Around Maryland

Baltimore Police say the use of “ghost guns” is on the rise in the city, with a top-ranking department official saying that officers are on track this year to seize up to 300 of the untraceable firearms that can be built from kits. More than a dozen of the weapons were linked to homicides and shootings in the city last year,. During a discussion about privately made firearms Tuesday, Deputy Commissioner Sheree Briscoe said the department has recovered 83 ghost guns as of mid-May.

Manuel Calero was looking through patient files when his shift partner knocked on the desk divider and handed him a notepad. With the phone still squeezed between her ear and her shoulder, Mary Brough nodded in a way that, Calero knew, meant they would be heading out shortly. He scanned the scribbled notes — a woman calling about her 21-year-old son with bipolar disorder who had recently checked himself out of the hospital and was now home, emptying bags of trash in the living room.

The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission is announcing federal approval of the Episode Quality Improvement Program (EQIP). This new program provides incentive payments to specialist physicians who improve quality of care and reduce the cost of the care that they provide to Medicare patients. “We are excited to announce the development and launch of the Episode Quality Improvement Program”, said Maryland Department of Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader.

The lack of air conditioning in Baltimore City and Baltimore County schools has forced in-person lessons to go online this spring — most recently last week — as school systems continue to struggle with high temperatures in their oldest buildings. Long after most school systems in the state had installed air conditioning in all their buildings, Baltimore City and Baltimore County still have dozens of buildings where temperatures rise above comfortable levels.

Three years ago, the Supreme Court cleared the way for states to legalize sports betting. Eight months ago, Maryland voters approved a sports gambling referendum. And in April, state lawmakers created a Sports Wagering Application Review Commission, a panel that will decide who will be allowed to operate a legal sportsbook. While the commission has yet to start its work, entrepreneurs who’ve been following the action will soon face a moment of decision: Roll the dice on a new industry as it takes shape — or hold tight to their chips.

As the ribbon was cut on the long-awaited University of Maryland Capital Region Medical Center in Prince George’s County on Tuesday, jubilant lawmakers hailed the state-of-the-art facility’s opening as a public health victory. “More than a million people in Prince George’s County and Southern Maryland are finally going to get the health care that they deserve — which they so desperately need and that they have [needed] for so long,” Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) said at the Tuesday ceremony.

With graduation season well underway, there is one school in Baltimore that takes a student in the sixth grade and turns that person into a college-ready learner upon graduation of the 12th grade. The SEED School of Maryland’s mission is to provide an exemplary education and living experience, by combining the critical thinking and social skills necessary to succeed in high school and graduate from college.