Around Maryland

The way vacancies are filled on the Talbot County Board of Education could change. At a Talbot County Council meeting Tuesday, members discussed council member Dave Stepp's interest in requesting local state delegates to prefile a bill that would give the council the authority to fill Board of Education vacancies, rather than the governor.

The Prince George’s County Board of Education has approved the second phase of a school construction project funded through a mix of public-private funds. The vote Thursday night to move ahead comes a week after a similar vote failed. School board members conveyed a sense of urgency Thursday to approve the work.

Victims’ advocates urged adult survivors of sexual abuse by members of the clergy to come forward Thursday ahead of a landmark Maryland law going into effect Sunday. The Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, known as SNAP, held a news conference outside of the Baltimore Basilica on Cathedral Street to discuss the Child Victims Act, the possibility of the Baltimore archdiocese declaring bankruptcy and the still-redacted names in the attorney general’s report on child sexual abuse within the archdiocese.

Food banks and pantries statewide, already straining to fill the gap from the end of COVID benefits, are bracing to meet additional demand if a government shutdown furloughs federal and military workers and federal nutrition programs run dry. “If people are without a paycheck and then they also need our services…it will be a strain on our organization, because we are already overwhelmed with people,” said Krista Pettit, director of One Mission Cambridge, a nonprofit group of churches providing food assistance and other services.

The Baltimore City Public Schools System failed to pay $5.1 million in employee benefit contributions over eight years, according to a Baltimore inspector general investigation. City employees who are not part of the state retirement and pension system, such as custodians, cafeteria workers, school police officers and administrative staff, must become members of the city’s retirement saving plan, according to the Thursday report.

The next stop to connect East and West Baltimore is determining if Red Line buses or trains will pass over or under downtown streets. The Maryland Department of Transportation released three maps of proposed tunnels and surface-level routes Thursday. The first proposed map, which is similar to the 2015 proposal nixed by former Gov. Larry Hogan, would construct a tunnel between Woodlawn in Baltimore County and the Westside Skill Center in Edmondson Village in West Baltimore.

Jason Billingsley, the 32-year-old man accused of killing Baltimore entrepreneur Pava LaPere, has been arrested, police said early Thursday morning. Officials were scheduled to announce details regarding the arrest at a news conference later Thursday morning, Baltimore Police said in an invitation sent after midnight. The police department said Tuesday that Billingsley was the suspect in LaPere’s killing, and added Wednesday that it was also searching for the 32-year-old in connection with a rape and arson investigation that followed a fire in Upton earlier this month.

After a four-year hiatus, the Baltimore Book Festival is coming back in 2024. Todd Yuhanick, interim CEO of the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA), announced on Wednesday that his organization is planning to produce the festival next May as one of its signature events for fiscal 2024. “The Book Fest is coming back,” he told his board. “The Book Fest is going to be in Waverly this year.