Around Maryland

The ceiling of this church is the sky. There are no stained-glass windows, just graffiti-covered concrete walls. No pews, only chairs unfolded on a vacant lot in Station North. Church members arrive by motorized wheelchairs, walkers, canes. A few smoke cigarettes or drink out of bottles wrapped in plastic bags. Many have slept on the streets, and some still lack permanent housing.

When Amir Saadah heard that the kid he coached a decade ago had been hurt while trying to render aid to his colleague during a Northwest Baltimore blaze, he wasn’t surprised. The football coach hadn’t picked 16-year-old Dillon J. Rinaldo to lead Fair Lawn High School’s varsity team because of any physical feats. It wasn’t the teenage Rinaldo’s practice attendance record, either.

The health department in Charles County, Maryland, is warning of an increase in rabies cases in the area. One raccoon and two skunks have tested positive for rabies since mid-September, according to a news release. The two skunks that tested positive for rabies were found on Sept. 21 and Oct. 24 in the Waldorf or White Plains area.

Maryland’s education department is using $4.7 million in federal grant money to fund a program geared at expanding students’ access to fresh fruits and vegetables during the school day. The Maryland State Department of Education said it will distribute funds to 213 elementary schools statewide — up from 196 schools during the previous school year — from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program.

In its memorandum of understanding with the Orioles, the state of Maryland has set itself up to receive less revenue from state-owned land near Camden Yards — handing potentially lucrative profits to the team. Revenue that could reach millions of dollars annually from the development of land and real estate, including the Camden Yards warehouse, would flow to the ballclub.

Maryland’s Supreme Court finally righted a historic wrong Thursday, granting posthumous bar admission to the man who might have become Maryland’s first Black lawyer in 1857 if not for the racist attitudes of the era. Edward Garrison Draper is the earliest known individual who was fully qualified to become a lawyer in Maryland but denied admission to the bar because of his race.

A rabbi called for “hope, love and light” in the wake of the terror attacks in Israel that “shook us to our very foundation.” Maryland’s governor encouraged listeners to summon “the courage to reach across boundaries” and “remember their humanity to others.” A Baltimore teen voiced her hope that ongoing violence in the Middle East won’t prevent a planned trip to Israel next summer.

Just hours before he was killed last week, a Maryland judge known for being fair and even-keeled calmly explained his ruling in a divorce case following hours of emotional testimony. On the losing end of the ruling was the man suspected of fatally shooting Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson later that day in the driveway outside the judge’s home. For Wilkinson’s family, friends and colleagues, it’s an unfathomable end to an exceptional life.

Transportation Security Administration officials are reporting record numbers of guns caught at Baltimore and Washington airports so far this year. As of this month, TSA officers at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport have caught 36 guns at checkpoints, topping last year’s record of 35, according to a release. Officers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport have caught 30 guns at checkpoints, also a record.