Around Maryland

The Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (PIA) Hagerstown campus will receive $750,000 in federal funding to support an expansion of its facilities. Funding for PIA’s expansion was a part of the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in December. The PIA Hagerstown project was secured by Congressman David Trone (MD-06) and both Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin.

An attempt by the ALCU of Maryland and the Legal Defense Fund to resurrect a nearly 30-year-old lawsuit to gain more state funding for Baltimore City schools was scuttled by a Circuit Court Judge earlier this month. Baltimore City Circuit Judge Audrey J.S. Carrion ruled on March 3 in favor of the state, granting summary judgment in Bradford vs. the Maryland State Board of Education.

Excluding NORAD’s Christmas Eve Santa tracker, there may not be a world map viewed so many times as the one Johns Hopkins University engineers created to keep tabs on COVID-19. Housed on a Hopkins graduate student’s Google Drive, it crashed the day it launched in January 2020 as scientists and the public alike clamored for information on a novel killer virus that was not provided by the government or anyone else.

The Baltimore City Health Department (BCHD), in partnership with Civic Works, announced new mini-grant opportunities for community-based organizations in Baltimore to provide health resources and combat COVID-19 in underserved communities. Each grant will be worth up to $25,000. The window to apply closes March 27. Funding will begin in April.

In a WBAL NewsRadio exclusive interview, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore addressed Monday's killing of Patterson High School student Izaiah Carter. Carter was shot at the Joseph E. Lee Park on East Pratt Street near a walking path just behind the school. Moore said his administration has been quick to address youth violence in Maryland.

Every year during budget season, the various departments and agencies that get county funding present their requests to the Washington County Commissioners. In the midst of that fairly routine process, however, county officials got a sobering assessment Tuesday of difficulties facing some of both Washington County's youngest and oldest residents.

Roy McGrath, who served as former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s chief of staff for 11 weeks, is set to stand trial in federal court this week on charges of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state. Attorneys are expected to begin picking a jury Monday for the trial, which is scheduled to run for several weeks in Baltimore’s U.S. District Courthouse. Federal prosecutors said in court papers that they need two weeks to present their case.

Academic achievement data reported to the state by Montgomery County Public Schools shows that middle school math proficiency dropped by nearly half since the last pre-pandemic state report, with Black students, Hispanic/Latine students and students with disabilities scoring the lowest. On Thursday, the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) released its first statewide school report card since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Assistant Principal Jeremy Slack was standing in a parking lot outside Edmondson-Westside High School, talking with a parent, when gunfire erupted across the street. He saw people scatter and, knowing there were likely students gathered at the nearby Edmondson Village Shopping Center, he sprinted across the six lanes of Edmondson Avenue.