Around Maryland

Body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate and blood pressure — the four vital signs. They’re the most routinely monitored measurements of the body’s basic functions. In the mid-1990s, the American Pain Society tried to add a fifth — pain.

A group of federal and state law enforcement agencies, led by U.S. Attorney in Maryland Erek Barron and Gov. Larry Hogan, announced a new set of initiatives Thursday aimed at curbing violent crime in Baltimore. A combination of different Maryland agencies will increase visibility and step up traffic enforcement on the major highways and arteries leading in and out of Baltimore city, with the Maryland State Police, the Baltimore County Police, Anne Arundel County Police and the Maryland Transportation Authority Police joining in, Barron said.

With the count of mail-in ballots beginning Thursday, candidates endorsed by Moms for Liberty, a national conservative political action group focused on parental rights in schools, are in the lead for four of the six seats up for grabs on the Harford Board of Education. “There are thousands of mail-in and provisional ballots yet to be counted,” said Zack Frink, communications director of the Harford County Democratic Central Committee. “The committee is waiting until all ballots are counted until taking a course of action.”

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott will hold a news conference on Thursday to announce the Squeegee Collaborative’s final report. Scott convened the Squeegee Collaborative in July. He gathered a cross-section of youth, business, community and government leaders to meet weekly to develop a citywide, public, private and community-based response.

“Justice” will come to Maryland. Maryland voters Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment to change the name of the state’s top judicial tribunal from the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court of Maryland and the title of its jurists from judge to justice, with the chief judge becoming the chief justice. The name of Maryland’s intermediate court will also change, from the Court of Special Appeals to the Appellate Court of Maryland. Its judges, however, will still be called judges.

Baltimore’s short-staffed public works department has no timeline yet for resuming weekly curbside recycling pickup since scaling back the service at the start of this year. Department of Public Works Director Jason Mitchell told city council members during a quarterly briefing Wednesday that, even if the agency is able to boost staffing levels again, they’re “still going to have some challenges” returning to a weekly recycling schedule.

Maryland voters on Tuesday approved a constitutional amendment raising the amount in controversy that entitles litigants to a jury trial from more than $15,000 to more than $25,000. The change marks the state’s first increase to the jury trial threshold since 2010, when Marylanders approved a boost from more than $10,000 to more than $15,000.

At 60 years old, Pearlie Cornish gets up every morning to take her 40-minute walks in Cherry Hill. She heads a mile from her house on Seamon Avenue to Waterview Avenue, where she can overlook the Middle Branch area of the Patapsco River as she walks back. But she no longer needs to walk that far for her daily exercise. On Wednesday, city leaders and residents celebrated the opening of the Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center in Cherry Hill at Reedbird Park, two block from Cornish’s home.