As performers danced to and played music from numerous Latin American cultures during a Hispanic Heritage Festival on Saturday, many people were drawn to the tables under a large tent. There, as they escaped the rain, they found Damaris Ponciano-Jackson and her students helping people craft piñatas, pinwheels and flashlights. Ponciano-Jackson is the director of the Éxito STEAM Summer Program at Centro Hispano de Frederick, which hosted Saturday’s festival. The Éxito program includes lessons in STEM, arts, English and Spanish language, and general life skills.
Latin American culture, diversity celebrated at Hispanic Heritage Festival
Miller: Maryland needs an Environmental Human Rights Amendment
This is in response to Josh Kurtz’s article on September 28th, “Report details alarming levels of toxins being dumped in Maryland’s waterways.” It is disturbing to hear about the thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals, including PFAS — “forever chemicals” — being dumped in our Maryland waterways and that the actual release may be much higher. Marylanders are bearing the real human cost to releasing these destructive chemicals into our environment which are linked to increased rates of cancer and disorders that affect human development and reproduction. It’s not just pollution in our waterways. Communities like Curtis Bay, Lothian, Brandywine, and counties including Prince George’s, Calvert, Wicomico, and Worcester are bearing the burden of air and water pollution from power plants, landfills, superfund sites, and industry that is permitted next to residential communities of color.
Annapolis City Council seeks summons for two property management firms accused of gross neglect
Annapolis City Council members said Thursday that the city will issue summons for two property management companies accused of grossly neglecting their apartment communities. Representatives from Fairstead Management Inc. and Enterprise Residential LLC, the property managers of Woodside Gardens and Admiral Oaks, respectively, failed to show at the council’s Housing and Human Welfare committee meeting as requested on Thursday. “I want the record to state clearly that Fairstead, representing Woodside Gardens, refused communications until the last minute,” Ward 6 Alderman DaJuan Gay said, before invoking his subpoena authority as the committee’s chair. “I haven’t heard a single thing from Admiral Oaks or their property management company.”
Rodricks: Baltimore’s Second Chance salvages lives and just about everything else. It also induces longing.
When it comes to describing Second Chance and its vast operation in South Baltimore, I hardly know where to begin. So I’ll begin at the entrance: The statue of the angel visiting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and the marble angels to either side — all of that came from the Michigan church where the late Robert Kearns, inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper, worshipped as a boy during the Great Depression. It’s a long story — just about everything at Second Chance is — so here’s the short version: Throughout his life Kearns believed he was guided by a divine presence.
Harford County Circuit Court judge grants injunction to halt Abingdon Woods tree clearing until Chesapeake Bay Foundation case is heard
A Harford County Circuit Court judge on Friday granted the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s request for an injunction to halt tree clearing at the proposed Abingdon Woods development. The injunction will prevent any trees from being cut while the Chesapeake Bay Foundation pursues its lawsuit challenging the project’s forest conservation plan. The decision was made after the developers — Harford Investors LLP and BTC III 1-95 Logistics Center LLC— agreed to not challenge the injunction, according to a news release from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.
When will my Maryland general election mail ballot arrive?
The schedule of when mail ballots are going to be counted this fall may be in legal limbo, but the schedule for sending them out to voters has not changed. More than half a million Maryland voters have asked to be sent ballots this fall, and by the time it’s all said and done, more than 1 million Marylanders might vote with mail ballots. These ballots are generally returned to elections officials through the postal service or ballot drop boxes that will be set up. If you’ve already requested a mail ballot, you can expect to see it soon.
Nathanson: Finding a way to improve regional transit decision making
Back in 2015, local government leaders thought they had a plan for moving forward with new transit investments that would better knit together the various elements of the Baltimore area’s existing services, notably the area bus lines, the light rail line and the Metro subway. Then, with the decision of Gov. Larry Hogan to cancel the east-west Red Line, that plan was in disarray. The Red Line was but one component of a 2002 regional transit plan that had been developed by a blue-ribbon task force. Its work product led to more than a decade of planning, intense charettes, countless community meetings, followed by more detailed engineering designs, environmental impact assessments – and a commitment of $900 million in federal funds for construction. Hogan saw it as a “boondoggle.”
Access to some college savings funds will be curtailed until at least Oct., official says
Families enrolled in a popular college savings plan will face additional delays in accessing their funds, the official in charge of Maryland’s “529” programs said on Thursday. Anthony Savia, the head of the Maryland Prepaid College Trust and the College Investment Plan, said his team has made “significant progress” in its efforts to fix an error in how interest for trust account holders is calculated. But he declined to commit to a “date certain” for resolving the issue completely. “We are committed to doing this right and fixing an ongoing problem,” he said. Savia, who took the reins of the program over the summer, spoke during a virtual “town hall” meeting at which he provided an update on efforts to set accounts straight.
Aging water infrastructure at the root of Baltimore E. coli contamination, city officials say
Baltimore officials identified a likely cause of the E. coli contamination that left much of West Baltimore under a water boil advisory earlier this month, pointing to a series of failures stemming from the city’s aging water infrastructure. The explanation, which officials laid out in a hearing on the episode before the City Council Thursday, comes a few weeks after the city Department of Public Works warned residents of possible E. coli contamination in the Harlem Park and Sandtown-Winchester neighborhoods of West Baltimore. The city received positive tests of bacteria in the water system on Saturday, Sept. 3, but residents didn’t learn about the contamination until two days later, on Labor Day morning.
County Council candidates differ at forum on how to fund transportation projects
Frederick County Council candidates on Thursday generally agreed that the county should expand trail systems and improve road safety for bikers and pedestrians, but they were split about how to pay for the measures. “We have a lot of yeses here tonight,” said Brad Young, a Democrat and one of four candidates running for the council’s two at-large seats. “But when push comes to shove to fund that yes, you have to have the money. And we have a lot of candidates that are running that are proposing that we freeze our tax rate.” One of those candidates is Tony Chmelik, a Republican also running in the at-large race in the Nov. 8 general election.