Around Maryland

Three voters who filed a lawsuit seeking to block the Baltimore Police Department from signing an agreement with the Johns Hopkins University that’s necessary for the school to develop its own private, armed police force have dropped the legal action. Donald Gresham, Kushan Ratnayake and Joan Floyd on Dec. 7 voluntarily moved in Baltimore Circuit Court to dismiss the case. They live near where the Johns Hopkins Police Department would have jurisdiction to patrol certain areas and make arrests for some crimes.

A federal judge has handed a victory to a group of journalists and advocates who argued that Maryland’s ban on broadcasting legally obtained recordings of court hearings violated the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Senior U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett granted summary judgment in favor of the group late last week and ruled that the Maryland ban failed to pass strict scrutiny. “The State of Maryland remains free to prohibit live broadcasting from the courtroom, and to regulate the release of shielded records and video recordings under the Maryland Rules,” Bennett wrote in his 48-page opinion.

One day before she was scheduled to have coronary bypass surgery at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center after suffering a heart attack at 52, Danielle Giles focused her attention on painting a picture of a sandy beach. Watching an instructional video that played in her hospital room in early August, the parishioner of Church of the Nativity in Timonium carefully applied bright colors to her paper canvas. “It’s not very beautiful or anything,” Giles said with a laugh, “but just the act of touching the brush to paper is the relaxing part. It’s a good way to be distracted when you have heavy stuff going on.” Beginning in Summer 2021, University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center, Towson, has offered patients such as Giles the chance to relax and express themselves creatively through the hospital’s “Heart Cart” outreach.

University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center opened a new wing of its critical care unit Tuesday. The renovation, which will include 22 new intensive care beds, will allow the Glen Burnie hospital to potentially more than double its capacity if it can hire additional workers to staff the unit, hospital officials said. The new ICU wing was converted over the course of more than a year from a telemetry unit, which was moved to another space in the hospital. The renovation of the 17,000-square-foot space was funded by a $3 million grant from the state of Maryland and other private and public funding, said hospital spokesperson Holly Basta.

In the video, Anna Borkowski snuggles with her dog Remi after waking up, their faces touching. The only sound is Remi’s breathing and a sigh as the dog shifts her position. “When you know mommy is sad,” the caption reads. Though it could have been taken yesterday — Remi and her two siblings still cuddle on Borkowski’s lap whenever they can — the saved Snapchat footage is from five years ago this past October, the day after Borkowski reported a sexual assault by three University of Maryland, Baltimore County baseball players.

Phoenix Mercury center and WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner has been released from a Russian penal colony and is in United States custody after a prisoner exchange for arms dealer Viktor Bout, President Joe Biden confirmed Thursday morning. Senior administration officials said Griner had been released from the penal colony within the last 48 hours and taken to Moscow before flying to the United Arab Emirates and is currently on her way back to the United States.