Around Maryland

Christmas being right around the corner means holiday traffic is likely to pick up as everyone tries to make it in time to see their loved ones. As December’s busiest travel days are upon us, the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) gave flyers some tips on how to tackle the hustle and bustle. Flyers should arrive early and ahead of time. For domestic travel, come two hours before your flight and arrive three hours earlier for international flights to allow time for parking, ticketing, checking in security and more.

Baltimore will record fewer than 300 homicides in a year for the first time since Freddie Gray’s death, a grim benchmark city leaders have sought to sink below for the better part of a decade. This year’s decrease comes as cities across the country see similar declines in killings. Detroit, St. Louis, Philadelphia and New Orleans are all seeing significant drops compared to a year ago. Even with the reduction — Baltimore will record its lowest homicide total since there were 211 in 2014 — the city’s murder rate remains among the highest in the nation and is similar to what it was in the 1990s, the last time killings consistently topped 300 a year.

The number of five-star rated schools in the Howard County Public School System has fallen, according to new state data. In Howard, 16% of schools earned a 5-star rating for 2022-2023; 43% were given four stars, while 37% earned three stars. Seventeen Howard schools fell from a five-star rating in 2021-2022 to a four-star rating in 2022-2023. River Hill was the only high school to score five stars in 2022-2023.

Commuters expressed their frustrations Wednesday with the shuttle service in place of the suspended Light Rail. “They’re very unorganized,” commuter Ernestine Jones said. Jones is one of many Marylanders forced to ride the shuttles while the Light Rail remains shut down. Service has been suspended for nearly two weeks while the Maryland Transit Administration inspects and repairs cars.

In coming months, the staff of Comptroller Bill Henry will be trained to “flex their rapport,” “ignite their preferences” and “cultivate culture through the language of grace.” Henry, who touts himself as the city’s financial watchdog, signed the contract in the name of employee happiness and, hopefully, increased productivity, says Celeste Amato, Henry’s chief of staff. “Our goal is to maximize team effort because it seems like a good idea when we all want to work better together,” she told The Brew.

Officials say they continue to monitor offshore wind projects off the coast of Ocean City. On Monday, City Manager Terry McGean presented the Mayor and Council with a quarterly update on offshore wind activities near Ocean City. As the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) reviews public comments on US Wind’s offshore project, to be located off the coast of the resort, officials say the town would continue to advocate for a “no-build” alternative.

Thurmont has been awarded $50,000 from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development to continue funding its Main Street facade funding program. Two parts of the program — the Main Street interior facade grant program and Main Street community exterior facade improvement program — were each awarded $25,000 through different state revitalization programs for fiscal year 2024.

After their friend’s brother recently died of an overdose, a group of Watkins Mill High School students decided to create a video PSA about the dangers of fentanyl and submit it to the Speak Up, Save a Life student video contest. The students, Jabea Ewane, Thomas Pettit and Steven Santiago, secured first place in the contest and were awarded a $1,000 prize for their PSA titled, “Dangers of Fentanyl – Forever 16.”