Montgomery County leaders on Monday asked the state for funds to create a residential substance use treatment center for youths, amid a fatal overdose crisis. The Montgomery County Council and County Executive Marc Elrich sent a joint letter to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore requesting an unspecified amount of state funding be used to launch the new facility. Maryland has no medical facilities that specialize in youth overdose stabilization, according to the letter.

Future educators gathered at Hood College on Tuesday to learn about introducing computing concepts as early as pre-K. In a series of sessions funded through a grant from the Maryland Center for Computing Education, participants worked to understand the concepts themselves and practiced applying them in simple lessons for young students. The conference was the first of its kind at Hood. Called “Destination Innovation,” it was tailored to current or future teachers with little to no knowledge of computing, said Jennifer Cuddapah, an education professor at Hood.

Every day, more than 650,000 children in Maryland ride to school on a school bus powered by diesel fuel. Approximately one in 10 of these children suffer from asthma — a leading cause of school absenteeism — and this asthma rate is higher among minority groups. Studies have shown that a child riding inside of a diesel school bus may be exposed to as much as 15 times the level of toxic diesel exhaust as someone riding in a car.

The Orioles will play their home opener in front of a hopeful crowd Thursday, fielding what many expect to be their best team in years. They’ll do so, however, with uncertainty looming over the club: The team’s lease with the state, which owns Oriole Park, expires at the end of this year. That lease binds the club to Baltimore, and while it’s immensely unlikely the team would actually relocate, a long-term agreement is still an essential order of business.

If Maryland is going to go big for solar energy — which it should — it’s going to have to figure out where to put the many thousands of acres of solar panel arrays needed to meet the state’s solar goals. The open spaces of the Eastern Shore or Southern or Western Maryland shouldn’t be the automatic fallback and the state shouldn’t have to give up vast acres of productive farming lands in the process, especially when so many other options like commercial rooftops, highway medians, parking lots and brownfields should be considered first (”U.S. renewable electricity surpassed coal in 2022,” March 28).

With his signature public service program for young adults on the verge of passing in the Maryland General Assembly, Gov. Wes Moore on Monday announced a cabinet member to help build out the service year effort and other initiatives under the umbrella of a new state agency. If confirmed by the state Senate, Paul Monteiro — a former AmeriCorps program leader who now directs community relations efforts for the U.S. Department of Justice — would be the first secretary of the Department of Service and Civic Innovation.

For all of this week’s focus on Donald Trump’s legal travails — and the breathless commentary and speculation surrounding it from all quarters — there was significantly less ink spilled on what looms as a far more consequential development, at least in the long-term and for average Americans contemplating a secure retirement. The annual evaluation of the financial condition of Social Security and Medicare, released last Friday, outlined how both remain in deep financial trouble with the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund hurtling toward depletion in 2033, which is one year earlier than expected.

Last week, while hundreds of workers gathered outside the Maryland State House, Maryland legislators quietly completed a legislative betrayal that abandons Maryland workers in favor of corporate CEOs. The Senate Finance Committee voted 5-3 against workers’ interests by eliminating labor peace agreements as a condition of licensure in the emerging cannabis industry in Maryland.

Diesel-belching trucks are rumbling down Maryland 550 in Woodsboro at high rates of speed. It’s a pretty remote stretch of highway in Frederick County, surrounded mainly by cornfields. Many of the trucks are stopping at Laurel Sand and Gravel, a massive quarry and mining operation off the main road, where 600,000 tons of small stones are ground into powder every year. The powder, known as aggregate, is sold to the concrete industry as a thickening agent.

If you’re thinking about buying or selling a house, now is a good time to consider several factors as we enter into the height of the spring market. Corey Burr, senior vice president with TTR Sotheby’s International Real Estate, says the peak of the market takes place between April 1 and May 31. While there has been a steady stream of sales, more properties have been sitting on the market for longer periods of time.