Around Maryland

It’s nearly impossible to quantify all the effects a deeper, taller left field wall at Camden Yards had on the Orioles’ 2022 season. The wall — which the team built this spring 30 feet farther back than its predecessor — cost the Orioles more home runs than it did their opponents. And without it, the Orioles might have won one more game, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis.

Amtrak recorded significant passenger growth in its most recent fiscal year and grew operating revenue by 48 percent, officials with the railway system said, touting the company’s most promising signs of recovery from a pandemic that slashed ridership and earnings. Amtrak officials said strong ticket-revenue growth combined with infrastructure investments using federal money are setting the railroad on a path to expand beyond pre-pandemic service levels, even as challenges remain and ridership is below 2019 numbers — especially outside the Northeast.

The Taylor family has roots at least one century deep in Ellicott City — and its brand can be seen all over town. The family’s holdings include 1,000 residential units on 700 upland acres known as Taylor Villages. Nearby is Taylor Manor, an abandoned psychiatric hospital on 65 hilltop acres they hope to further redevelop. Ross Taylor, president of the family company, Taylor Place Development Corporation, and general manager of Taylor Property Group, wants to replace the hospital campus with Taylor Highlands, a residential development project with 252 luxury townhouses, apartments and condos.

When it came time to choose a Baltimore City high school last year, Angie Castro explored her options. Teachers and guidance counselors introduced each school, and she researched them online, too. One stood out to Castro, an eighth grader at Holabird Academy at the time: Digital Harbor High School. Castro said she was drawn to the school’s courses in engineering, a field that appealed to her after being exposed to her parents’ construction work.

Firefighter John Lann knew as he arrived at the scene that the rescue would be a once-in-a-career experience. About 100 feet above him in the soggy Sunday evening darkness, a small plane was wedged into a high-voltage power line tower with two people stuck inside. “Cool … we’re going to get to show our skills,” Lann, a lieutenant with the Montgomery County Fire Department’s Technical Rescue Team, said Wednesday while recounting the rescue. “We’re going to get to show what we can do.”

The Montgomery County Council unanimously passed The Comprehensive Building Decarbonization Bill yesterday. The bill describes decarbonization as “the process of powering building appliances and systems with electricity instead of fossil fuels.” The rules also apply to major renovations and new additions, granting exceptions to commercial kitchens, crematoriums, and manufacturing buildings. The DC Council passed a similar bill in July.

The Maryland Transportation Authority on Wednesday extended the grace period for unpaid toll penalties. Officials voted on the extension by two weeks during a board meeting. The meeting happened hours before the grace period was originally scheduled to end. The state launched the program in February. It allowed drivers to pay late fees associated with video tolls without paying any penalties.

Two women featured in the Netflix series “The Keepers” are joining the legal fight to expose accused priests and complicit church leaders named in an investigation into child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Lawyers for the women featured in the 2017 documentary series filed a motion Wednesday in Baltimore Circuit Court to support the disclosure of a 456-page state investigation into the Catholic church’s history of child sexual abuse.