of Public Works, the body tasked with approving how the state government spends tax dollars, is authorized to create additional positions under the Fiscal Year 2024 budget bill so long as it abolishes 1.25 full-time contractual positions per new regular position, state health department spokesman Chase Cook wrote in an email.