Around Maryland

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.

The Somerset County Health Department getting significant funding to broaden their services. The agency has been awarded $1.7 million via a Health Equity Resource Communities (HERC) grant from the Maryland Community Health Resources Commission. Over the course of 5 years, those funds will be used to expand the reach of Community Health Workers (CHW) in the county. Those health officials work with other agencies to connect patients with the resources and information that they need to stay healthy.

The long-vacant Hearn Building in the heart of Cambridge remains a focal point as developers meet with city officials Tuesday night to discuss revised site plans for the property. Located on Race Street, the Hearn Building, the building next door, have stood empty for years, with developers Green Street Housing proposing to transform the site into a mixed-use development. The project envisions workforce housing on the upper floors and commercial space on the ground level.

Cellphone use in schools has become one of the most controversial topics in the D.C. area as the new academic year kicks off. Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s July executive order establishing the need for cellphone-free education across the state — and the Virginia Department of Education’s draft guidelines calling for “bell-to-bell” cellphone-free schools — are moves that have thrust the impact of cellphone use on education into the forefront.

Worcester County officials are scrambling for options — and money — after learning that state transportation officials are pausing a top transportation priority — the widening of Route 90 and the replacement of its two bridges. Worcester is just one of the counties given tough news in the weeks leading up to Tuesday’s release of an updated draft of the Consolidated Transportation Plan, the state’s six-year transportation plan.

Sometime in August, dump trucks delivered the final load of Patapsco River mud, dredged from the sea bed during the cleanup of the Key Bridge collapse, to the Kinsley landfill in Deptford Township, New Jersey, about 15 miles outside Philadelphia. The mud, which contained random debris that came up with it and had to be picked clean, was the last of the materials contractors disposed of after the remnants of the bridge were dismantled and removed.

Dozens of noisy protesters greeted the business leaders, elected officials, union members and other interested parties who were gathered at Frederick Community College Thursday for a conference on data centers in Maryland. The demonstrators were there to express outrage over a proposed power transmission project that would run from a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania to Northern Virginia, the biggest hub for data centers in the world.

The University of Maryland has revoked the ability of student organizations to hold on-campus demonstrations on the anniversary of the Hamas attacks in Israel after at least one group reserved a location for a vigil commemorating Palestinian victims of the war. University President Darryll Pines wrote in a letter Sunday that only university-sponsored events would be permitted on Oct. 7 “out of an abundance of caution.”

Growing up in Baltimore, Tavon McGee had limited exposure to camping sites and hiking trails — let alone national parks. That all changed in 2022 when he was introduced by a longtime friend to Congaree National Park in South Carolina. Although he had hiked on trails and camped in the wilderness, this was the first time he went to a national park. He liked it so much he got a national park passport and now is a regular visitor.