Around Maryland

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%.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman signed an executive order last week creating a food council to devise solutions to food insecurity in the county. As residents struggle to recover financially from the pandemic and federal assistance launched during the public health emergency comes to an end, hunger experts encouraged Pittman to bring together people who are affected by food insecurity and those who work in food assistance to come up with creative, longer-term remedies to the county’s food access gap.

Erica Johnson talked of workers in temporary and travel positions who left their Allegany County jobs this year because they couldn’t secure housing. Some traveling nurses, equipment operators and construction workers reside at local campgrounds because they “can’t find a place to stay,” she said. A lot has changed in the area’s real estate market since 2019, said Johnson, executive of the Historic Highlands Association of Realtors that represents more than 150 real estate professionals and individuals in related businesses that impact the industry across the tri-state area.

The Baltimore County school board has narrowed the superintendent search to four finalists: Myriam Yarbrough, Baltimore County’s deputy superintendent, Robert Taylor, a former North Carolina deputy state superintendent, Kenny Rodrequez, superintendent of Grand View Consolidated School District No. 4 in Missouri, Jason Glass, a commissioner at the Kentucky Department of Education.

Much of UpSurge Baltimore CEO Jamie McDonald's job is to keep track of the startups and venture capital firms that make up Baltimore's tech ecosystem. Yet even she can't keep track of everything happening in the industry right now.n "I'm thrilled when we hear about a company that we haven't heard of," McDonald said.