Around Maryland

More than three quarters of short-term residential rentals being offered in Montgomery County, Maryland, are unregistered, according to a report from the county’s Office of the Inspector General. The findings in the latest report from Inspector General Megan Davey Limarzi show that more than 85% of the more than 1,400 short-term residential rentals operating in Montgomery County are not licensed.

Maryland hospitals and health officials are keeping a wary eye on their supplies of sterile intravenous fluids after recent hurricane damage knocked out a major North Carolina-based manufacturer. There have not been any disruptions to scheduled surgeries yet, but the Maryland Department of Health is encouraging facilities to conserve supplies and look to alternatives – just giving people fluids to drink in cases of dehydration, for example – until the supply chain can be restored.

Facebook is not just good for birthdays and baby pictures. Last month, in the wilds of western Baltimore County, Facebook helped save a stray goat. Gracie the goat’s social media adventure began in late September, when Windsor Mill residents reported seeing a honey-colored caprine animal in the woods. Upon closer examination, Gracie was not a wayward pet; she was a Boer — 100 pounds of tendons and muscles most often bred for meat.

Driving a car to the parking lot to catch the MARC train is so 1984. Get with the times, people — wouldn’t it be nice to live within walking distance of the station instead? Few people can walk to a MARC station now. But that could change in a few years under a new state transportation plan released Thursday. The Maryland Department of Transportation wants to encourage construction of apartments and other housing — an estimated 2,600 total units — next to six train stations between Baltimore’s Penn Station and Washington, D.C.’s Union Station.

The Curtis Bay community voiced their concerns to the Maryland Department of Environment during a meeting Thursday. The hours-long meeting was about the permit renewal for the local CSX Coal Terminal. Residents have been vocal about their fear of the health impact the terminal has on the community. “Sometimes, if you come out the door, it smells like rotten eggs. Sometimes, it smells like an animal died somewhere around your house,” said Edith Gerald with the Community of Curtis Bay Association.

In the days before Hurricane Milton hit Florida, forecasters were worried it could send as much as 15 feet (4.5 meters) of water rushing onto the heavily populated shores of Tampa Bay. Instead, several feet of water temporarily drained away. Why? “Reverse storm surge” is a familiar, if sometimes unremarked-upon, function of how hurricane winds move seawater as the storms hit land — in fact, it has happened in Tampa Bay before.

On Thursday, officials broke ground on the extension of the runway at Salisbury Regional Airport, a project expected to bring new flights to the region and boost the local economy. Supporters of the project, including county and airport officials, say it will lead to economic growth throughout Wicomico County and across the Eastern Shore. U.S. Senator Ben Cardin announced that $18.5 million in federal funding had been secured for the project.

Hurricane Milton barreled into the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday after plowing across Florida, pounding cities with ferocious winds and rain, and whipping up a barrage of tornadoes. It caused at least four deaths and compounded the misery wrought by Helene while sparing Tampa a direct hit. The storm tracked to the south in the final hours and made landfall as a Category 3 storm Wednesday night in Siesta Key, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) south of Tampa.