Around Maryland

The Allegany County Board of Commissioners on Thursday approved $345,000 for the Infill Development Incentive Program in collaboration with the city of Cumberland. The mayor and City Council on Tuesday discussed the agreement to sell several lots for $1 each to TeaBow Residential LLC, based in Washington, D.C., to increase housing stock in the municipality.

Patricia Bibes still has panic attacks every time she hears an ambulance siren or sees a white “typical contractor minivan,” she says, “and they are everywhere.” It’s been almost two years since Bibes’ 18-year-old son, Enzo Alvarenga, was killed on Old Georgetown Road in North Bethesda—mere blocks from her home—but her emotions remain raw, as if the tragedy happened yesterday.

The Maryland Transit Administration is considering major bus route changes that could impact people who commute from central Maryland to Washington, D.C. At a hearing Thursday night, riders shared their concerns with the proposal. “Cuts are reasonable, but not now and not to this level,” commuter Jeff Schreier said.

There are traces of Andrea Kolbe all over her big sister, Kyra Vocci. A long chain with Kolbe’s wedding ring — an ornate silver band — hangs close to Vocci’s heart, beside a locket engraved with Kolbe’s photo and fingerprint. Tattooed on Vocci’s forearm is a rainbow and a quote Kolbe liked: “There is a rainbow of hope at the end of every storm.”

A county-by-county breakdown shows Northern Virginia and the Maryland suburbs of D.C. are generally much healthier than the national average. The 2024 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, produced by the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, looks at why there are differences in health within and across communities.

A small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore has suspended its entire police force pending the results of an investigation by state prosecutors, a largely unexplained decision that has left residents shocked, skeptical and on edge. The unusually harsh crackdown on law enforcement in Ridgely suggests that even some of the country’s most rural communities are feeling the effects of the national reckoning on policing that unfolded in the wake of George Floyd’s killing.

Chaotic classrooms, cramped cafeterias and multiple assemblies to accommodate droves of students could become a thing of the past for Hampton Elementary School. vParents spent years advocating for change for their beloved but overcrowded Timonium school. Their calls for help led to what Baltimore County school officials have called their largest-ever redistricting process.

Local school systems have less than four months to begin meeting new financial reporting requirements to ensure public school students receive the resources for a quality education, under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan. The Blueprint’s Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB), which oversees the 10-year $3.8 billion plan, approved a policy Thursday that would require officials from all 24 school systems to ensure at least 75% of per pupil funding follows that person to the school attended.