Around Maryland

The National Aquarium has earned a five-year renewal of its accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ (AZA) independent Accreditation Commission in March at the AZA’s Mid-Year Meeting. This renewal extends the National Aquarium’s continuous accreditation since its original application in 1984.

Could there be a Triple Crown winner this year? Kentucky Derby champion Mage is confirmed for the Preakness Stakes. This is your guide to the 148th running of the Preakness Stakes on May 20 at Pimlico Race Course in northwest Baltimore. What is the Preakness Stakes: The Preakness Stakes is an annual horse race that is the middle jewel of the Triple Crown.

From the day that County Executive Marc Elrich sent his recommended ten cent property tax hike to the county council, not a single source of mine in the council building predicted that he would get all of it. That’s despite the fact that all six county employee unions have supported it and the most powerful union – the Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA) – has made it a top priority for passage.

The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the U.S. Clean Air Act, was also tossed by a federal court.

The Internal Revenue Service has quietly built its own prototype system to allow Americans to file tax returns digitally and free of charge, according to three current and former agency officials, essentially creating government software that could disrupt the tax-prep industry. The system was developed by the IRS and U.S. Digital Service, the White House’s technology consulting agency.

Prince George’s planning and parks agency is moving forward with plans to consolidate its headquarters in Largo, which the county envisions as a burgeoning downtown, having recently acquired two office buildings there from the Maryland state government and University of Maryland Global Campus. The powerful agency, which oversees the county’s critical land use regulatory function and has a $778 million budget for the present fiscal year, will move some 800 employees to Largo from several offices it owns or leases in Upper Marlboro, Riverdale and Greenbelt.

The Board of Estimates approved the sale of the old Patapsco Elementary School to the Cherry Hill Community Development Corporation on Wednesday. The old building will be demolished to make way for mixed-use, mixed-income housing that includes an adult learning center. While he is excited for the project, Council President Nick Mosby had concerns about the process.

The official end to the COVID-19 federal public health emergency was Thursday, but the Carroll County Health Department announced last week that it will continue to provide related resources and information. U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced in February that the emergency would end May 11, and said since the peak of the Omicron surge at the end of January 2022, daily COVID-19 reported cases were down 92%, COVID-19 deaths had declined by more than 80%, and new COVID-19 hospitalizations were down nearly 80%.