Around Maryland

Howard University leaders sought to reassure students and parents this week after the school year began with alarming incidents on and near campus that injured multiple students and left one person hospitalized after a stabbing. University leaders described a throng of 50 or so young people — a “fight club” that campus and city safety officials had been monitoring this summer — swarming areas around campus over the weekend as students were arriving for the school year.

U.S. Navy air station Naval Air Station Patuxent River on Thursday awarded a 50-year contract worth approximately $349 million to American States Utility Services Inc. (ASUS) to operate, maintain and provide construction management services for its water distribution and wastewater collection facilities. ASUS will also have the opportunity to generate additional revenues under this contract for new construction projects provided through contract modifications with the U.S. government.

Baltimore Peninsula, the waterfront redevelopment project, and Volo Sports, the national adult sports leagues group started in Baltimore, are launching a more than 4-acre multipurpose sports venue in South Baltimore. Volo Beach, a new hub for activities including beach volleyball and pickleball, is expected to be in “full swing” by fall, according to a news release announcing the project, which is a partnership between Volo Sports and the Baltimore Peninsula development team, led by the New York-based MAG Partners.

A new bus route is the first moving step of Baltimore’s reimagined Red Line. The Quicklink 40 was initially mentioned in June as part of Gov. Wes Moore’s plan to resurrect the once-cancelled project to connect East and West Baltimore. “The new route is intended to provide expanded travel options for riders as plans take shape for the relaunched Red Line transit route,” the Maryland Department of Transportation said in a news release Wednesday.

Maryland is engaged in an unprecedented effort to redetermine eligibility for Medicaid — the public health insurance program for low-income people — for the first time in three years. Roughly 1.8 million Marylanders will have to complete paperwork to reenroll in Medicaid, a process that was paused during the pandemic to ensure access to health care. Over 100,000 people are receiving renewal notices each month over the course of a year.

There’s good news for Montgomery County residents without Internet service or access to computers. Montgomery County is offering free computers and up to $45 per month off home or mobile Internet for some low-income residents. The program, offered right before the start of the new school year, will kick off with a distribution of the new Maryland Connected Device Chromebook laptop computers from noon to 4 p.m. on Wednesday at the Germantown American Job Center.

Today Maryland Task Force 1 (MDTF-1) heads to Hawaii to provide aid after the wildfires ravaged the Hawaiian island of Maui. According to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS) spokesperson Pete Piringer the 80-member team plans to assist with search and rescue operations. The mission has been classified as a Type I Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Urban Search and Rescue, Piringer posted on X, the platform previously referred to as Twitter.

A legislative workgroup tasked with recommending changes to the degree approval process at Maryland’s colleges and universities started work this week, as the Maryland Higher Education Commission awaits legal advice on its most recent controversial decision. The workgroup was formed by the General Assembly earlier this year — before the commission’s controversial decision in June to allow a new business analytics degree at Towson University over the objection of officials at Morgan State University, a historically Black campus five miles away.