Around Maryland

Even as a small, skinny child, Dakarai Baldwin was brave. A funny and bright student, Dakarai talked easily to girls and adults. He carried himself with confidence and never shied away from a challenge, loved ones say. Marquise Williams, his best friend, said Dakarai, nicknamed “Bonk,” rarely expressed vulnerability. Until the 17-year-old believed he was going to die. He died in a triple shooting in May 2022, one of 20 minors aged 17 and under who were killed in Baltimore last year.

Mayor Brandon Scott said he wants to see the Ravens-Dolphins game on New Year’s Eve moved to a prime time slot on “Sunday Night Football,” swatting away a claim that he and Police Commissioner Richard Worley approached the team and the league about keeping the game in the afternoon because of “security concerns.” If the NFL were to use “flexible scheduling” to move the matchup between two top AFC contenders to “Sunday Night Football,” which typically kicks off about 8:15 p.m., the game would commence shortly after the start of New Year’s festivities at the Inner Harbor.

Town Manager Jared Schumacher has been on the job for about six months, but he’s already worked through the biggest challenge he faced when he arrived. And now he’s pumped about all the things that will be happening for Boonsboro in 2024. When he arrived back in June, there was good news and formidable news. The good news is that money had been secured for some major — and overdue — capital projects.

When Maryland hired a new state superintendent of schools in October, the reaction among education observers was one of excitement — mixed with a sense of relief. Carey Wright, who has been appointed on an interim basis to complete the term of outgoing Superintendent Mohammed Choudhury, is a top-tier recruit with deep ties to Maryland. She spent decades working as a teacher and administrator in some of the state’s largest school districts before serving a nine-year stint as schools chief in Mississippi, where she was credited with leading a highly successful overhaul to literacy instruction.

In West Friendship Park, where the Howard County Living Farm Heritage Museum recently closed, the more than 340 acres of land will now be home to the county’s new Office of Agriculture, County Executive Calvin Ball said Tuesday at a press conference. This will be the county’s first agriculture office and the state’s third, and it will promote farming in the county. “The Office of Agriculture will create a physical space where all our agriculture-facing functions can collaborate toward a common goal of supporting farms and farmers,” Ball said.

An accidental phone call last March led Rashad Corey to what he calls the job of a lifetime. Corey, 35, was trying to get hired for four months for the highly anticipated “The Color Purple,” the new musical version of the screen classic. But he kept being forwarded to supervisors with no success. But that day, the husband of the project’s key costumer misdialed Corey’s number, which led to a conversation and subsequently an invitation to be hired as a costumer.

Maryland public school officials will receive more time to submit a second set of Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform documents, and it will be done in two phases. The original date to submit responses by March 15 remains, but local school officials will only have to answer questions and prompts on one page labeled “Systemwide Blueprint Implementation.” One of the prompts request school officials to address in their responses: “How your district is communicating its goals and plans with those implementing the Blueprint in the district, including principals and educators; soliciting feedback; and adapting its communication strategies to improve stakeholder understanding of the Blueprint’s purpose.”

Coming to Prince George’s County, Maryland: A medical facility doing more to keep moms-to-be and their babies alive, healthy and close to home. When it comes to having babies, many women in Prince George’s County have to go out of the county to get the medical care they need. “Eight out of 10 moms who live in the county deliver their babies outside of the county,” said Deneen Richmond, president of Luminis Health Doctors Community Medical Center in a news release.

It’s arguably Baltimore’s largest health crisis: Drug overdoses have taken the lives of 6,360 people in the city since 2010. An even larger number of deaths — more than 17,000— have involved drugs in some way. Reporters working for The Baltimore Banner and The New York Times are investigating the problem and we want to hear from people who have personal experience. We are especially interested in talking to older Black Baltimoreans, or their families, who have struggled with drug use.