After a shooting brought Kansas City’s Super Bowl celebration to a halt, a security expert explained how to handle yourself in a similar situation Jared Krieger is the director of operations and training for Defender One Security in Reisterstown. The firm provides security for people, events, businesses and more. In the wake of Wednesday’s mass shooting, Krieger said situational awareness is key if you find yourself at a packed event when an emergency breaks out.

State officials hired a new contractor to process payments to behavioral health providers, ditching a troubled system that wreaked havoc in the treatment community at a time when the coronavirus pandemic was increasing demand for mental health and addiction services. A state spending board approved the new contract Wednesday for up to nearly $340 million with Boston-based Carelon Behavioral Health Inc. replacing one with Minnesota-based Optum Inc., a subsidiary of the managed care giant UnitedHealth Group.

Baltimore County’s master plan, more than three years overdue, appears poised for final passage next week. County officials say the plan addresses the possibility that the county will run out of open, developable land within 20 years. “It’s a really important document to give us a guide,” Council Chairman Izzy Patoka said at the council’s meeting Tuesday night. He said he expects a final vote this coming Tuesday.

 

When it comes to the coronavirus, many people have given up on testing. Who knows if the box of COVID tests on your shelf will even work, right? Now there is some new evidence that they do. Recent research from Johns Hopkins Medicine, the University of Maryland School of Medicine and others shows that those rapid antigen tests reliably found positives and negatives whether administered at home or in a doctor’s office.

 

Within just a few months of living in Piątek, a small town in central Poland, Leah Michaels, M.F.A ’21, intermedia and digital arts, has already traveled to Romania, where many recipients of the Fulbright U.S. Student award placed throughout Europe gathered at a media literacy conference.

Dressed in matching red heart headbands and necklaces, a pair of volunteers roamed the halls of LifeBridge Health Carroll Hospital Tuesday visiting patients alongside Raven, an 11-year-old Dalmatian outfitted in a red T-shirt, red tutu, pink and red bows and painted red nails.

Maryland’s first chief of the unit tasked with investigating police fatalities is leaving for a new role, she confirmed Tuesday. Dana Mulhauser was hired by the state in 2021 to helm its new Independent Investigations Division, a part of the state Attorney General’s Office. She left earlier this month and will become Everytown for Gun Safety’s deputy director of affirmative litigation.

 

Exterior improvements are complete on nearly a dozen downtown buildings. The mayor and City Council received an update on the facade makeovers at a work session Tuesday. The updates are part of a $950,000 downtown comprehensive investment program that matches grant funds for capital improvement projects including outside appearance of buildings, infrastructure and residential development.

 

A state audit shows at least eight Maryland school systems didn’t use $12.3 million designated for students in underserved communities. According to the document from the Office of the Inspector General for Education, officials with the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) didn’t provide training and guidance for local school officials to utilize what are known as concentration of poverty grants.

 

The Harford County school board backed Superintendent Sean Bulson’s budget request Monday night in a 6-3 vote. Bulson proposed a budget with a $47.3 million or 7.7% increase over the current school year mostly by asking the county government for an increase in local funding of $40 million.