Around Maryland

Could Bel Air turn into the next Towson? That was a worry of some of the nearly 75 residents who crowded into the Bel Air Town Hall on Thursday evening to hear a second round of public testimony and discussion from developers on a 249-unit mixed-use apartment complex proposed for parking lots surrounding the indoor Harford Mall.

The Frederick Planning Commission approved the Brickworks master plan 3-1 on Monday for the second time, after reconsidering and amending a condition that the developer said would be impossible to meet. Commissioners Barbara Nicklas and Ron Beattie voted in favor, along with Alderman Ben MacShane, the Board of Aldermen’s liaison on the commission.

It was the morning of May 4, 2020, and attorney Lisa Blatt was about to make history. From a podium that she set up in her Chevy Chase dining room, Blatt was moments away from presenting oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the first-ever SCOTUS case conducted by telephone. “My [19-year-old] daughter was there keeping time,” she says, “and my husband was in charge of keeping the dog away from the house so he didn’t bark.”

Almost six months since Richard Worley was appointed as Baltimore police commissioner, he has become a city resident. When Mayor Brandon Scott announced Worley as acting commissioner on June 8, a search of public records showed Worley was still living in Anne Arundel County and was not a city resident, WBAL-TV 11 News Investigates was first to report.

Civil rights groups and residents in Wicomico County filed a federal voting rights lawsuit late last week against the county on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, alleging that its system for electing school board and council members is racially discriminatory and unlawful. The Wicomico County NAACP, the Caucus of African American Leaders and the Watchmen With One Voice Ministerial Alliance joined four Wicomico residents in charging the county with violating the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the plaintiffs say extends from “a long and disgraceful history of discrimination against Black residents.”

A surprise wintry mix entered the D.C. area early Monday morning as the roads are expected to be slick when you drive into work. Here’s what you need to know. WTOP meteorologist Lauryn Ricketts reported that there are “snow-covered roads” and some stickage on roads. Crews are currently working to shovel out the snow from the roads.

Baltimore will be switching up its New Year’s Eve celebration at the Inner Harbor this year by introducing a “custom designed drone show” to go along with a traditional fireworks display. The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA), which is co-producing the New Year’s Eve festivities with the City of Baltimore, announced Friday that Image Engineering, a global events company that specializes in laser entertainment and is based in Curtis Bay, will coordinate the drone portion of the event.

It began as a pandemic-era tool bookmarked by internet browsers, crawling along television news chyrons and cited in local public health updates. More than 2.5 billion views later, the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard’s lasting, yet lesser-known, legacy may be how it helped attract monumental funding to build an artificial intelligence hub in Baltimore.