One of Maryland’s goals is making it safer to drive in the state, and it’s looking for new ideas. “Alcohol impairment, speeding, distracted driving, not buckling up,” are just some of the driving safety issues officials seek to tackle, according to Maryland Department of Transportation Administrator Christine Nizer. Nizer said her department wants to tackle these issues in traditional ways, such as stepped-up traffic enforcement, as well as in not-so-traditional ways. “We partner with the Maryland Institute College and Art on a pedestrian safety campaign within the City of Baltimore,” she said.

The anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday brings visitors from around the country to Baltimore every year to celebrate his life and legacy. This year, Poe’s Magic Theatre will present a special celebration event commemorating Poe’s 214th birthday on Thursday, Jan. 19. General admission to the event includes a murder mystery hosted by Poe’s Magic Theatre owner Vince Wilson. Poe’s annual celebration of life has been going on for decades around his gravesite and the The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum, but “every year it’s getting bigger, better, and more of a theatrical production,” Wilson said. In an entertaining murder mystery game, attendees will solve the narrative of an anonymous individual known as “The Poe Toaster” who left cognac and roses at Poe’s grave for decades until he was murdered at the gravesite.

Chicken finger restaurant chain Raising Cane’s will make its Maryland debut Thursday when it opens its first location in the state in Towson. Located at 4 Towsontown Blvd. E, the new restaurant will host a grand opening celebration with an official ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Towson Chamber of Commerce at 9:30 a.m. The Plano, Texas-based chain is planning to open 100 new franchises in 2023, including two more in Maryland. Raising Cane’s will open a location in Gambrills at 1070 MD-3 North as its second location in Maryland, joining its inaugural site in Towson. Later in March, the chain will open another restaurant in Westminster at 400 Englar Road.

In many state capitals, four years as a presiding officer of a legislative chamber is a pretty robust tenure. In the Maryland State House, it’s a nanosecond. House Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County) and Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) are entering their fourth sessions as the leaders in their respective chambers. Both replaced legendary and record-setting presiding officers: The late House Speaker Michael Busch (D) had the job for 17 years, and the late Senate President Mike Miller (D) held the gavel for 33 years. But even if Jones’ and Ferguson’s tenures seem puny in comparison, the 2023 General Assembly session marks a significant milestone for each: This is the first year of the legislative term, meaning it’s the first legislative term when the presiding officers will be fully in control of the legislature, rather than filling the remainder of their predecessors’ terms.

Chances are that, at some point growing up, you enjoyed reading “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” or “A Christmas Carol.” You’re lucky. Around 60 percent of all Maryland children will probably never have that pleasure because they’ve never been taught to read proficiently. The gift that most of our children desperately need is literacy. In conscience, it should not be thought of as a gift but a sacred civil right. It’s the magic carpet not just to success in school but to meaningful participation in the world of work and civic life. “Once you learn to read, you will be forever free,” Frederick Douglass wrote, adding “To deny education to any people is one of the greatest crimes against human nature.” Why do we as a state and nation commit the crime of illiteracy?

The sixth and seventh victories of the Orioles’ 10-game winning streak last year came in front of two of the best Camden Yards crowds in Brandon Hyde’s first four seasons as their manager, with the giveaways for those games as much to thank as the team’s improved play. Afterward, he made a request of the club’s marketing department. “We need to have a weekly Friday floppy hat night, Saturday Hawaiian shirt night,” Hyde said in July. “We’ll figure something out the other [days].” The Orioles released their 2023 promotional schedule Tuesday, and although Hyde won’t get his wish, the popular floppy hat and Hawaiian shirt giveaways will once again be on back-to-back days amid a slate that also features five bobbleheads and multiple theme nights.

The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee voted Tuesday evening to send a new delegate to Annapolis for the General Assembly session that begins next Wednesday. Bernice Mireku-North, an attorney and criminal justice reformer, was supported by 14 members of the committee after two rounds of voting during an emergency meeting to choose a replacement for Del. Eric Luedtke. Luedtke, the former House majority leader, is leaving his District 14 post after 12 years to work as chief legislative officer for Gov.-elect Wes Moore’s incoming administration. County Democratic officials planned to forward Mireku-North’s nomination to Gov. Larry Hogan (R), who will make the appointment to the vacant position, overnight.

Longtime defense lawyer Ivan Bates was sworn in Tuesday as Baltimore’s top prosecutor, pledging that the city State’s Attorney’s Office’s first new administration in eight years would reform the city’s violent crime fight. Bates, who won the Democratic primary in July and ran uncontested in November’s general election, assumes the post from Marilyn Mosby, who served two, four-year terms as state’s attorney. He distinguished himself from his predecessor with some of his first words in office, proclaiming during his inaugural address that his assistant state’s attorneys would resume prosecuting the low-level offenses Mosby stopped taking to court. Bates also touted a tough stance on illegal guns, saying he would bring in attorney reinforcements to an office battered by attrition.