Around Maryland

Ocean City, Maryland, beach lifeguards put the labor into Labor Day weekend, making 380 ocean rescues of swimmers over the course of Saturday and Sunday. Storm remnants strengthened rip currents near the city’s 10-mile span of beach, taking swimmers hundreds of yards out to sea. Whereas city beach lifeguards have enough staff to operate 90 lifeguard stands during the summer, they have the manpower to staff only 33 stands once August ends and school and college resume.

At the end of June, as many Marylanders eagerly anticipated buying recreational marijuana legally for the first time, Sgt. Thomas Morehouse was worried about the safety of Baltimore County’s roads. Morehouse, a certified drug recognition expert for the Baltimore County Police Department, was concerned about residents lighting up and then getting behind the wheel after July 1.

Kamiara West positioned her plate to take advantage of the midday light streaming through the windows, angling her phone to capture an artful view of her chicken Caesar salad with a garlic knot on the side. She took a few photos, then turned her phone to show them off. The snaps could easily be those of a food influencer-in-the-making. But the subject wasn’t a trendy new Baltimore restaurant. Instead, West, 18, was photographing one of the meals of the day in the cafeteria at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High School.

On a recent rainy afternoon, a dozen educators and environmentalists from Central New York were standing ankle deep in Charlotte Creek here, collecting water samples in test tubes, petri dishes and ice trays. As the rain pelted the group at a sideways angle, with the creek running faster than usual, Heather Grant, one of the leaders, felt compelled to offer a gentle warning.

Frederick County’s schools and libraries will receive federal money to benefit students who lack internet connectivity at home. The grant comes as part of the federal Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF), which was created through the American Rescue Plan. Schools and libraries across the country who apply and are selected can use the money to “cover reasonable costs of laptop and tablet computers; Wi-Fi hotspots; modems; routers; and broadband connectivity purchases for off-campus use by students, school staff, and library patrons,” according to the Federal Communications Commission’s website.

The Maryland Office of the Attorney General has ratcheted up a more defiant legal strategy in its defense of a still-dysfunctional Baltimore jail health care system, hiring an outside law firm and targeting the medical monitor who has been gauging the state’s compliance, or lack thereof, with the terms of its settlement. In recent months, the Maryland AG hired attorney William Lunsford of the law firm Butler Snow LLP. Lunsford and his associates have gained notoriety in Alabama and other states for defending state prisons against a variety of allegations, and at a steep cost.

Even though industry experts say Black haircare is a $2.5 billion industry, unfortunately, many of the hair products being marketed to Black women are dangerous for their health. Among those products are hair straighteners that a National Institutes of Health study found increase the risk of uterine cancer. Montgomery County, Maryland, resident Hannah McCall is the executive director of the nonprofit Clean Beauty for Black Girls. She told WTOP that many personal care products marketed to Black women contain harmful, “endocrine disrupting chemicals.”