Around Maryland

The town council elected a temporary vice president last week to serve during the current vice president’s absence. The Berlin Town Council last week voted unanimously to elect Councilwoman Shaneka Nichols as vice president pro tempore. The decision came after Councilman Dean Burrell, the vice president of the council, announced he’d be on medical leave for close to two months.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools is testing a new "bus badge" program for students who attend half a dozen schools. School officials said the pilot program will officially kick off next Wednesday, Nov. 8, for students in the Crofton cluster of schools. The school district wants to place electronic chips in new student-issued identification cards. Students will use the cards when they board and get off their buses.

Dozens of people gathered to call for the release of hostages in Gaza and pray for peace during the Jewish Day of Rest, Shabbat. A long row of tables lined the front of the Har Sinai-Oheb Shalom Congregation. Pictures were attached to the backs of chairs representing more than 200 men, women and children being held hostage by Hamas in Gaza.

Wednesday marked the start of open enrollment for Marylanders looking for different health insurance coverage options. To help spread awareness of the 74-day enrollment period, the Maryland Health Benefits Exchange arranged a free fitness bootcamp class, pilates instruction and a yoga stretch session Wednesday evening overlooking Baltimore’s Inner Harbor.

The British artist Sarah Biffin was born in 1784 without hands or feet. Fiercely independent, she wouldn’t allow her parents to carry her into church but instead rolled down the aisle to the family pew. She was so determined not to be held back by her physical disability that she became a skilled seamstress, knotting thread with her tongue.

Shortly after 10 a.m. Saturday, a crowd began making its way from Frederick High School and through the streets toward downtown. They made their way a few blocks to the city’s Baker Park, where tables and booths were set up for the 2023 Maryland STEM Festival. The event was meant to increase interest in STEM subjects — science, technology, engineering and math.

Frederick County Public Schools held a recruitment event Thursday evening to entice students, career changers and district support employees to jump into teaching. The event, called “Become an Educator Night,” was hosted at Frederick High School. It featured tables with FCPS human resources and professional development employees, plus representatives from local colleges and universities that offer education degrees.

A judge cannot serve on the Maryland State Bar Association Committee on Ethics monthly volunteer hotline, the Maryland Judicial Ethics Committee has ruled. In a published ethics opinion issued late last month, the Maryland Judicial Ethics Committee found that the MSBA ethics committee’s judicial members cannot sit on the monthly hotline and field calls from Maryland attorneys on ethical issues because an attorney would likely rely more heavily on a judge’s interpretation.