Around Maryland

The Carroll County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its efforts to hire and retain staff. The Board of Carroll County Commissioners unanimously approved Thursday acceptance of a $63,500 Police Retention and Recruitment grant from the state to help the sheriff’s office in those efforts. The grant will be used to assist with outreach, advertising and marketing efforts including using billboards, social media and job search sites, said Vicky McDonold, director of administrative services with the sheriff’s office. McDonold said the sheriff’s office plans to create a recruitment video and offer referral bonuses to staff for bringing in new candidates. The sheriff’s office is also exploring health and wellness initiatives to offer, such as trial gym memberships for staff.

Librarians and their legislative allies are pushing publishers of electronic books to lower their prices and relax licensing terms, an effort that could make it easier for millions of library users to borrow the increasingly popular digital versions of books. Supporters say the e-book lending legislation in several states would allow libraries to offer more digital material and shorten waitlists for popular titles. Over the long term, the measures might shore up libraries’ core mission in an increasingly digital environment.

The Baltimore resident who won three games of “Jeopardy!” raised some eyebrows among the trivia show’s fans for his messy handwriting on Monday’s show. Emmett Stanton, 34, who won Friday, Monday and Tuesday before losing Wednesday, is a freelance writer who lives in Mount Vernon. In response to the clue, “The Governor of Massachusetts wrote, it ‘is a poor document, but a mighty act…wrong in its delay till January, but grand & sublime after all,’” Stanton wrote an answer that host Ken Jennings deemed correct: “what is the Emancipation Proclamation?” Stanton wagered all his money, $8,000, on the Final Jeopardy! question in the category Historic Documents.

For the past two decades, Young Lee thought justice had been served when his sister’s killer was taken off the streets. He believed Baltimore prosecutors when they repeatedly expressed confidence in the case against Adnan Syed. That changed last week when the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office filed a motion to vacate Syed’s 2000 murder conviction in the death of Hae Min Lee, his ex-girlfriend and high school classmate whose body was found buried in a makeshift grave in West Baltimore’s Leakin Park. Prosecutors said they reviewed the case in recent months and found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial.

Three years after protests erupted at the Johns Hopkins University over its plan to create a private police force, some opponents are promising disruptions to upcoming town hall meetings and urging Baltimore City’s mayor to block the measure. The opposition movement has been largely quiet since the state’s largest private university said in June 2020, amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, that it would pause work on its police force. A year later during summer break, when campus was mostly empty, Hopkins hired Branville Bard Jr. to lead its police force.

A bitter feud has broken out this week between some community leaders in South Baltimore over a recent vote by a neighborhood group to endorse the maglev project. The verbal sparring over Baltimore’s portion of the $10 billion East Coast transportation project has escalated since the Sept. 9 vote by the board of the South Baltimore 7 Coalition, or SB7. That vote was not unanimous, but endorsed the high-speed rail line and a quest by the group to open negotiations with developer Baltimore Washington Rapid Rail, BWRR, for a community benefits agreement in return for their support.

Harford County will open its doors for previously arrested or incarcerated adults, their families, and/or anyone affected by incarceration with its fifth annual Second Chance Job and Resource Fair on Wednesday from 12-4 p.m. at The Epicenter, 21 Aberdeen Shopping Plaza in Aberdeen. The goal of the fair is to connect returning citizens with employers and important resources to help reduce barriers to success.

Montgomery County Public Schools announced more stringent safety protocols around athletic events Wednesday following a brawl that erupted at a football game last week. Under the new rules, students and spectators will be required to remain in the stands during games, and reentry will not be allowed. The rules also prevent anyone from being admitted after halftime.