Around Maryland

The air quality in the D.C. area shifted into Code Orange early Friday morning but is expected to remain unhealthy for some groups throughout the day. Here’s what you need to know. What is a Code Orange Air Quality Alert? While Code Red means some members of the public may experience health effects and some individuals in sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects, code orange is slightly better.

A process fraught with tense discussions and heated public debate ended Tuesday afternoon as the Montgomery County Board of Education took a final vote to adopt next year’s $3.1 billion school operating budget. “Today marks the completion of the annual operating budget development process,” announced Superintendent Monifa McKnight, who added she was proud the district was able to “get to a point we’re proud of.”

Canceled events, emergency messages and mask-clad pedestrians harked back on Thursday to the frenzy of uncertainty in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic as the Baltimore metropolitan area fell under a “code red” air quality alert for the second consecutive day. Federal, state and local government officials are advising the general public to stay indoors or mask up outside in response to plumes of smoke from Canadian wildfires that have wafted into the mid-Atlantic.

As air quality declined to “very unhealthy” levels in the Baltimore area Thursday morning, many local groups canceled or modified outdoor activities for the second straight day amid a historic outbreak of air pollution. In the graphics below view recent Air Quality Index reports from across the United States and historical looks at peak daily readings for fine particulate matter in the Baltimore area.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires poured into the U.S. East Coast and Midwest on Wednesday, covering the capitals of both nations in an unhealthy haze, holding up flights at major airports and prompting people to fish out pandemic-era face masks. While Canadian officials asked other countries for help fighting more than 400 blazes nationwide that already have displaced 20,000 people, air quality with what the U.S. rates as hazardous levels of pollution extended into central New York.

Pretty much every item in the modest Silver Spring apartment Baktash Amini shares with his wife, Maryam, and their two young kids has been donated: the table and chairs, sofas, bedroom furniture, even the television hanging from the wall. One notable exception: a white toddler-size Bentley sports car covered in stickers that sits on the floor next to one of the sofas.

Pastor Rod Hudson said the first time he came to Baltimore to visit Ames Memorial United Methodist Church in 2007, he was shocked by how much drug activity was going on in Sandtown-Winchester. But he felt called to work there, he said, and not only took the job at the church, but became engaged in efforts and ideas to turn the neighborhood around.