Around Maryland

Baltimore City Circuit Court has issued a 10-day restraining order against the Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, siding with residents who have said the utility company does not have the legal grounds to terminate gas service. It is the latest chapter in a months-long saga between the utility company and residents who have called out BGE for its project to replace more than 11,200 indoor gas regulators with external ones by the end of 2031.

The U.S. Department of Transportation awarded a $25 million Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grant to a regional partnership in Maryland investing in trails. The grant, submitted by Prince George’s County Office of the County Executive on behalf of M-NCPPC Prince George’s County Department of Parks & Recreation, Montgomery Parks and the District Department of Transportation, will drive massive investments in the regional paved trail network across underserved communities in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties and the District of Columbia.

The acting Baltimore Police commissioner who’s been nominated for the permanent job has been working his way up the department’s ranks since 1998 — a 25-year history expected to be a key factor in his confirmation process. Supporters have praised Richard Worley’s track record, calling him someone who knows the department inside and out, while community activists have urged close scrutiny of those decades of policing within a force that has a documented history of unconstitutional policing.

Montgomery County’s housing commission is free to sell land containing a historic Black cemetery without first getting a court’s approval, Maryland’s second-highest court ruled this week. The decision is a blow to the Bethesda African Cemetery Coalition, which sought to prevent a developer from buying an apartment complex on the land.

The school system will accept a grant to expand prekindergarten despite concerns from the Worcester County Commissioners. Worcester County Public Schools (WCPS) officials said this week the school system would accept a $600,000 Pre-K expansion grant. The decision comes after the commissioners declined to offer concurrence regarding the Pre-K3 funding.

The Frederick County Board of Education on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve a $910 million operating budget for fiscal year 2024. The spending plan represents a 10.6% increase over the fiscal 2023 budget. It includes a salary resource pool that will equate to roughly 6% raises for all benefited employees.

The Maryland State Board of Education sided with Baltimore City Public Schools against seven charter school operators in a dispute over new funding from the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan. In Baltimore City, the school district’s board of commissioners created a funding formula that allocates 75% of Blueprint funding directly to all public schools, a level set by state law.

With recreational cannabis set to be legalized in Maryland starting Saturday, state rules around whether and how police officers can use the substance while actively employed or before they are recruited are being called into question. The Baltimore City Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #3 on Wednesday made its position official: The Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions, which has wide latitude to issue directives around drug testing and recruitment policies, should order police agencies around the state to stop barring recruits with a history of cannabis use and discontinue “random” drug screenings for police officers.