Around Maryland

Testing recently conducted by the Maryland Department of the Environment found eight Frederick County Public Schools where levels of certain chemicals in drinking water exceeded new U.S. Environmental Protection Agency limits. In an email on Wednesday, FCPS spokesperson Brandon Oland confirmed that the students, staff and families at eight schools that tested with elevated levels in the district were notified late last week of the test results.

The Baltimore Police Department will launch a pilot program in January that provides 100 employees with a financial stipend to cover child care expenses to help boost the depleted agency’s recruitment and retention. The stipends, up to $250 per month and $3,000 annually, will be made available to 100 qualifying professional staff and sworn officers with children younger than 13 years old or who have special needs, according to the department.

Baltimore scored millions in a settlement with the popular e-cigarette brand Juul, officials said Wednesday, the latest addition to the city’s pile of cash after a summer of settlements with pharmaceutical companies. Juul Labs Inc. can pay Baltimore either $7.5 million by the end of 2024 or $8 million over three years, according to a news release.

Anne Arundel County has received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to implement a new comprehensive hate crime prevention program. County Executive Steuart Pittman began work on the Hate Bias Forum in 2020, after learning that Anne Arundel led the state in reported hate crimes. Anne Arundel was awarded an amount that was three times the initial grant request due to the strength of its application, making it the only county entity in Maryland to receive the grant in this cycle, according to a county news release.

Paul Lemle’s mandate to members of the 75,000-member Maryland State Education Association is short and straightforward: It’s time to invest in ourselves. “I want to talk to [teachers] about power, and why it’s important that our own voices matter in education policies and how schools get funded,” said Lemle who, on Aug. 1, became president of the MSEA. “I want to build that power by recruiting our members into action.

Gaithersburg-based Emergent BioSolutions was granted federal approval to use its smallpox vaccine in people at high risk for mpox infections that have been surging in Africa. Emergent had been making the vaccine called ACAM2000 for the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile in case of a bioterrorism attack. It’s been federally approved for smallpox since 2007 but wasn’t used much previously against mpox, another orthopoxvirus, because it can’t be used with people with compromised immune systems. That includes people with HIV.

School systems around the Baltimore area are looking to hire teachers, administrators and support staff as the academic year kicks off. As of the first day of school Aug. 26, Baltimore City Public Schools had 171 open teacher positions for the 2024-25 year, according to data provided by the school district. There are 15 administration positions posted on its website, including for educational specialists.

Frederick County outreach workers counted a total of 250 people experiencing homelessness on Jan. 24, 2024 — up from 226 during the same week last year, according to data recently released by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. The data was collected as part of the Point-in-Time (PIT) count, an initiative of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development that is carried out locally each year.

The Washington County Sheriff's Office is hosting a community shred and prescription drug turn-in event on Saturday, Sept. 21, outside the Robinwood Professional Center near Hagerstown, the sheriff's office announced Tuesday. The event will be from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., or until the shred truck is full, in the silver parking lot at the 11110 Medical Campus Road medical complex, according to a release the sheriff's office put out on Facebook and via its app.