Around Maryland

It’s lunchtime at Benjamin Franklin High School, and as students stream in and out of crowded hallways, a small group of teenage moms congregates around a low, circular table in a closed-off room. With them are their toddlers and young children — some eating, one singing and another breastfeeding. The South Baltimore institution launched a family center in 2014 in response to a number of Benjamin Franklin students juggling families with studies and needing more resources to stay in school. Since the center’s inception, Benjamin Franklin has seen fewer absences, more students going to college and a teen parent graduation rate of 67% to 80%, school representatives say.

Honeybee losses are at record highs across the nation, with Maryland beekeepers reporting a 55% winter loss in 2021, the second highest in the country, according to an annual survey from the Bee Informed Partnership, a national collaboration of research laboratories. And it’s just not bees. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources warns that habitat loss and invasive species imperil the state’s 1,200 rare, threatened or endangered native species among the more than 15,000 species listed. Even common species are at risk, it says.

President Joe Biden on Monday nominated two Baltimore men — a former public defender and a longtime federal prosecutor — to the federal bench in Maryland following his pledge to appoint judges with diverse backgrounds and experiences. If he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Brendan Hurson would become the second Biden appointee on the U.S. District Court for Maryland to have been a federal public defender. 

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman announced Deputy Health Officer Tonii Gedin would serve as acting health officer following Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman’s promotion to the state health department.

There were 185 rape cases when the Baltimore County Police Department reported their official 2022 crime statistics to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. But when annual crime figures made their way to the public, almost half the rape cases had disappeared — the number was now 90. Over at least the last two years, Baltimore County’s official annual crime numbers — which the county cites in public messaging about crime trends — have included just a portion of rape cases police actually investigated.

Henry Wise High School’s gymnasium was full of neighbors from Upper Marlboro, Maryland, frustrated about the number of traffic incidents nearby. Just last week, one of the school’s own died in a car crash. The emergency meeting was held by Prince George’s Council Vice Chair Wala Blegay after 18-year-old Cayliy Haygood was killed in a crash on March 7. There have been two other crashes in the same area within the last week.

During the weeks that Poolesville High School has been under construction, several students have reported nausea, headaches and difficulty concentrating. The students and their parents say the symptoms started in February and are a reaction to fumes being emitted from tar used in renovations. They have asked Montgomery County school officials to pause the work until students’ health concerns are addressed.

From now until the end of April, the Prince George’s County, Maryland, Animal Services Facility and Adoption Center will waive all adoption fees for dogs and cats. It’s all thanks to $50,000 grant from Utah-based Best Friends Animal Society, a nonprofit organization with a focus on animal welfare by providing resources to shelters across the country. Marlan Roberts, senior manager of operations at Best Friends, said the surrender rates are increasing at the shelter, and waving the fee was an incentive to get people’s attention.

During the first of two town hall-style meetings Monday, Carroll County Public Schools Superintendent Cynthia McCabe said staff will discuss updated class size estimates based on CCPS budgetary constraints related to implementation of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. In February Board of Education President Marsha Herbert hinted at big changes in how county schools will operate as a result of the Blueprint.