Around Maryland

Christian Lynch loves Baltimore. He regularly attends concerts, dines at restaurants and hangs out with friends in Charm City. But he and his wife moved to Owings Mills last year, where they found a more reasonably priced house and a quieter and calmer place for their reactive dog who “was triggered by everything” living in the city.

Standing in front of a group of people inside a mental health treatment facility, James Oxley recounted the story about trying to help his then 15-year-old son — a sweet kid at home and a drug user hanging out with a bad crew while he was at school. Oxley described the struggle of trying to get his son help, but his awareness of what he could do was limited. The places where he did turn couldn’t really provide the help.

The City of Annapolis reached a new record for the most flooding events experienced in the city’s history, according to new data from the Annapolis Office of Emergency Management. The city has flooded 74 times in the past 8 months, according to data provided to The Capital Gazette from OEM. This is nearly ten more than the previous record of 65 set in 2019.

Maryland’s trucking industry is feeling the effects of the port workers’ strike at the Port of Baltimore. The Maryland Motor Truck Association told WJZ that terminals are essentially closed with only a few trucks able to pick up cargo that was dropped off before the strike. Truck companies were given extended hours last week to remove cargo from the terminal grounds at the Port of Baltimore.

As western North Carolina navigates the destruction in the wake of Hurricane Helene, Baltimore is readying a team of 911 operators and emergency dispatchers to potentially assist the state. “As a city who has seen our fair share of significant emerging situations and challenges, I know how meaningful support from other jurisdictions can be,” Mayor Brandon Scott said at a news conference Wednesday following the city’s Board of Estimates’ meeting.

Baltimore Police launched a citywide initiative last month focusing on unregistered motorized scooters due to increased traffic violations and crime involving illegal ones, the department said. Unregistered vehicles such as mopeds, minibikes and all-terrain vehicles have been targeted to a greater extent by Baltimore Police since mid-September, according to a Friday news release.

Hagerstown motorists have an opportunity to share feedback about traffic concerns, including those affecting pedestrians and bicyclists, with local and regional planning officials through a survey that must be completed by Friday. As of Monday morning, 449 people had submitted responses through the survey, said Matt Mullenax, executive director for the Hagerstown/Eastern Panhandle Metropolitan Planning Organization, or HEPMPO.

As the Prince George’s County Public School System celebrated National Energy Efficiency Day, school leaders and others from the Maryland community gathered at Ellen Ochoa Middle School in Landover Hills to see what the future of new school construction will be like. A new school that opened this fall, Ellen Ochoa Middle School, sits on a big plot of land. Underground there are 90 geothermal wells that run 400 feet deep, but at ground level, one can’t even tell.

As the anniversary of the Hamas attacks on Israel and the ensuing war approaches, people around the Washington region are mourning, praying, rallying and finding comfort in their communities. The nation’s capital has seen a steady drumbeat of vigils and protests since the conflict erupted nearly a year ago on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants attacked Israel, prompting a devastating military response.