Around Maryland

Since that cold March morning, when María del Carmen Castellón Luna learned her husband was among those who died in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, her grief has been eased by unexpected warmth. Much of what has happened during the past six months might have seemed like a blessing, she said, if it had all happened for a different reason.

Each weekday, Baltimore-area motorists lose more than 20,000 vehicle-hours due to effects of traffic caused by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, and each day, the state gets infinitesimally, but incrementally, closer to rebuilding the felled structure. The Maryland Transportation Authority — the bridge’s owner — has applied for a Water Quality Certification and a Tidal Wetlands License, which are among the approvals it needs from the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Frederick County leaders are urging state officials to put money to complete design of improvements to U.S. 15 through the city of Frederick back into the state’s long-term transportation plan, as transportation officials prepare to visit the county in October.Proposed cuts of $1.3 billion to the state’s 6-year Consolidated Transportation Program would eliminate $14.3 million from the plan for design, engineer, and other work on a project to widen U.S. 15 from Interstate 70 to Md. 26, a longstanding transportation priority for the city and county.

The proposed redevelopment of a public surface parking lot in downtown Bethesda into a 12-story multifamily apartment building with up to 59 units for sale is moving forward now that Montgomery County planners have approved the project’s latest plans. The project, led by Broad Branch Partners of Washington, D.C., also includes the construction of a public park that will be part of the downtown Bethesda Eastern Greenway, an element of the 2017 Bethesda Downtown Plan. The building will be located near 4702 West Virginia Ave. to the east of Wisconsin Avenue.

University of Maryland student activists on Tuesday made good on their threat to sue the university after administrators blocked demonstrations on campus planned for the Oct. 7 anniversary of the bloody Hamas attack on Israel, which has led to a wider war in Gaza. The group University of Maryland Students for Justice in Palestine filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, seeking an injunction that would bar the university from canceling the event.

Unionized sanitation workers at Ecology Services, a company contracted by Anne Arundel County for recycling and yard waste collection, remain on strike this week with no end in sight. Dozens of employees who are part of Teamsters Local 570, the union representing Ecology Services workers, went on strike Sept. 4 over the company’s refusal to address unsafe working conditions and unfair wages.

Belinda Robinson always had thick natural hair and treated it gently, without harsh chemicals. But one day about 17 years ago, she noticed a small smooth spot on the back of her head. After several more years of thinning, she was diagnosed with a kind of alopecia, the general term for hair loss. “When I was first diagnosed I cried, I really cried; it was hard to swallow,” said Robinson, now 53 and an adjunct professor and federal employee who lives in Northern Virginia.

Montgomery County Council Vice President Kate Stewart and Councilmember Natali Fani-Gonzalez are proposing the Vehicular Noise Reduction Bill. It’s a pilot program that will enforce existing state noise laws, using three “noise cameras.” Noise cameras will capture both audio and video of any noise louder than 80 decibels, which is the limit that the state of Maryland has established.