For the first time in nearly nine years, Allegany County’s health officer has a medical degree. County officials on Tuesday announced the hire of Dr. Junie Delizo. “Following a nationwide search,” Delizo was appointed to the position, they said via press release. “Dr. Delizo brings over 25 years of public health experience to Allegany County, including expertise in epidemiology, emergency preparedness, and public health administration.”

The Baltimore County school board on Tuesday night finally closed the chapter on a redistricting process that has taken half a year to complete and moves hundreds of students to different middle schools in the central and northeast area. The board approved a map selected by a 42-person committee without making any changes.

Frederick County Councilman Mason Carter, a freshman Republican, has identified a significant problem with the county program that offers tax credits to businesses that create new jobs. Only two businesses are taking advantage of the program. That is a problem because the program was created to strengthen economic development.

 

You can find them surviving against all odds in the vacant spaces of Baltimore City. In church basements, warehouses and abandoned storefronts, they subsist on scraps and inhabit the forgotten nooks and crannies, moving from place to place in search of viable conditions. They are not Baltimore rats. They are its small theaters, existing in a liminal, unpredictable space between the city’s long-standing community theaters and its larger arts institutions.

Kylis Fagbemi and his mother had recently moved to the Brooklyn Homes community when he was killed in a barrage of gunfire last week during a block party celebrating the neighborhood in South Baltimore. At a vigil Tuesday evening in West Baltimore, those who were close with the 20-year-old remembered his good spirit and dedication to his family as others decried the circumstances that led to the shooting, which is likely the most widespread act of violence in Baltimore history.

A Baltimore City historical preservation commission will address the now controversial exterior gas pressure regulators that were being installed outside Federal Hill homes. The Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation on Tuesday is holding its first hearing in more than a year on Baltimore Gas and Electric’s controversial outdoor installation of gas pressure regulators at city homes.

What mixture of despair, desperation and thwarted pride would make one or more shooters fire wildly at dozens of innocent people — kids mostly — enjoying a holiday block party? How does an annual summer celebration go from pony rides and face painting to a mass shooting? In a chronically violent city, last week’s bloodshed in South Baltimore was unusually disturbing.

Gov Wes Moore (D) is standing by his recent appointments to a powerful state commission that regulates hospital costs — despite questions about whether they are legally eligible to serve. The issue was raised when Moore named two high-profile appointees to the Health Services Cost Review Commission: Nicki McCann, vice president of provider/payer transformation for the Johns Hopkins Health System, and former Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein, who currently serves as vice dean at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

 

The portraits of a recent former governor and his wife will soon take their places among their peers. Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and his wife, retired District Court Judge Catherine Curran O’Malley, haven’t lived in the governor’s mansion since 2015. Their portraits are absent from both the State House and the mansion.

Montgomery County is one of the most diverse areas in the country. Recognizing this fact, the Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) has been working to create an educational environment that includes and embraces previously marginalized groups by reflecting their diversity in its curriculum, staffing, and culture. Students do best when they feel connected to their schools and know they belong.