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Around Maryland

How Baltimore tutors fought to keep an AARP tutoring program in the city
January 17, 2023 -

Jamal Davis wanted to do something when he learned in May that Experience Corps, a tutoring program that links Baltimore City schools with adults 50 and older, might have to close its doors due to insufficient funding. Experience Corps is run by the Washington, D.C.-based AARP Foundation, which advocates for adults 50 and older. After AARP announced that it could no longer fund the tutoring program, a group of Baltimore-area tutors launched a campaign to keep it going.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
As Marylanders tackle mobile sports betting, experts say it’s harder than it looks
January 16, 2023 -

Tom Redmond looks at sports betting companies’ oddsmakers the way opposing defensive linemen regard elusive quarterbacks — with a healthy appreciation of their skills. The Ravens season ticket holder could have become overconfident after winning individual wagers on two NFL players — Tyreek Hill of the Miami Dolphins and Austin Ekeler of the Los Angeles Chargers — to score touchdowns on Dec. 11. But the Parkville resident knows better. Because he appreciates the many obstacles to beating the sportsbooks, he limits his online or mobile wagers to $5 or $10 and was neither surprised nor fazed when he lost his bet on the Arizona Cardinals to win the next night. That was less than three weeks after Maryland opened the doors to mobile wagering on Nov. 23.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Baltimore civil rights activist Leo W. Burroughs Jr. met Martin Luther King Jr. in 1964. Here’s what happened.
January 16, 2023 -

When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. visited Baltimore on Oct. 31, 1964, civil rights leader Leo W. Burroughs Jr. was thrilled to meet him. King was in town for a conference and to encourage Black voters to cast ballots in the upcoming election that pitted Democratic President Lyndon Johnson against Republican nominee Barry Goldwater. Johnson would go on to win in a landslide. “It was a great time,” said Burroughs, founder and president of Roots of Scouting Inc., a nonprofit teaching African American youth life skills, leadership and mentoring, according to its website. “I didn’t have much to say other than, ‘How you doing?’ and shook his hand. And he said he was tired, but he was gonna keep moving.”

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Ravens plan to add new plazas, relocate press box at M&T Bank Stadium
January 16, 2023 -

The Ravens plan to make a number of improvements and additions to M&T Bank Stadium, such as adding a parking garage, relocating the press box to build more suites, and building new plazas on the north and south sides of the stadium, according to a copy of the team’s new lease. The 50-page agreement, which was approved by the state’s Board of Public Works last week, will keep the Ravens playing at M&T for the next 15 years, with two options for five-year extensions. The team plans to develop both the stadium’s north and south plazas to include “fan hospitality areas,” as well as retail stores, according to the document.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
Big dreams in a Navy danger zone: Why a painter decided to buy an aging lighthouse
January 16, 2023 -

To call it a fixer-upper would be generous. There’s no running water, no heat, no electricity. Once one gets past the romance of buying a historic Chesapeake Bay lighthouse, there’s lead paint, asbestos and toxic benzene. Vandals broke down the door and seabirds died inside. Crap is everywhere. Oh, it sits in about 18-feet of water within a U.S. Navy testing site called a “danger zone.” Who wants the Hooper Island Lighthouse anyway? When the federal government auctioned the 120-year-old lighthouse in September, as a last resort, a bidding war broke out. The price jumped from $15,000 to $38,000. Then $189,000.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
Maryland girl finds ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ megalodon shark tooth
January 16, 2023 -

A little girl in Maryland got a big surprise for Christmas, but it wasn’t under her tree – it was an ancient fossil hiding underwater. Alicia Sampson wrote on Facebook that her daughters Molly and Natalie asked for insulated waders for Christmas so that they could “go sharks tooth hunting like professionals.” And as soon as they got the waders, that was just what they did. “The only thing Molly really wanted for Christmas was insulated chest waders because she knew she was missing out on some good fossil finds further out in the water,” Sampson told CBS News. “…As soon as they finished breakfast, they got their waders on as quick as they could and headed to the cliffs with my husband Bruce.”

Read More: WTOP News
‘Strained to the gills’: Even with COVID numbers lower than last year, Maryland hospitals face capacity problems
January 13, 2023 -

This time last year, Maryland hospitals were in dire straits. The number of people infected with COVID-19 in state hospitals hit 3,462 on Jan. 11, 2022, a pandemic peak that has not been approached since. One-third of the state’s acute care hospitals were operating on “crisis standards of care,” a set of emergency protocols that allowed clinicians to prioritize the sickest of patients. Now, with 835 people hospitalized with the respiratory illness statewide as of Thursday, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s COVID-19 dashboard, the situation isn’t an emergency the way it was last year.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
What will it take to get Baltimore recycling back on track? Maybe 3 years and over $23 million
January 13, 2023 -

The Baltimore City Department of Public Works has “no firm timeline” for reinstating weekly recycling pickup and estimates it could take up to three years to resolve severe staffing shortages, optimize its collection routes, acquire needed vehicles and make software upgrades to get citywide service back on track. That roadmap was laid out in a 28-page report released Monday, the same day that DPW’s director, Jason Mitchell, announced his resignation amid persistent criticisms of his management on multiple fronts, including on citywide recycling service and the city’s troubled wastewater plants. Mitchell said he is resigning for health and family reasons.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
New leadership in Chesapeake Bay states raises hopes for action in 2023
January 13, 2023 -

New Democratic governors with “green” pedigrees in Maryland and Pennsylvania are fueling environmentalists’ hopes of progress during this year’s legislative season. Meanwhile, a Republican governor in Virginia is trending greener than many had expected as he enters his first full calendar year in office. That has some activists seeing opportunities for compromise. Here’s how environmental issues are shaping up in the three key Chesapeake Bay watershed states during their 2023 lawmaking sessions.

Read More: Maryland Matters

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