As Maryland questions whether reproductive rights should appear in the state constitution, advocates for and against the referendum work to sway voters. The referendum will appear as Question 1 on the 2024 ballot asking voters to decide whether a right to reproductive freedom should be constitutionally guaranteed in the state of Maryland.

The cost of clearing the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge from the Patapsco River in Baltimore has risen roughly 42% since July, to more than $71 million. Maryland officials initially awarded a $50 million contract to Skanska, a Swedish construction company with a U.S. headquarters in New York, for clearing large sections of highway bridge trusses, steel girders, the main bridge deck and concrete parapets. (Photo: AP Photo/Matt Rourke via The Daily Record)

For sailors, the Francis Scott Key Bridge has always been a waypoint, marking the beginning — or the end — of journeys. It is the symbolic entrance to, and exit from, Baltimore, its waterborne threshold. Even as wreckage, it still is. Six months ago, the span collapsed as the Dali cargo ship lost power and struck a support pier. But the Key Bridge’s powerful symbolism to sailors remains.

 

With students back in the classroom, and fall and winter ahead of us, Baltimore health leaders are urging children to get vaccinated from COVID-19 and the flu. Baltimore City’s health department has the latest updated COVID-19 booster shots available for residents. “There’s a new dominant strain, and this particular vaccine is going to prevent that from being apart of your household, if you get it done today,” said Rebecca Dineen, the assistant commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department.

Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks insisted Monday that she was unaware she received improper property tax credits on two homes and pledged to pay whatever back taxes she owes as soon as possible. Her statements came one day after the revelation, first reported by CNN, that Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive, improperly took a homestead tax credit on a Prince George’s County home where she no longer lived.

The D.C. area boasts one of the largest populations of African immigrants in the U.S., leading Maryland Gov. Wes Moore to proclaim September as African Heritage Month — something that’s been celebrated for the last few years in Prince George’s County. According to the Census Bureau, the D.C. region has the fourth-largest African population in the country, though locally there’s an anecdotal belief that it’s a very undercounted segment of the population.

There isn’t much changing at the top of this list. Princeton University in New Jersey retained its spot as the best college in the country, according to the U.S. News and World Report 2025 Best Colleges Ranking. MIT came in at No. 2, followed by Harvard University, Stanford University and Yale. There’s not a lot of shifting in this year’s rankings, especially in the top 10, according to LaMont Jones, managing editor for education at U.S. News.

Forums will be held soon for candidates running for the Frederick County Board of Education and Maryland’s 6th Congressional District seat. The Frederick County alumnae chapter of the Delta Sigma Theta Inc. is scheduled to host a forum for the board candidates on Wednesday. This event is in collaboration with the League of Women Voters of Frederick County and the First Missionary Baptist Church of Frederick.

Some voters think that more needs to be done to clear up confusion after elections officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, recently mailed incorrect details about the upcoming presidential election to tens of thousands of people. “I know it’s a mistake, but it’s very insulting,” said Marta López Moersen, one of the voters impacted by the error.

The city and the owner of an apartment complex in Baltimore’s Brewers Hill that was partially evacuated due to structural problems are at odds over whether it had a rental license. A city spokesman said Monday that Axel Brewers Hill had been operating without a city rental license for nearly a year. A representative of Excelsior Communities, which bought the complex in 2021, said there’s been no lapse in its rental license.