Around Maryland

Preakness organizers took a different approach to the 2023 version of the storied event, welcoming an international pop star to take the stage following the race. Instead of performing during the day or Friday, the weekend’s biggest performer — Bruno Mars — played shortly after the running of the 148th Preakness Stakes. The result was an attendance total that was slightly higher than last year’s, when Megan Thee Stallion and Lauryn Hill performed on the eve of Preakness 2022, but one that still paled in comparison to the previous decade.

Allegany County’s housing prices have far surpassed the pay scale for many local would-be buyers. According to Maryland Realtors, from April 2023 compared to April 2022 the county saw 9.7% fewer housing units sold with the average sales price up by 19.4%. Home sales across the state dropped by 33.8% year over year in April.

On the side of every Baltimore firehouse, a white sign adorned with flames presents a stark record: 10 people dead in fires already in 2023. The count serves as a reminder of how lethal fires can be, a reality that city and state officials seek to emphasize since Maryland experienced more deaths in the first quarter of this year than in the same period each year for the past two decades.

The Department of Transportation is increasing patrols around the city after an uptick in bike lane citations. Bikers around common in Baltimore. Louisa Benatovich likes to ride her bike around the city when it gets warm. "I like that you can feel very connected to your surroundings and that you're not using your vehicle and it's a little extra workout," she said.

On Tuesday, the council in Montgomery County, Maryland, voted 9-2 to pass legislation requiring safety plans from businesses that stay open late. The bill applies to businesses open between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. that allow, or provide “on-site consumption of tobacco, alcohol, food or cannabis.” The new rules also apply to businesses open between midnight and 2 a.m. that have had two or more police service calls in response to serious incidents.

The Baltimore County Department of Corrections is working on an agreement with the state to send children under 18 who are charged with committing crimes as adults to a youth detention center in Baltimore City. Director of Corrections Walt Pesterfield told the Baltimore County Council during a Tuesday budget hearing that his department was working with the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to establish a memorandum of agreement that would divert child inmates from the Baltimore County Detention Center in Towson.

The fight between the two Baltimore fourth graders — a boy and a girl — started with a crude text message the boy sent about the girl’s parents. Before long, the spat escalated into homeroom, with the girl saying the boy lived with bedbugs and cockroaches. Pulled from class, the two kids attempted to resolve their dispute with a conflict resolution technique called a “restorative circle,” where they try to talk through the disagreement.

Members of the Howard County Board of Education expressed opposition Wednesday to schools Superintendent Michael Martirano’s proposal to increase class sizes and cut more than 101 full-time equivalent staff positions to balance the public school system’s fiscal 2024 budget. The board is expected to vote on a final budget-balancing scenario next Tuesday, the day before the County Council is scheduled to adopt its fiscal 2024 capital and operating budget.