Around Maryland

One of Maryland’s goals is making it safer to drive in the state, and it’s looking for new ideas. “Alcohol impairment, speeding, distracted driving, not buckling up,” are just some of the driving safety issues officials seek to tackle, according to Maryland Department of Transportation Administrator Christine Nizer. Nizer said her department wants to tackle these issues in traditional ways, such as stepped-up traffic enforcement, as well as in not-so-traditional ways. “We partner with the Maryland Institute College and Art on a pedestrian safety campaign within the City of Baltimore,” she said.

The anniversary of Edgar Allan Poe’s birthday brings visitors from around the country to Baltimore every year to celebrate his life and legacy. This year, Poe’s Magic Theatre will present a special celebration event commemorating Poe’s 214th birthday on Thursday, Jan. 19. General admission to the event includes a murder mystery hosted by Poe’s Magic Theatre owner Vince Wilson. Poe’s annual celebration of life has been going on for decades around his gravesite and the The Edgar Allan Poe House & Museum, but “every year it’s getting bigger, better, and more of a theatrical production,” Wilson said. In an entertaining murder mystery game, attendees will solve the narrative of an anonymous individual known as “The Poe Toaster” who left cognac and roses at Poe’s grave for decades until he was murdered at the gravesite.

The sixth and seventh victories of the Orioles’ 10-game winning streak last year came in front of two of the best Camden Yards crowds in Brandon Hyde’s first four seasons as their manager, with the giveaways for those games as much to thank as the team’s improved play. Afterward, he made a request of the club’s marketing department. “We need to have a weekly Friday floppy hat night, Saturday Hawaiian shirt night,” Hyde said in July. “We’ll figure something out the other [days].” The Orioles released their 2023 promotional schedule Tuesday, and although Hyde won’t get his wish, the popular floppy hat and Hawaiian shirt giveaways will once again be on back-to-back days amid a slate that also features five bobbleheads and multiple theme nights.

In back-to-back filings Monday night, the Maryland Office of the Attorney General and a lawyer for Adnan Syed took opposing stances on the appeal of Hae Min Lee’s brother in the case made famous by the “Serial” podcast. The attorney general’s office said Young Lee’s appeal should continue, agreeing with his position that the September hearing at which Syed’s conviction was overturned was legally deficient and should be redone — the first legal argument filed in the high-profile case under recently sworn-in Attorney General Anthony Brown, who has declined to publicly take a position on the case.

Walkers, nature lovers and student-athletes are about to gain another public park as the Baltimore Country Club prepares to sell its former golf course and tennis courts to a private neighborhood foundation. The newly named Hillside Park, 20 acres of sloping woods and lawn off the 4800 block of Falls Road, was once Baltimore’s premier private course. The fairways, greens and lawn tennis courts attracted a handful of top athletes, as well as the city’s business and social elite, for more than 70 years.

A federal agency says a ban on gas stoves is on the table amid rising concern about harmful indoor air pollutants emitted by the appliances. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission plans to take action to address the pollution, which can cause health and respiratory problems. “This is a hidden hazard,” Richard Trumka Jr., an agency commissioner, said in an interview. “Any option is on the table. Products that can’t be made safe can be banned.”

Frederick County is expected to use more than $1.8 million in federal funding for equipment for its emergency operations center and a crisis stabilization center, and for the next few phase of the Frederick and Pennsylvania Line Railroad Trail, according to a press release Monday. The funding is part of the omnibus spending bill for the federal Fiscal Year 2023 that President Joe Biden signed in December.

Baltimore County became the latest Maryland jurisdiction to announce it’s planning to create a resilience authority to address the impacts of climate change. Such authorities have already been established in Anne Arundel and Charles counties, though those aren’t the only places to consider the idea. Resilience authorities are quasi-government agencies that can seek grants, issue bonds and even levy fees to carry out climate-related projects that otherwise might compete against other targets for county dollars.