Around Maryland

In the 1990s, Kim Holcomb battled for curbside recycling pickup as president of Owings Mills Green Action. She’s been interested in environmental issues ever since. And so, when she learned that Baltimore County would host Maryland’s first natural burial ground, Holcomb felt called to sign on for a plot. “It’s like the ultimate recycling to have a green burial,” said Holcomb, who now lives in Pikesville. “It’s ashes to ashes and dust to dust. And it makes a lot of sense to me.” A few other cemeteries in the state allow for natural burials, which bypass elaborate caskets, concrete vaults and traditional embalming in favor of simpler, biodegradable methods that allow a body to decompose in the earth.

Rashaud Nesmith was 16 when he was charged with armed carjacking. Still a teenager, he became involved with a violent Baltimore gang that law enforcement has connected to dozens of murders, shootings, armed robberies and carjackings. Now 21, he was sentenced Monday to serve 40 years in federal prison — nearly double his lifetime.

Chemotherapy has long been the go-to treatment for cancer, but the drugs aren’t always strong enough against advanced tumors. They also damage other parts of the body. Some scientists at Johns Hopkins University say they may have discovered something better. They developed and have begun testing a new drug on cancer patients at the university’s Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and elsewhere around the country.

Baltimore’s efforts to affordably control traffic and promote resident safety have hit a bump in the road due to a shortage of poles, a basic component for the installation of stop signs, speed hump alerts and other street markers. The severity of Baltimore’s pole shortage, and how exactly supplies got so low, isn’t clear. Councilman Mark Conway said the shortage has delayed stop sign and speed hump installations in his district. And at one point earlier this year, the city was out of poles completely, according to Councilman Ryan Dorsey, who said a transportation staff member informed him months ago that the department had ordered too few poles.

Rehema Mwaisela’s first love was science and math as a young undergraduate at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She hadn’t imagined herself as a teacher, but her journey through a tutoring program at a Baltimore City public school has changed the trajectory of her life. She began at Cherry Hill Elementary/Middle last year, tutoring small groups of second, fifth and seventh graders in math in an attempt to help jump-start their learning after the pandemic. While she helped them, she also learned something about herself.

Maryland’s agriculture secretary was charged on Thanksgiving for illegally hunting waterfowl in Dorchester County, according to Maryland Natural Resources Police. Police charged Joseph Bartenfelder for hunting wetland or upland game birds “with the aid of bait or on or over any baited area,” which carries a minimum $500 fine and a maximum of $1500 for a first offense. Lauren Moses, public information officer for Natural Resources Police, could not say whether this was Bartenfelder’s first charge.

A nine-month grace period on late fees for video tolls in Maryland comes to an end Thursday, the Maryland Transportation Authority announced Monday. The agency urges customers to check their accounts for unpaid video tolls before the $25 late fee kicks back in. Since the grace period was instated in February, MDTA waived $137 million in late fees for about 756,000 drivers and businesses that have paid their outstanding video tolls, the agency said.

One person rescued from a small plane that slammed into a Maryland power line tower was released from a hospital Monday as federal investigators launched a probe into the crash. The crash in suburban Montgomery County outside Washington led to a complex, hours-long rescue operation, caused power outages to about 120,000 homes and businesses and prompted the state’s largest school district to cancel classes.