Around Maryland

Thirteen local organizations working to combat food insecurity in the area received $350,000 in grants this month from The Community Foundation of Frederick County. The Community Foundation awarded one-year grants, financed by money awarded to the county by the U.S. Treasury Department, to local nonprofits whose programs alleviate food insecurity, according to a news release from the foundation on Wednesday.

Main Street is more than the center of business and local history in Mount Airy, Md. It’s where the Frederick-Carroll County line bisects the town and determines where children attend school and how much property taxes residents pay. That invisible demarcation dictates how businesses are licensed and how city officials apply for grants.

Unfortunately, there’s no Ctrl + Z for a street sign. The Baltimore City Department of Transportation acknowledged Wednesday afternoon in a Facebook post that it had committed an unfortunate spelling error on a street sign at the 1000 block of Orleans Street. It chided itself for the mistake. “Yes, we saw it. Yes, we messed up. Yes, we JUST replaced that sign. … It’ll be fixed by morning,” the department posted.

Broken drones, wonky handheld vacuum cleaners and VHS tapes that have been sitting on bookshelves for ages now have a place to go — and it’s not the trash. Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection has more options for county residents who don’t want to add to the landfill, but who have been at a loss as to what do with things like empty printer ink and toner cartridges.

For the first time in nearly nine years, Allegany County’s health officer has a medical degree. County officials on Tuesday announced the hire of Dr. Junie Delizo. “Following a nationwide search,” Delizo was appointed to the position, they said via press release. “Dr. Delizo brings over 25 years of public health experience to Allegany County, including expertise in epidemiology, emergency preparedness, and public health administration.”

The Baltimore County school board on Tuesday night finally closed the chapter on a redistricting process that has taken half a year to complete and moves hundreds of students to different middle schools in the central and northeast area. The board approved a map selected by a 42-person committee without making any changes.

You can find them surviving against all odds in the vacant spaces of Baltimore City. In church basements, warehouses and abandoned storefronts, they subsist on scraps and inhabit the forgotten nooks and crannies, moving from place to place in search of viable conditions. They are not Baltimore rats. They are its small theaters, existing in a liminal, unpredictable space between the city’s long-standing community theaters and its larger arts institutions.

Kylis Fagbemi and his mother had recently moved to the Brooklyn Homes community when he was killed in a barrage of gunfire last week during a block party celebrating the neighborhood in South Baltimore. At a vigil Tuesday evening in West Baltimore, those who were close with the 20-year-old remembered his good spirit and dedication to his family as others decried the circumstances that led to the shooting, which is likely the most widespread act of violence in Baltimore history.

A Baltimore City historical preservation commission will address the now controversial exterior gas pressure regulators that were being installed outside Federal Hill homes. The Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation on Tuesday is holding its first hearing in more than a year on Baltimore Gas and Electric’s controversial outdoor installation of gas pressure regulators at city homes.