Around Maryland

The public has an opportunity to provide feedback in the Tier 2 study area for the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. A ‘Virtual Listening Meeting’ will take place on June 27. It will seek public feedback on transit, bicycle, and pedestrian considerations. The listening session is part of the ongoing review, under the National Environmental Policy Act of ways to provide congestion relief and improve travel reliability across the Chesapeake Bay.

Juneteenth may be one day on the calendar, but the Baltimore area marked the occasion all weekend, with some even starting one week early. For the second year, events in Maryland celebrated the day full emancipation reached some of the last enslaved Black people in Texas in 1865. The occasion rose in prominence after President Joe Biden declared June 19 a federal holiday in 2021.

Bears seem to be invading the suburbs with two spotted within a week, one in Northeast D.C. and another in Rockville, Maryland. But a wildlife expert said this might actually be good news. The bear running loose in D.C.’s Brookland and Brentwood neighborhoods and one spotted in Rockville were likely “sub-adult” males, according to University of Maryland wildlife ecology professor Jennifer Mullinax.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore made a splashy announcement in West Baltimore on Thursday that he’s re-starting the effort to build the Red Line, a transit line that will cross the city from east to west. The announcement was greeted warmly by political and community leaders still smarting from then-Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to cancel the project and forfeit $900 million in federal money.

New data shows Maryland is seeing a sharp increase in the number of school-aged children receiving mental health services. In response, the Harford County Health Department, in partnership with Harford County Public Schools, is stepping up its efforts to provide even more assistance to families. These mental health services are being offered even on the very last day of classes. Students will still be able to tap into HCPS’s services over the summer. Those services have been expanded thanks to a $150,000 grant.

When Marc DeOcampo spent an afternoon designing flags with his son, he didn’t expect one of his designs to become Frederick County’s new flag. DeOcampo, a county resident and City of Frederick employee, won the flag redesigning contest held by the county in honor of its 275th anniversary with his design titled “Frederick, the Crossroads of Maryland.” He won $1,275 and a full-size flag with his design.

As its enrollment continues to climb, Frederick County Public Schools is set to begin searching for a new high school site in the eastern part of the county. District administrators have for years talked about the eventual need for an 11th public high school in Frederick County. But this year’s draft Educational Facilities Master Plan (EFMP), a 200-page document that lays out the system’s construction priorities, includes the most concrete detail about the project so far.