Around Maryland

Most Baltimore teens look forward to summer’s warm days after the school year ends. But the season can bring a sense of anxiety and even dread as the city’s violence often ticks up — with it comes increased scrutiny on how teenagers and young adults spend their time. And after a mass shooting at a block party in South Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood last weekend where the majority of the victims were teenagers, the need to create safe, welcoming spaces for young adults in the city has only become more urgent.

Large commercial vehicles will be banned from residential streets in Frederick, after a vote by the city’s aldermen Thursday night. The vote revises a city ordinance to eliminate weight restrictions as a standard for prohibiting vehicles and instead use definitions for commercial vehicles from the Maryland Code.

Safe Streets returned to Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood on Friday to provide outreach in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting. The violence-interruption group was at Brooklyn Homes for the Brooklyn Day block party on Sunday, but its members were not there at the time of the shootings that killed two people and injured 28 others.

Starting this fall, first and second graders in Frederick County Public Schools can no longer attend class online. The Frederick County Board of Education voted to remove those grades from the district’s Remote Virtual Program last month. The move saved the system $903,427, as the board struggled to balance its budget for fiscal year 2024.

The calls came in over the Baltimore Police radio suddenly and all together. ”All units be advised,” a male voice broadcasted early last Sunday morning, ”there’s a shooting call.” It was just after 12:30 a.m. and people had been shot — it was impossible to tell how many — all over the Brooklyn Homes public housing complex. Within three minutes of the first calls, another came in for the same area, the 800 block of Gretna Court.

A solar storm forecast for Thursday is expected to give skygazers in 17 American states a chance to glimpse the Northern Lights, the colorful sky show that happens when solar wind hits the atmosphere. Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, are most often seen in Alaska, Canada and Scandinavia, but an 11-year solar cycle that’s expected to peak in 2024 is making the lights visible in places farther to the south.

Free Saturday parking in downtown Bethesda and Silver Spring has gone the way of Blockbuster stores and flip phones — Montgomery County has started to charge for parking in these areas in county-operated parking lots, meters and garages on previously gratis Saturdays. Beginning on Saturday, July 8, the Montgomery County Department of Transportation began charging its current weekday rate through Saturday.

Local nonprofit On Our Own of Frederick County was awarded a $76,000 state grant to help expand its services for those struggling with opioid addiction. On Our Own is a peer-led recovery center that provides resources — from one-on-one peer sessions, life coaching, support groups and educational programs — for people battling substance abuse and mental health problems, or people in recovery trying to maintain their clean lifestyle.