Around Maryland

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board approved all 24 school systems’ initial plans as part of the state’s goal to reform public education. The documents approved Thursday are the first submission of Blueprint plans, summarizing the reform work that is complete, currently underway or that will be implemented through the 2023-24 school year.

Westminster officials are asking residents to use less water, echoing a similar July 13 request from Carroll County officials, and one from the Maryland Department of the Environment July 10. The state request was for residents of Carroll County and other parts of Central and Western Maryland. “We’re asking folks to conserve water, to help reduce consumption across the board,” Westminster Mayor Mona Becker said.

The morning after the worst mass shooting in recent Baltimore history, cleaners with red dustpans and brooms worked behind police tape on Elarton Court, sweeping trash. An hour later, a Baltimore Police Department employee began laying down evidence markers. Even casual viewers of TV cop dramas might be surprised by this order of operations — and forensic experts interviewed by The Banner were too. Cleaning a crime scene before police finish processing evidence goes against national standards, they said.

Roy McGrath, the onetime chief of staff to former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan who fled ahead of his federal corruption trial, died by two gunshots to the head — one was self-inflicted and the other came from a federal agent’s gun, authorities in Tennessee said Friday. Because the shootings happened simultaneously and because McGrath, 53, lived for another 30 minutes after being shot, the medical examiner wasn’t able to determine a manner of death, meaning either suicide or homicide, according to the autopsy report obtained by The Baltimore Sun.

In case you were wondering what happened to the bridge on Washington Boulevard that was too short, delaying its opening long after construction ended, we’ll give it to you straight — just like the bridge ended up being. An investigation that began late last year at the request of the Maryland Department of Transportation found the contractor, Lane Construction, did not follow state designs that would have accommodated the curvature of Clarke Boulevard.

Talbot’s county government and public schools are joining forces on a new program intended to help students prepare for the workforce and to potentially help the county with recruiting quality candidates for vital public service roles. On July 26, Talbot County Department of Emergency Services sat down with Talbot County Public Schools student, Geovanni “Geo” Greaves, to sign paperwork to make him the very first county-employed apprentice in the Talbot County Youth Apprenticeship program through TCPS and the Maryland Department of Labor.

The Maryland Office of the Attorney General’s Independent Investigations Division is investigating after a man whom police restrained, handcuffed and placed on his side on a stretcher this week in Baltimore became unresponsive and later died. At about 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday, the Baltimore City Fire Department and Maryland Transit Administration Police responded to the 200 block of South Howard Street, near the Baltimore Convention Center and Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The seven-person state accountability board tasked with supervising how Maryland’s 24 school districts will implement the landmark Blueprint for Maryland’s Future reform voted Thursday to approve Baltimore City’s plan. The Maryland Accountability and Implementation Board did not offer any conditions for signing off on the plan that Baltimore City Public Schools will use to follow guidelines set by the Blueprint, a 2021 law that will cost the state and local governments billions of dollars over a 10-year period to improve public schools.