The family of Henrietta Lacks agreed Monday to settle a lawsuit against Thermo Fisher Scientific, a Massachusetts-based biotechnology company that sold products derived from the Baltimore County resident’s cells, according to civil rights attorney Ben Crump. The terms of the settlement are confidential, Crump said in a statement shortly before midnight Monday.

Close to 35,000 Maryland residents lost access to Medicaid as the state returned to checking eligibility for the public health insurance program, after a COVID-era requirement to keep recipients continuously enrolled expired May 31. Most people — 71% — lost the safety net because of procedural problems, such as failing to file forms or responding to requests for information too late. They are among millions of others who are losing Medicaid coverage, meant for low-income families and individuals, nationwide.

Tommie Broadwater Jr., the late “godfather” of Prince George’s County whose grip on power endured long after his political star had faded, exited public life on Monday as he had entered it nearly 50 years ago: making history. His casket flanked by police in dress uniform, Broadwater lay in repose at the county’s Upper Marlboro offices — a first for a state senator — signaling his impact on the county he’d helped transform over his 81 years.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s administration is considering two potential paths to redevelop Security Square Mall: one that retains the half-century-old mall, another that demolishes it. Either way, experts say, public officials and private developers have to decide — and residents and business owners want to know — whom will the multimillion-dollar project benefit?

The Chesapeake Bay has no rich culture of solo sailing. Sure, there are exceptions. But it’s a body of water where it’s easy to run aground, easy to go for a yacht club race and easy to party with friends on a day sail. “I know people who have sailed their whole lives and have never gone south of Solomons Island,” said Matt Rutherford, an Annapolis sailor and explorer who was the first to sail solo around the Americas in 2012.

The volume of Montgomery County families asking to opt their elementary students out of classroom discussions on LGBTQ+ inclusive content became too overwhelming for schools to manage, the district alleged in legal documents. But MCPS cannot determine how many families are opting out, a district official told MoCo360 last week. Some pro-opt-out advocates say that MCPS officials have told them a different story in private meetings.

President Biden is heading into the 2024 presidential contest on firmer footing than a year ago, with his approval rating inching upward and once-doubtful Democrats falling into line behind his re-election bid, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll. Mr. Biden appears to have escaped the political danger zone he resided in last year, when nearly two-thirds of his party wanted a different nominee. Now, Democrats have broadly accepted him as their standard-bearer, even if half would prefer someone else.

 

Airport bathrooms aren’t typically worth writing home about. But BWI-Thurgood Marshall Airport’s newest restrooms feature fully-enclosed stalls for privacy, technology that indicates toilet availability and occupancy, ample room for luggage and a sleek, modern design — luxuries that might earn them the title of greatest in the nation, if they can flush away the competition in this year’s “America’s Best Restroom” contest.

 

As more states make the move to legalize marijuana, a growing number of businesses are eliminating or drastically changing their drug testing policies. “The majority still have their drug-free workplace policies in place,” said Amber Clayton, senior director of Knowledge Center Operations at the Society of Human Resources Management.

Most everyone you talk to has something to say about gun buybacks, and I’ve heard a lot of opinions lately on my quest for support to pay people for their weapons, so we can get Glocks, sawed-off shotguns and semi-automatics off the streets and out of homes. Do gun buybacks work? While I am not a researcher or criminologist, I tell everyone who asks me on my shoe-leather fundraising campaign: …