Around Maryland

A decade-old Maryland law requiring would-be handgun owners to submit their fingerprints and undergo four hours of safety training is under fire in federal court, part of a broader national push to curtail gun control measures. Maryland Shall Issue, a pro-firearms group, and Atlantic Guns, a Montgomery County gun shop, called the state’s Handgun Qualification License program “peculiar and onerous” in court papers, and claimed that it infringes upon law-abiding citizens’ right to keep and bear arms by causing undue delay.

Baltimore school principals and staff have been threatened with guns, punched in the face, pulled to the ground, kicked and stalked. Some have landed in the hospital. Others have installed cameras and more locks at home. They aren’t afraid of their students. It’s the parents they worry about. “I have never experienced so many adults that are willing to engage in their child’s conflict,” said Craig Rivers, the principal of Frederick Douglass High School in West Baltimore and a longtime city school administrator. “I have never seen it this bad.”

The police department in Montgomery County, Maryland, has lost 194 officers over the past five years and now has a sworn vacancy rate of 14%. An analysis shows recent recruit classes have averaged 23 recruits each, “which remains too low to address current attrition,” according to the memorandum submitted to a county council committee Monday.

State health officials have placed their bid for Maryland to be among the first participants in a federal program that will help fund state initiatives to improve patient outcomes and bridge inequities, while constraining hospital and medical costs. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is rolling out the new States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development Model, called the AHEAD Model, and states are invited to apply for funding.

The Baltimore Banner, a nonprofit digital news publication that launched in 2022, is planning to expand its editorial coverage beyond Maryland's biggest city into the surrounding regions and beyond, its new CEO Bob Cohn told Axios. Why it matters: Cohn sees a geographical expansion and more editorial investments in niche subject areas, like business, culture and tech, as key drivers for adding more digital subscribers.

More plans are underway for new houses in the city. The mayor and City Council on Tuesday discussed an agreement to sell several lots for $1 each to TeaBow Residential LLC, based in Washington, D.C., to increase housing stock in the municipality. Nearly a dozen of the lots are on Maryland Avenue, and several more are on Arch, Lee, Elder and Knox streets, and Pennsylvania Avenue.

Recreational cannabis is approaching a $1 billion dollar industry in Maryland. Now, the state is tasking counties with divvying up the tax revenue received from those sales. The Wicomico County Council is preparing to workshop legislation that would create a Cannabis Social Equity Fund, allocating tax revenue from pot sales to community groups that benefit those who have been most impacted by the enforcement of cannabis prohibition.

The U.S. Senate voted, 50-47, on Tuesday to approve the nomination of Maryland labor lawyer Nicole G. Berner to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, making her the first openly LGBTQ+ judge on that court. The vote had been expected to be close. Her nomination had been narrowly approved, 11-10, on a party-line vote by the Judiciary Committee in January.

More rezoning could be coming to Baltimore County Public Schools. The Baltimore County Board of Education voted Tuesday to alter the boundaries for central-area elementary schools in an effort to ease overcrowding. The board voted unanimously to adopt the changes. "The purpose for this boundary study was to relieve schools projected to be overcrowded and to maximize use of available space in schools until more seats can be added in the region through the capital program," BCPS chief operations officer Jess Grim said.