Around Maryland

Maryland utility regulators want to overhaul the way the region’s electric grid operator ensures reliable service, saying the current process saddles customers with unfair and excessive rates. The Maryland Public Service Commission, a state agency that regulates public utilities, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reform an auction process used by PJM Interconnection, the grid operator for the mid-Atlantic region.

The Salisbury Police Department (SPD) is celebrating a generous donation that will help ensure K9 units are safe in all weather. The Blue Heron Agility Association of Delaware (BHAD) is providing $4,000 to the department. Police say the money will help outfit two SPD vehicles with HOT-N-POP systems. “It gives me clarity in knowing that I can keep my partner safe, just like he keeps me safe,” said PFC Daniel Derasmo, a K9 handler for SPD.

Three Baltimore County Council members have proposed a resolution for Baltimore County to condemn a 70-mile power line project that they say will ruin farmland, seize private homes and lower property values. The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) was first announced in December, when regional transmission operator PJM awarded a contract to the New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) for development.

A couple of special guests introduced Stevie Wonder in Baltimore on Tuesday night. Barack Obama, the nation’s 44th president, and former first lady Michelle Obama stood on either side of the legendary singer as he opened his show on the 11-city “Sing Your Song! As We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart” tour at CFG Bank Arena. “This is amazing,” Wonder said before holding the mic for the former president.

Drivers in Montgomery County will soon see “noise cameras” on local roads after the County Council unanimously passed legislation Tuesday that aims to reduce vehicular noise emissions. The bill, sponsored by council Vice President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) and councilmember Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) with co-sponsorship from the rest of the council, is based on state legislation passed earlier this year by the Maryland General Assembly.

Tension had been building inside Maryland’s maximum-security psychiatric hospital when the news began to circulate among employees: Scott Moran, their CEO, had been banished from the facility. Moran’s boss at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, which houses people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses who have been accused of violence, had applied for a restraining order against the doctor in February, accusing him of sending “racially suggestive messages” and making violent threats.

Years into Victoria Richardson’s addiction, every choice was rooted in how to continue using drugs. Until this one. “I was five months pregnant with my son and using heroin, and I knew I couldn’t do that anymore,” she said. “I knew I had to change so my kids wouldn’t grow up the same way I did.” A counselor pointed her to a special treatment center for pregnant women and mothers, a homelike environment where everyone stays together and learns or relearns how to be a family.

Both two and four-legged members of Maryland Task Force 1 arrived back in Rockville on Monday afternoon, after their latest stint helping with hurricane rescues and surveying damage in North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. They grabbed their luggage and unpacked other supplies, and after entering a warehouse, Montgomery County Fire Chief Corey Smedley eagerly welcomed them home.

WJZ’s Dennis Valera is spending the night at the Lord Baltimore Hotel to find out if there truly is paranormal activity. The Lord Baltimore Hotel is said to be one of the most haunted hotels in the country. The Lord Baltimore Hotel has been around since 1929. Over it’s nearly 100-year history, it’s become a hotspot for reports of sightings and other spooky things. A lot of the paranormal activity is linked to the Great Depression.