Around Maryland

Baltimore’s water wheels collected more than 1 million pounds of litter and debris from the city’s waterways in 2023, though the amount of trash in the water is actually decreasing, the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore announced Wednesday. 2023 was the second consecutive year that the Waterfront Partnership operated four trash wheels in Baltimore’s waterways — Mr. Trash Wheel, Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel, and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West — which made the collection process more efficient.

Since May, over 245,000 Marylanders have lost health care coverage from Medicaid, an insurance plan aimed at low-income residents, during a eligibility review period often referred to as “Medicaid unwinding.” Eight months into the unwinding period, a new report from Maryland Department of Health shows that some areas in Maryland are retaining Medicaid coverage while some populations are losing it. The department says it will use the data to target harder to reach populations in the remaining four months of the unwinding period.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones, a 38-year veteran of the department, will retire in July, he announced Tuesday. Jones, 59, has held the post since 2019. He commands a staff of about 1,300 sworn officers and 650 support personnel that protects the busy Washington suburb and the most populous county in Maryland. “It has been an honor to lead such a dedicated and talented department of officers and professional staff,” Jones said in a statement. “I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished together.”

An experimental housing program that paired permanent shelter with social services in an effort to keep some of the state’s most medically fragile adults from becoming unhoused and out of hospitals would expand if a budget commitment from Maryland’s governor becomes law. The spending plan, set to take effect July 1 if approved by lawmakers, includes $5.4 million for the Assistance in Community Integration Services, or ACIS — a little-known housing program that supports some 900 households statewide, including more than 200 in Baltimore.

As Howard County’s school board works to close a $103.8 million budget gap, members of the school community have spoken out against a fairly small number of proposed cuts that total roughly $2.3 million. At a school board public hearing last week, residents pushed back on proposals to defund third grade orchestra, eliminate an environmental educator position and reduce Gifted and Talented offerings to elementary schoolers.

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is revisiting discussions on blue crabs, this time focusing on the containers. A public hearing is scheduled later this week to clarify regulations before any formal proposals are considered. The primary topic of discussion revolves around the use of plastic lugs, which have the capacity to hold significantly more crabs than traditional wooden bushel baskets.

Some Montgomery County, Maryland, parents are upset that their child’s middle school waited two days to tell them about a fight that sent a student to the hospital. The fight between two girls happened at Lakelands Park Middle School in Gaithersburg last Wednesday during dismissal; and according to the school’s principal, it was broken up by adults who were nearby. On Friday, more than a day after the fight occurred, the school’s principal Sofía Vega-Ormeño sent a letter to parents notifying them about the serious fight.

Towson University has a new four-legged friend on campus: A yet-to-be-named chocolate Labrador retriever puppy who will work as a comfort dog with the university’s police department. The dog will “offer emotional support and companionship as part of TU’s community-oriented approach to public safety,” the university said in a news release. The dog’s handler, Jafar Taru, is a corporal with the Towson University Police Department. He has another dog at home, a bichon. The new puppy is the first one Taru has worked with professionally, though.

Coming out of the pandemic, students in Maryland and across the nation, had a hard time getting back into the habit of being in school buildings, with classroom rules and the need to communicate with friends and teachers in person. The result was that the percentage of schools with consistently high numbers of absent students almost doubled.