Around Maryland

Morgan State University is on track to be the first Historically Black College and University, or HBCU, in nearly half a century to open a new medical school. The proposed name is The Maryland College of Osteopathic Medicine and it is scheduled to welcome its first class in Fall 2024.  As of this month, only four HBCUs have affiliated medical schools: Howard University College of Medicine, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science, Meharry Medical College, and Morehouse School of Medicine. By 2025, Xavier University in New Orleans plans to launch its medical school.

A dead humpback whale was found on the beach at Assateague Island National Seashore on Monday, according to the U.S. National Park Service. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources and the National Aquarium are attempting to determine how the 20-foot whale died, according to a park service news release, which also says there are “no obvious signs” to the cause of the whale’s death. When the necropsy is completed, the whale will be moved from the upper part of the seashore’s oversand vehicle area to the sand dunes, where it will dry out before being buried. Those who come across the whale are asked to keep a distance and to keep their dogs leashed, the release says.

Gov.-elect Wes Moore built his campaign around a central motto — leave no one behind — and the details of the events leading up to Moore’s inauguration this week show how the administration is planning for inclusivity. That, he says, is no accident. “It’s the reason why we wanted to have the most inclusive inaugural gala, the swearing-in, the day of service, the events on Sunday evening,” Moore told The Baltimore Banner.

It has been seven months since a majority of Baltimore County Council members called on the county school board to launch a nationwide search for a new leader, claiming that Superintendent Darryl Williams had offered “no real solutions” to critical problems facing the district. Now, with Williams facing a Feb. 1 decision to tell the board whether he wants another four years, his future remains tenuous.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott led off the triumphant Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade on Monday that he had promised city residents he would deliver. Drummers, dancers and pompom-twirlers rounded the corner at Eutaw Street shortly after noon and proceeded south down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, the street named in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

Jamal Davis wanted to do something when he learned in May that Experience Corps, a tutoring program that links Baltimore City schools with adults 50 and older, might have to close its doors due to insufficient funding. Experience Corps is run by the Washington, D.C.-based AARP Foundation, which advocates for adults 50 and older. After AARP announced that it could no longer fund the tutoring program, a group of Baltimore-area tutors launched a campaign to keep it going.

When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Baltimore on Oct. 31, 1964, civil rights leader Leo W. Burroughs Jr. was thrilled to meet him. King was in town for a conference and to encourage Black voters to cast ballots in the upcoming election that pitted Democratic President Lyndon Johnson against Republican nominee Barry Goldwater. Johnson would go on to win in a landslide. “It was a great time,” said Burroughs, founder and president of Roots of Scouting Inc., a nonprofit teaching African American youth life skills, leadership and mentoring, according to its website. “I didn’t have much to say other than, ‘How you doing?’ and shook his hand. And he said he was tired, but he was gonna keep moving.”