Around Maryland

Four infants have died in Baltimore County in the past two months due to unsafe sleeping conditions, according to the county health officer, who called on health care providers to step up safe-sleep education efforts for new parents and other caregivers. “Over the last two months, we have seen four preliminary findings of sleep-related deaths in infants. While one such death is cause for sounding an alarm, four is what we normally see over the course of an entire year,” said Dr. Gregory Wm. Branch, the health officer, in a statement.

Officials in Montgomery County, Maryland, are handing out 10,000 more free laptops to low-income county residents over the next three months. The laptops will be handed out, while supplies last, at distribution events hosted by the county. The next event is Feb. 16 at the Executive Office Building cafeteria in Rockville from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The county has already handed out more than 40,000 free laptops, mostly to low-income households, officials said.

Baltimore youth experiencing homelessness will be eligible to receive thousands of dollars each through a new program. GreenLight Fund Baltimore, the local arm of a national nonprofit that focuses on inclusive initiatives, invested in youth homelessness nonprofit Point Source Youth to scale its Direct Cash Transfer program to Charm City. Young Baltimoreans will get a one-time $3,000 cash transfer, as well as $1,000 monthly over the course of two years. “As leaders and members of our community, it is our responsibility to support the young people who are the future of our city. By demonstrating that their struggles are our own, we can provide the guidance and resources needed to ensure their success,” said Mayor Brandon Scott in a news release.

“The Boss” is coming back to Baltimore. A few months after he plays an April show at the newly renamed CFG Bank Arena in downtown, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band will perform at Camden Yards on Sept. 9. It will mark the ballpark’s third major stand-alone concert ever, after Billy Joel in 2019 and Paul McCartney last year, as the Orioles and their landlord, the Maryland Stadium Authority, seek to bring more non-baseball events to the park. Orioles Chairman and CEO John Angelos said in a statement that “as a lifelong fan of Bruce Springsteen and of my hometown, it’s an honor” to announce the concert.

Last year, as summer gave way to fall, a Maryland State Police barrack commander in Charles County didn’t like what he was seeing from his troopers. The barrack’s supervisors had agreed to require at least 100 traffic stops per month, as well as a handful of arrests, from every trooper. But the La Plata Barrack commander wasn’t getting the results he wanted, and he demanded more: more traffic stops, more citations, more arrests for driving under the influence.

Millions of dollars owed to individuals and entities that have lost their Baltimore properties through tax sale foreclosure has sat untouched in city coffers— some of it for years— with few of those entitled knowing of its existence. More than 2,100 of those who lost properties after becoming delinquent on city taxes are currently owed a share of the $6 million pot of money, according to a Baltimore Banner analysis of Department of Finance records.