Around Maryland

Howard County’s school system held its first-ever “Pride Prom” Saturday at the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center in Columbia. The event was open to all high school students in the LGBTQIA+ community. Students were encouraged to dress in clothing that they found affirming to their gender and were encouraged to visit the Prom Closet Pop-Up if they didn’t have anything to wear.

The Westminster Veterans Memorial Park will soon add a sidewalk for better access to the planned memorial garden. The 33-acre park, on Crest Lane in Westminster, already includes a walking trail, playground, picnic pavilion and play area. Plans for a memorial garden honoring county veterans are underway. The memorial garden is intended to be a place for reflection and remembrance.

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.