Around Maryland

Despite their name, ghost guns are very much real and solid, and sightings of them are common and verifiable. Not exactly legal, and not exactly illegal, they have quickly entered our state’s and our nation’s debate on gun violence and gun control. They are a particular problem in Baltimore and the subject of a recent legal settlement. Because they are easy to procure, they often find their way into the hands of teenagers who are too young to purchase firearms legally.

Other developers failed at restoring the old Carlton Apartments, a Reservoir Hill corner landmark that seemed to defy an easy redemption. You wouldn’t know its tortured past today, however. This grand, circa 1900, Roman brick, V-shaped home to 12 new units is an example of what good intentions and hard work can accomplish. Enter Alex Aaron, a developer born in Northern Virginia and a Howard University graduate.

Baltimore Police officers chased a teenager in a stolen car in October through the leafy Loch Raven neighborhood, where they eventually caught him and found a beige handgun in a book bag: a Polymer80 with a 30-round magazine. The week after Thanksgiving 2022, then-18-year-old Dominique Edmonds shot and killed a man in an alley in the southwest corner of the city. When police arrested him at an apartment weeks later, they found a blue gun: also a Polymer80, this one with a 15-round magazine.

This summer, Maryland will begin training some nurses and physician assistants to perform abortions, in addition to doctors, with the goal of expanding access around the state. The $10.6 million state-funded program will be administered by the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the University of Maryland, Baltimore. “We’re working on our curriculum right now, as well as a mobile simulation unit,” said Dr. Jessica K. Lee, associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences in the school of medicine and co-principal investigator on the training program.

Montgomery County is often described as diverse and now a new WalletHub study has placed four of the county’s largest cities in the top 10 most ethnically diverse in the United States. The City of Gaithersburg retained its title as the No. 1 most diverse city in the nation for the second year in a row, according to the study by WalletHub, an online personal finance company based in Miami. Germantown placed third, Silver Spring came in fourth and Rockville was eighth–after New York City.

As Maryland grapples with school curriculum pushback and book banning related to race and LGBTQ issues, a national analysis found that these subjects are not often discussed in K-12 schools, despite the heated debates. The Pew Research Center analysis published Thursday surveyed thousands of teachers, parents and teen students. While 68% of teachers say topics about sex and gender are rarely talked about, more than 40% of U.S. teachers say school curriculum debates about race, gender and sexuality have negatively impacted their abilities to do their job.

Twelve Frederick County-based organizations will receive state grants totaling more than $7.6 million to help with mental and behavioral health resources for youths as part of a broader push under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan. Sheppard Pratt Health Systems is slated to receive the most — $4 million — among Frederick County recipients, according to a news release from the state.