Around Maryland

The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys for a 15-year-old who’s accused of shooting and killing a man who approached a group of squeegee workers have reached an agreement on a plea offer that would call for the case to be sent to juvenile court — over the objections of the victim’s family. A grand jury had indicted the teen in adult court on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of Timothy Reynolds, which became a flashpoint in debate about squeegee workers in Baltimore.

Betty Fenner-Davis could yell for someone near her street as a kid and almost any of her neighbors living in one of the attached brick rowhouses in the Allendale neighborhood of West Baltimore would recognize her. More than four miles away in Little Italy in East Baltimore, Mary Ann Campanella remembers a similar camaraderie. She used to leave her home on High Street for school to the sounds of neighbors sweeping the steps to their homes as they greeted her and each other.

A vision for the Chesapeake Bay area to have a National Park Service designation is one step closer to reality Monday, as Maryland congressional leaders announced they have drafted legislation for the proposal. The Chesapeake National Recreation Area, as it would be known, could unify a number of existing parks and destinations around the nation’s largest estuary under a common umbrella, organizers say.

Harford County Public Schools and Harford Community College announced Thursday that eligible students who participate in dual enrollment courses, including those who are currently enrolled, will no longer be charged the cost of tuition, fees and textbooks. “We are thrilled to partner with HCPS to offer tuition-free college courses to our dually-enrolled students,” said Theresa B. Felder, president of Harford Community College.

Carroll County is on track to have a $13 million surplus at the end of the current fiscal year, said Ted Zaleski, county budget director, but admits “it’s only November. The revenue picture is still out there to unfold.” Fiscal 2023 started July 1 and ends June 30.

Despite recruitment and training efforts, the number of vacancies among Anne Arundel County school bus drivers has held steady more than two months into the academic year. The system publishes a weekly update with the number of driver vacancies. Two days after school started, 75 vacancies were reported Aug. 31, and 69 were listed Wednesday. Schools spokesman Bob Mosier said in a statement that the system has been able to maintain, but not increase, staffing levels. “As has been stated, we are treading water,” Mosier said in an email. Anne Arundel is not alone in its struggle — a shortage of bus drivers is affecting districts around the country.

When the nation’s Catholic bishops gathered for their annual general assembly in Baltimore two years ago, they faced a thorny, high-profile issue: U.S. voters had just elected as president Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights. The expected clash between the conservative and progressive wings of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over whether to censure Biden never broke into the open, as the clerics worked to hammer out a compromise statement that they finally released last year.This year’s assembly, which starts Monday at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, promises no such headline-grabbing fodder for debate. But it could serve as one more testing ground for the ongoing back-and-forth between the liberal and traditionalist factions of the highest-ranking body in the Catholic Church in the U.S.

As the D.C. region continues to deal with a surge in respiratory infections, Maryland officials are hoping to provide some guidance through a new resource. The Maryland Department of Health has launched a new Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) webpage. It also provides guidance for the flu and COVID-19, while encouraging residents to get vaccinated. The new website is part of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s statewide effort to address the recent spike in RSV cases, which has had a severe impact on young children. While there is no specific treatment for RSV, the site outlines transmission, prevention and ways to relieve symptoms, according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How can Baltimore’s faith community help people without housing? That was the theme of a new forum, “Voices of the Unsheltered & Homeless Community,” held Saturday morning in Northeast Baltimore. The meeting was the first of what will be monthly meetings every second Saturday, said Christina Flowers, an advocate for Baltimore’s homeless population and the forum’s organizer. “What we are doing today is starting a community initiative where we’re working with our interfaith community and some of our clergies to come up with some strategies and ideas to really help our unsheltered, homeless community,” Flowers said.