Around Maryland

Families in one east Baltimore neighborhood are taking a stand against crime. The Belair-Edison neighborhood already has a community improvement association. Now, they want a neighborhood watch with signs posted throughout the area and neighbors working together to prevent crime. Sherell Sellers said she and her neighbors are tired of the crime. They met Thursday to develop the watch group. Even before the meeting, she said she and a neighbor stopped teenagers from stealing an Amazon delivery truck.

Maryland roads include more than 700 historical markers commemorating famous battles and buildings. Some, like the one introducing Kent Island to motorists, hark back to the years before Catholic settlers even founded the colony in 1634. Others, like the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory that was dedicated on Solomons Island in 1925, are more recent. What they share is that many fail to convey the whole story. They’re not supposed to; at 70 words apiece, the idea is to whet an appetite to learn more. Yet a motorist might well learn the wrong information.

At a Wednesday meeting of Maryland Higher Education Commission, officials discussed how the implementation of Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, an education overhaul passed by the 2021 Maryland General Assembly, may drastically change how students are assessed for college and career readiness, among other topics.

The walls of the tiny office shared by Bryan Butler and Frank Jones are filled with success stories. Every kid who comes through the Springhill Lake Recreation Center — every child whose lives were touched by homework help, basketball and the guidance of strong Black men — gets to put a photo on those walls. There are thousands of them.

Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services personnel and other county government employees could soon see better retirement plans under two bills before the County Council. At a workshop on Tuesday, Council President Brad Young brought forth both bills on behalf of County Executive Jessica Fitzwater. The first bill emerged from an agreement between Fitzwater and the Career Firefighters Association of Frederick County — a local branch of the International Association of Firefighters that represents more than 400 DFRS employees.

Moving one step closer to the realization of the construction of a state-of-the-art facility to house science, technology, engineering and mathematics programs, Morgan State University on Thursday revealed designs for its new estimated $342 million Science and Research Complex, slated to open in fall 2027. The Architect of Record (AOR) is Moody Nolan Inc., the nation’s largest Black-owned architecture firm, in collaboration with two associate architects, Cannon Design and K. Dixon Architecture.

Baltimore City leaders are touting the Clean Corps program, saying it has removed tons of trash from vacant lots and alleys. One crew worked on West Lafayette Avenue Wednesday after receiving a 311 call that someone had dumped trash in the backyard of a vacant house. The crew could not enter the private property, so instead, they worked on the nearby alley.

Silence. This is what Sean Rose, 33, heard when he clicked his car’s electronic key in his apartment’s garage in Adelphi, Maryland, one morning in early August 2023. He was met with an empty parking spot where his car should have been. He later found out through a security video camera that his 2020 Kia Rio had been stolen.