Around Maryland

Baltimore County Public Schools educator Lloyd Allen pulled up to the school system’s board of education meeting Tuesday night with two empty egg cartons. The average price of eggs has skyrocketed, making Allen’s cartons a visual and financial reminder of the rising inflation. And yet, Allen pointed out, Superintendent Darryl L. Williams’ budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 does not include a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for staff. The omission left Allen “quite surprised.” Teachers Association of Baltimore County President Cindy Sexton echoed Allen’s public comment and pointed out other Maryland counties, such as Anne Arundel and Prince George, that have already thought to provide COLAs for staff.

Maryland’s inspector general for education says the Baltimore County school system failed to provide adequate security for its computer network servers, despite several warnings from the state in the years preceding a devastating ransomware attack in 2020. The investigative report published Monday places the school system partially at fault for the hack that disrupted school operations days before the Thanksgiving holiday in 2020, when all instruction and school board meetings were taking place online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The report offers new details about the cause of the attack, the total cost of recovery and actions taken by the Baltimore County school system prior to the incident.

Baltimore prosecutors and a city judge collaborated behind closed doors to “choreograph” the hearing where Adnan Syed’s conviction stemming from the killing of Hae Min Lee was overturned, attorneys representing her brother in an appeal seeking to restore his conviction have alleged. In a filing Monday evening — the last before oral arguments for the case in the Appellate Court of Maryland on Feb. 2 — Young Lee’s lawyers ramped up claims of impropriety in the proceedings that freed Syed, while doubling down on previous legal arguments and distinguishing their client’s position from that of Maryland’s attorney general’s office.

Howard University has been awarded a five-year, $90 million contract to lead a research center focused on technology for military systems, university and defense officials announced Monday, the first such center at a historically Black college or university. The new center, funded by the Defense Department and the Air Force, will focus on tactical autonomy technology for military systems. The investment reflects efforts by military leaders to promote and draw upon expertise that better reflects the country they are protecting — and correct biases and problems that weaken it.

President Joe Biden will return to Baltimore next week to tout federal funding to replace the roughly 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, a project the administration says will address the largest bottleneck for rail commuters between Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. The Democratic president will visit Jan. 30 as part of a two-day trip with a New York City stop, as well, to showcase funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law

Sen. Chris Van Hollen will join Morgan State's faculty and students later this Monday morning to celebrate the enactment of his HBCU Rise Act, which became law this past December. The bipartisan bill creates a new program within the U.S. Department of Defense to make it easier for historically Black colleges to achieve r1 status -- which is very high research activity status. For Maryland's HBCUs, that means more money will flow in for research.

City officials are hoping to facilitate improvements in customer service for local cable customers by striking a new franchise agreement with current provider Breezeline. Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss and the City Council discussed the possibilities of a new arrangement with the provider at a work session held at City Hall on last week. The city and Breezeline are currently operating on terms outlined in a contract that expired at the end of 2020.