Around Maryland

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.

The number of child care providers, especially in-home child care providers, was on a steady decline before the pandemic. But the pandemic only exacerbated the problem, driving some out of business while dissuading others from starting new child care businesses, since no one wanted extra people inside their homes. In 2021, the federal government set aside $24 billion in stabilization funding to help keep child care providers in business.

The Berlin Town Council agreed this week to apply for federal funding that could be used for design of a pedestrian bridge over Route 113. On Monday, elected officials authorized an application for funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation Reconnecting Communities and Neighborhoods for Community Planning Project. The funding could help the town plan for a variety of connectivity projects, including a pedestrian bridge over Route 113.

Despite years of efforts in Baltimore and around the country, Black women remain more than three times as likely as white women to die from pregnancy-related causes. But researchers at Morgan State University are pretty sure they know a way to reduce the disparities. They want to train more doulas from Black communities.

Darlene Taylor was standing on West Main Street in Crisfield the other day and shouted a greeting to a woman she knew coming out of the Crisfield Discount Pharmacy. Seeing Taylor, the woman bolted across the street, to say hello and ask a question. “What’s going on with the pigeons?” she wondered. Taylor is not an ornithologist. Nor is she a hobbyist who keeps homing pigeons on her roof.

More than half of the 50 Maryland schools showing the greatest improvement on the state’s English language arts test are in Prince George’s County. The Maryland State Department of Education on Tuesday released school-by-school results of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, showing just how much — or how little — learning students have recovered since the pandemic.