Using one of Maryland’s toll bridges and tunnels could become more expensive. The state has not seen an increase in tolls in more than a decade. Joseph Sagal, executive director of the Maryland Transportation Authority, said that era, which included two toll reductions, may be at an end within the next four years. “We started looking at the last time tolls were raised, that was nearly a decade ago,” Sagal said at a meeting of the Transportation Revenue and Infrastructure Needs Commission in Annapolis.

The Worcester County Commissioners are seeking answers to a variety of financial questions now that they have a detailed school system budget to review. The commissioners last week sent a letter to the Worcester County Board of Education asking for clarification on a number of items in the school system’s budget. Commissioner Chip Bertino, president of the board, said the county simply needed to gain a more accurate understanding of the Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) budget and policies.

Maryland’s Work Zone Safety Task Force met Thursday to discuss potential improvements to safety at road construction sites. Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller established the task force after the crash in March that killed six construction workers on the Baltimore Beltway. Since that crash on March 22, there have been 325 construction zone accidents. The total so far this year is 804.

 

 

Sagamore Spirit, the “grain-to-glass” rye whiskey business founded by Under Armour executive chairman Kevin Plank, has sold a majority stake of the company to an Italian firm best known for producing an amaretto liqueur. The company, Illva Saronno Holding S.p.A. — the parent company of Disaronno liqueur — also will relocate its North American headquarters to Baltimore Peninsula as it steps into the driver’s seat of the local whiskey brand, according to a Thursday news release.

West Virginia University’s pending decision to slash formal language learning programs on its campus is harmful to the economy, culture, and people of the Mountain State. But the harm extends beyond West Virginia students, teachers, workers, and entrepreneurs. In the context of decreasing state funding and increasing state meddling in higher education, the proposed cuts send a signal that language learning — without which all learning, not to mention commercial and cultural communication — is expendable.

At Wednesday’s event, Moore was asked how he planned to tackle educational disparities across jurisdictions in the state. His answer: the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, historic legislation funneling billions of dollars into the state’s public schools over the next decade. “We cannot be afraid to say that these disparities that we have in the state of Maryland — not just when it comes to education, but with every single facet — that for many of them, they are generational and long-standing,” Moore said.

Howard County’s school bus fiasco exemplifies a decline of services for county residents due to funding gaps and questionable budget management. At a recent meeting, Superintendent Michael J. Martirano said that for years, the school system had some 90 bus driver vacancies consistently unfilled. What the public witnessed since the first day of school is the consequence of the failure to address this accumulated vacancy burden.

An editorial in The Baltimore Sun should be exactly the wrong place to pay tribute to John Samuel Waters Jr., the breaker of societal norms, the maker of cult films, the counter-culture icon. We are simply too square, too bound by convention, too bourgeois for the task. Much like Waters’ infamous 1968 16-millimeter comedy, “Eat Your Makeup,” (about a deranged nanny who forces young people to “model themselves to death”) you wouldn’t expect to see such things around here.

A report from the Capital Area Food Bank’s annual Hunger Report found that 32% of people in the Washington, D.C. region have experienced food insecurity in the past year. Food insecurity can look like not being able to afford groceries, skipping meals so other family members can eat, relying on food banks and food stamps. The annual report includes Montgomery and Prince George’s County, D.C., Alexandria, Virginias well as Fairfax, Arlington and Prince William counties.

 

Baltimore’s Board of Estimates is scheduled to consider Richard Worley’s new employment agreement Wednesday, a document that details how much severance he’d be owed if city legislators don’t confirm him as the city’s next police commissioner the next day. An agenda for the spending board’s meeting next week prices the contract at $285,000 — presumably the proposed salary for Mayor Brandon Scott’s pick to lead the Baltimore Police Department.