Around Maryland

Two advocacy groups are pushing for a state version of the federal Community Reinvestment Act to ensure more equitable treatment of people of color by home lenders. In Maryland, Black and Latino applicants were denied home loans at a rate 1.6 times higher than white applicants, according to data from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition from 2018 to 2020. In the city of Baltimore, Black applicants were rejected 2.1 times more than white applicants.

Over several decades in the late 1700s and early 1800s, at least 70 enslaved African Americans labored under arduous and hazardous conditions at a forge and foundry in Frederick County that produced, among many other items, ammunition used in the Revolutionary War. Many lived out their lives at the Catoctin Furnace, located near the small bucolic town of Thurmont, a few miles from where the presidential retreat Camp David would be built decades later.

Donald Lawson, a sailor training for an ambitious attempt to break multiple sailing world records this fall, went missing in July in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of Mexico. His wife last heard from him on July 12 and his satellite last received signal of his boat’s location on July 13. Mexican Navy authorities located and searched his capsized sailboat Friday, July 28, but did not find Lawson. Here’s what we know about the missing captain: At this point, any hope for Lawson’s survival likely hinges on him being on a life raft.

It could’ve been a crush but now Charm City Live attendees will have plenty of space to spread out when the music festival takes place at the end of the month.mBut what will that mean for Orioles fans? Instead of being held at War Memorial Plaza, this year’s music festival is taking over the Inner Harbor, relocating to “the heart of Baltimore, at the intersection of Market Place and East Pratt Street in the Inner Harbor, to offer guests an unforgettable live musical experience,” city officials said Wednesday in a news release.

“Mama Duck,” the world’s largest rubber duck, is making its first-ever trip to Maryland. While Mama Duck hasn’t been officially listed by Guinness World Records, owner of the duck, Craig Samborski, says “Nobody’s challenged me on the fact that it’s the largest.” Mama Duck sits at 61 feet tall and weighs 15 tons, that’s approximately 6 times the weight of a Chevrolet Suburban.

Maryland’s Supreme Court will meet next month to consider a new rule that would govern the public’s access to audio recordings of court proceedings. The proposal follows a federal court decision last year that found Maryland’s “broadcast ban,” which prohibited the broadcast of legally obtained recordings of court hearings, violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.