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Around Maryland

Ravens plan to add new plazas, relocate press box at M&T Bank Stadium
January 16, 2023 -

The Ravens plan to make a number of improvements and additions to M&T Bank Stadium, such as adding a parking garage, relocating the press box to build more suites, and building new plazas on the north and south sides of the stadium, according to a copy of the team’s new lease. The 50-page agreement, which was approved by the state’s Board of Public Works last week, will keep the Ravens playing at M&T for the next 15 years, with two options for five-year extensions. The team plans to develop both the stadium’s north and south plazas to include “fan hospitality areas,” as well as retail stores, according to the document.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
Big dreams in a Navy danger zone: Why a painter decided to buy an aging lighthouse
January 16, 2023 -

To call it a fixer-upper would be generous. There’s no running water, no heat, no electricity. Once one gets past the romance of buying a historic Chesapeake Bay lighthouse, there’s lead paint, asbestos and toxic benzene. Vandals broke down the door and seabirds died inside. Crap is everywhere. Oh, it sits in about 18-feet of water within a U.S. Navy testing site called a “danger zone.” Who wants the Hooper Island Lighthouse anyway? When the federal government auctioned the 120-year-old lighthouse in September, as a last resort, a bidding war broke out. The price jumped from $15,000 to $38,000. Then $189,000.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
Maryland girl finds ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ megalodon shark tooth
January 16, 2023 -

A little girl in Maryland got a big surprise for Christmas, but it wasn’t under her tree – it was an ancient fossil hiding underwater. Alicia Sampson wrote on Facebook that her daughters Molly and Natalie asked for insulated waders for Christmas so that they could “go sharks tooth hunting like professionals.” And as soon as they got the waders, that was just what they did. “The only thing Molly really wanted for Christmas was insulated chest waders because she knew she was missing out on some good fossil finds further out in the water,” Sampson told CBS News. “…As soon as they finished breakfast, they got their waders on as quick as they could and headed to the cliffs with my husband Bruce.”

Read More: WTOP News
‘Strained to the gills’: Even with COVID numbers lower than last year, Maryland hospitals face capacity problems
January 13, 2023 -

This time last year, Maryland hospitals were in dire straits. The number of people infected with COVID-19 in state hospitals hit 3,462 on Jan. 11, 2022, a pandemic peak that has not been approached since. One-third of the state’s acute care hospitals were operating on “crisis standards of care,” a set of emergency protocols that allowed clinicians to prioritize the sickest of patients. Now, with 835 people hospitalized with the respiratory illness statewide as of Thursday, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, the situation isn’t an emergency the way it was last year.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
What will it take to get Baltimore recycling back on track? Maybe 3 years and over $23 million
January 13, 2023 -

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works has “no firm timeline” for reinstating weekly recycling pickup and estimates it could take up to three years to resolve severe staffing shortages, optimize its collection routes, acquire needed vehicles and make software upgrades to get citywide service back on track. That roadmap was laid out in a 28-page report released Monday, the same day that DPW’s director, Jason Mitchell, announced his resignation amid persistent criticisms of his management on multiple fronts, including on citywide recycling service and the city’s troubled wastewater plants. Mitchell said he is resigning for health and family reasons.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
New leadership in Chesapeake Bay states raises hopes for action in 2023
January 13, 2023 -

New Democratic governors with “green” pedigrees in Maryland and Pennsylvania are fueling environmentalists’ hopes of progress during this year’s legislative season. Meanwhile, a Republican governor in Virginia is trending greener than many had expected as he enters his first full calendar year in office. That has some activists seeing opportunities for compromise. Here’s how environmental issues are shaping up in the three key Chesapeake Bay watershed states during their 2023 lawmaking sessions.

Read More: Maryland Matters
With domestic violence reports on the rise, women at the lone Anne Arundel County safe house struggle to find safety
January 13, 2023 -

Nearly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, reports of domestic violence cases in Anne Arundel County have continued to rise, straining the fragile network of safe houses and shelters that attempt to help women seeking safety. According to data compiled by the Maryland Courts, 3,091 protective and peace orders were issued in Anne Arundel County in 2022. The total is an increase from 2,866 in 2021 and 2,576 in 2020. That’s about a 20% jump in calls from around the time the pandemic began.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Carroll County Commissioner’s President Ed Rothstein elected to MACo’s board of directors
January 13, 2023 -

Carroll County Commissioners’ President Ed Rothstein has been elected to the 16-member board of directors for the Maryland Association of Counties, or MACo, as it is commonly known. Rothstein was installed last week and will serve a one-year term. MACo is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group for Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore city. It works for effective, efficient government through education and collaboration; its membership consists of county elected officials and representatives from across the state.

Read More: Carroll County Times
Police officer putting handcuffs on another person
As Baltimore’s new police accountability board forms, a backlog of complaints is growing
January 12, 2023 -

A backlog of hundreds of complaints about Baltimore police officers continues to grow each week as city officials make their final push toward setting up a new citizen-led oversight board. The board was mandated in late 2021 by the General Assembly as part of Anton’s Law, a police reform package passed that, among other initiatives, directed each county and jurisdiction to implement the new layer of oversight. Baltimore City’s will be one of the last police accountability boards in the state to get up and running.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner

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