Around Maryland

The number of students receiving free and reduced-price meals across Frederick County Public Schools is on track to rise again this year. Officials hope that confusion arising from the end of pandemic-era subsidies has passed. At the start of the last school year, FCPS leaders said they were bracing for logistical challenges because families had to apply to receive free meals for the first time since COVID-19 hit.

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office will soon use driving simulators to train recruits to navigate high-speed chases, emergency response calls and other real-world situations police encounter regularly. On Thursday, The Board of Carroll County Commissioners unanimously approved acceptance of a grant in the amount of $126,400 to purchase seven law enforcement driving simulators, including accessories and a four-year extended warranty.

A federal judge Thursday denied a request to let Montgomery County parents pull their children out of the classroom when books with LGBTQ characters are read aloud. Several Muslim and Christian families sued Montgomery County Public Schools in May, saying the use of LGBTQ storybooks forces religious parents to either forgo their beliefs or depart the public school system. They asked to allow their children to opt out of such readings before the school year begins Aug. 28, at least on a temporary basis while litigation over a permanent exemption proceeds.]

The Anne Arundel County Fire Department unveiled a dashboard Thursday that allows members of the public to take an in-depth look at its response and transport data. Available on the county government’s website, the dashboard allows users to take a deeper dive into the thousands of calls the department and its 31 stations respond to every month. Specifically, data can be filtered by month, call type (EMS, fire, service, and vehicle or rescue), hospital transport destination, location or council districts.

Wings tossed in honey and suya spice, jollof rice and spinach-efo riro are some of the options on their menu that you won’t find in every restaurant and their social media presence gives a special view of just how their food is made and served. On top of the restaurant’s personal take on West African cuisine, the Spice Kitchen team advertises both restaurant humor and delicious previews of their menu through TikTok and Instagram. Their TikTok account has nearly 50,000 followers and over 1.5 million likes.

Talk of litigation is among responses from folks and organizations that reject a decision the Maryland Department of Natural Resources issued Friday. DNR granted conditional approval for Garrett County and the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration to replace the bridge on Swallow Falls Road in the state-designated Youghiogheny Scenic and Wild River Corridor.

The hallways of Tuscarora High School were crowded and noisy by 7 a.m. Wednesday morning. Outside, administrators directed traffic and spoke urgently into walkie-talkies while students laughed and mingled on their way into the building. The same scene played out at more than 60 schools around the county on Wednesday, the first day of the academic year for Frederick County Public Schools. From Catoctin to Brunswick and from Middletown to Walkersville, summer break officially ended for more than 46,000 children.

As part of a comprehensive approach to protect students and staff from gun violence, Baltimore County Public Schools will add a cutting-edge layer of precaution to thousands of security cameras starting in September — software trained to detect guns. Superintendent Myriam Yarbrough on Wednesday announced the decision and the Board of Education’s approval during a news conference. The Gun Detect platform, made by Virginia-based Omnilert, plugs into existing indoor and outdoor cameras and searches image frames for people and the objects surrounding them. If the system detects a gun, an alert gets sent to professionals trained to identify guns.