Around Maryland

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.”

The only homeless shelter in rural Somerset County on Maryland’s Eastern Shore closed with little warning over the summer after an audit identified improper spending, including covid relief dollars spent on an employee’s Jeep Compass — leaving the state’s poorest county without a shelter as homelessness spikes. Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

Not all playgrounds are created equal. It’s something I learned in the pandemic years, when I drove absurd distances to new playgrounds just to have somewhere to take my toddler. Some playgrounds are perfectly fine, a great standby for the neighborhood kids. Others are practically theme parks, with attractions that could keep my daughter busy for hours.