Around Maryland

Just a few days after his resignation from Prince George’s County Council, Todd Turner has been confirmed as the new director of the Maryland-county’s Office of Ethics and Accountability. Turner resigned on Saturday to avoid any conflicts of interest associated with the nomination to the office. “I want to thank County Executive Alsobrooks, those who spoke on my behalf and my former County Council colleagues for their support and confidence in me today in confirming my nomination to be the next Executive Director of the Office of Ethics and Accountability,” Turner said in a statement.

Immigration lawyer Alexandra Ribe started noticing recently that the court dates of many of her clients’ cases were suddenly being moved up — oftentimes without official mailed notice from the courts. One such case involved a woman from El Salvador who had come to the United States seeking asylum after refusing to follow the orders of gang members to kill a child, said Ribe, an immigration attorney who represents clients in Maryland and Virginia and serves as an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law.

Months after three Baltimore firefighters died in a vacant rowhouse fire, the Baltimore Fire Department launched a program Monday to mark hundreds of unstable vacant buildings as unsafe to enter. Fire Chief Niles Ford, along with city officials including Mayor Brandon Scott, led firefighters in attaching 12×12 red reflective square signs to unsafe vacant properties in Mount Clare, the neighborhood where Lt. Paul Butrim, Lt. Kelsey Sadler and firefighter/paramedic Kenny Lacayo died fighting a Jan. 24 fire in a three-story vacant home on Stricker Street.

For a number of young kids, getting caught up in the juvenile justice system can cause damage to their lives for years to come.  It’s why many are calling for system reform and paying more attention to their needs instead of strictly punishing them. It’s the general theme of Youth Justice Action Month, which is being recognized nationally and also here locally. “We are very committed to making sure that we create supportive environments that allow young people to be themselves,” says Kisha Webster, founding director of the Greenmount West Community Center. The nonprofit located in central Baltimore has a number of programs supporting Black young people, their families and neighborhood seniors.

As a boy in India, Neeraj Verma experienced Diwali the way Indian children have for centuries: as that magical day on which lamps are lit, friends and family visit bearing gifts, and everyone is encouraged to stuff themselves with sweets. The Clarksville resident still loves the enchantment of the biggest holiday on the Hindu calendar, which millions will celebrate around the world Monday. But he’s equally drawn to the religious elements of this festival of lights, and he’s looking forward to sharing both with hundreds of his fellow Hindus on Tuesday night.

Maryland residents will have an opportunity on Tuesday to give their opinions on a transportation project that aims to fix a tangle of highway where the Baltimore Beltway west of the city hits I-70, a major interstate, and that causes severe delays. The “Triple Bridges” project is part of Gov. Larry Hogan’s Traffic Relief Plan, which focuses on improving traffic congestion in the Baltimore region. Designed 50 years ago, the I-695/I-70 Interchange can’t handle the amount of traffic that currently flows through the interchange, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration.

The Baltimore Circuit Court clerk’s office has not fixed “longstanding deficiencies” and failed to refer accounts that owed more than $7 million in outstanding criminal court fees to the state for collections, a new audit has found. The Maryland Office of Legislative Audits released the report on Monday and looked at the period of Sept. 26, 2017 to Oct. 15, 2021. As allowed under state law, the Baltimore Circuit Court clerk’s office is responsible for billing people, mailing them letters about overdue payment and referring delinquent accounts to the Maryland Department of Budget and Management’s Central Collection Unit, according to the audit.