Around Maryland

A disturbing trend in Prince George’s County, Maryland, is now on the police department’s radar after Latino construction workers have been robbed at gunpoint of their tools and money on job sites. “These are individuals out here making a living. They’re out there working in the sun and in the cold, and you have individuals taking advantage of them,” said Capt. Saul Serpas with the Prince George’s County Police Department.

Several organizers, activists and artists in the Baltimore region are being recognized for their ongoing work to improve their communities.   The Baltimore Community Foundation has selected 10 recipients of their second annual Neighborhood Spotlight Awards. Each awardee is receiving $5,000. One of the winners is the Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm.  The farm was started by Caribbean Americans in 2014, and over the years, the community asked for certain types of foods to be grown.

Along with billions of dollars to build roads, bridges and transit lines, the federal infrastructure law included funding to boost research into the future of the nation’s transportation system. The University of Maryland was awarded $10 million to launch a new research center, in partnership with teams at four other colleges, that will focus on some of the Biden administration’s top priorities. The Center for Multi-Modal Mobility in Urban, Rural, and Tribal Areas will examine how to build fairer, greener transportation networks, while promoting economic growth.

Allegany County will no longer be eligible for federal transportation planning assistance following a record 9.3% drop in population from 2010 to 2020. News that the county will no longer be required to be part of the federal Metropolitan Planning Organization was disclosed at a recent meeting of the Allegany County Board of Commissioners. The MPO is a part of the Federal Transit Administration. The loss of MPO status makes the county no longer eligible for certain planning requirements and assistance through the MPO.

Five men in graduation caps and gowns filed into front-row seats to cheers and applause. As University of Baltimore faculty sang the men’s praises, large loops of barbed wire were just visible through windows bookending the podium. It was graduation day. Time to celebrate earning bachelor’s degrees in what their valedictorian called the “worst environment possible”: prison. The students marched across the maximum security prison’s library, where they’d taken more than half of their college credits.

By the end of the year, Baltimore residents who don’t speak English will be able to communicate with 911 services in their native language, without waiting for an interpreter. Convey911, which currently provides text-based translation services for the city’s 911 calls, plans to implement a new, AI-backed service in the coming months to improve communication between residents who speak languages other than English and workers taking 911 calls.

On Tuesday night in Texas, the Orioles finished out one of their most successful seasons in recent history — albeit not how the team or fans would have liked — with a 7-1 loss to the Rangers in Game 3 of the American League Division Series. On Friday in Baltimore, fans can come together one more time sporting orange and black, at an event hosted by the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore.

Towson University incoming president Mark Ginsberg comes to the Baltimore County institution from a school that has accomplished much of what Towson aspires to achieve. Ginsberg previously served as provost at George Mason University, which has a higher national ranking for research and a higher graduation and retention rate.