Around Maryland

Ashlyn Thompson’s father recently received an invitation to view the vibrant red, yellow and orange colors of fall. As a colorblind person, it’s something he’s never seen before. Montgomery Parks recently acquired special color-correcting glasses for color deficient visitors, and the agency did a test run last month that included Thompson’s dad.

The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a new score report for the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis, and the news is not good. HACA scored just 42 points on a scale of 100 and was labeled a “troubled” performer, according to a Public Housing Assessment System report issued Nov. 2.

A recent poll of Anne Arundel County residents listed crime and the state of the economy as the area’s most pressing challenges. Approximately 36% of the 586 county residents who responded to the survey conducted in the last week of October cited crime as a top concern, while 23% pointed to the state of the economy, including employment, cost of living and the business environment, as a major issue. The poll was conducted by Anne Arundel Community College and the Center for the Study of Local Issues.

On a warm Friday morning in early September, a small group of people gathered in Fells Point to do what some consider unthinkable: jump into the Baltimore harbor. With pool noodles and inner tubes in hand, 20 or so harbor advocates and researchers organized by Baltimore’s Waterfront Partnership leapt into the water from a pier at Bond Street Wharf.

Juvenile justice stakeholders told state lawmakers Wednesday to hold the line on reforms they passed one year ago amid public concern and amplified media attention on rising youth gun violence and a spike in auto thefts. During the second in a series of briefings, the powerful House Judiciary Committee opened the year-old Juvenile Justice Reform Act to dissection.