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Around Maryland

What went into MCPS’ decision to close schools during plane incident
November 29, 2022 -

When a plane crashed into a power line tower in Gaithersburg on Sunday evening, Montgomery County Public Schools announced that night all of its schools would be closed Monday due to ongoing power outages. But power was restored in all of the system’s impacted school buildings hours before classes would have started. Still, schools remained closed.

Read More: Washington Post
A wooden gavel on a white marble backdrop.
No violation of Maryland’s transparency law by special panel evaluating inspector general, Baltimore County says
November 29, 2022 -

The commission tasked with evaluating Baltimore County’s top watchdog pushed back on Monday against a county resident’s accusation that it had violated state transparency laws by conducting the bulk of its business in closed-door meetings. Baltimore County Attorney James Benjamin, on behalf of the Blue Ribbon Commission on Ethics and Accountability, issued a response to David Plymyer’s Oct. 27 complaint to the Maryland Open Meetings Compliance Board.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
US Dollars
Nonprofits prepare for new wave of difficulties
November 28, 2022 -

As nonprofit organizations continue to regain footing from the pandemic, many are also preparing for another wave of difficulties due to inflation and a looming recession. Heather Iliff, Executive Director of Maryland Nonprofits, the statewide organization that supports and advocates for nonprofits in Maryland, said that many nonprofits do not even consider themselves fully recouped. “Many of our balance sheets have not recovered, as well as the nature of funding. Many organizations have had to scale up their funding to reach their mission and high levels of need from the pandemic,” Iliff said. Rising costs for transportation, gas and food are creating financial pressures for many organizations, especially smaller ones.

Read More: The Daily Record
‘No one wants to be out on the corner every day.’ Community leaders work in Baltimore’s violence intervention program to attract participants.
November 28, 2022 -

Pastor Marvin McKenstry Jr. waited for more than an hour at his West Baltimore church, but the young man he was supposed to meet did not show. “He was spinning us for a minute,” recalled McKenstry of the young man who told them he was waiting for a Lyft ride at first but never made it to the church. McKenstry, who is pastor of the Victory House Worship Center, decided to go find the man in Penn North. McKenstry and two outreach workers from the nonprofit Youth Advocate Programs met with the man to encourage him not to engage in violence and instead to participate in the city’s violence intervention program, known as the Group Violence Reduction Strategy.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Smith Island changed course after devastation of Hurricane Sandy in 2012
November 28, 2022 -

For the people of Smith Island, weather guides a way of life as much as the tranquil atmosphere for which it has become known. Hurricanes with names like Hazel, Agnes, Isabel and Irene become part of the zeitgeist, never fading from memory as recollections of their destructive and unrelenting power are passed from one generation to the next. It is told in the context of high tides in the great watermen tradition, an industry that has become an unspoiled culture on the island like its own Elizabethan dialect. Yet a decade after Hurricane Sandy struck in 2012, the self-reliance and faith that has become the hallmark of the 9-mile archipelago in the wake of its damage is more evident than ever.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
A Maryland small business on how buying local is a very big deal
November 28, 2022 -

Cheese lovers can now find Firefly Farms goat cheeses in grocery store chains, but when Mike Koch and Pablo Solanet started their business in 2002, they were operating on a very small scale and doing everything themselves. “We started in the way that a lot of cheesemakers do on a farmstead on our property,” said Koch, describing the first operation in Garrett County, Maryland, as a microbusiness. “Pablo was a fulltime goatherd,” Koch said with a laugh. Their cheeses were sold at farmers markets across the D.C. area, and Koch said they marked their first full month in business that year with “just shy of $700 of sales for the month.” Now, Koch told WTOP, “between the retail business and the manufacturing business, it looks like 2022 will finish a little over $4 million” in business.

Read More: WTOP News
Food Aisle on Supermarket
How to help food-insecure Marylanders this holiday season
November 23, 2022 -

The holiday season is officially here, and so are all of the expenses that come with it: food for holiday dinners, gifts for family, and traveling expenses. But this year especially, those costs are hitting families harder than before — and it’s not just because of the holidays. The annual food index has risen 12.9% — the largest spike since 1999, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Maryland, U.S. Census data shows that the percentage of citizens struggling to pay for basic household expenses has risen from 24% in Dec. 2021 to 40% in Sept. 2022. “There’s so many families out there who are having trouble making ends meet, despite the fact that they’re working one, two, three jobs at times,” said Maryland Food Bank spokesperson Joanna Warner.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
‘The true meaning is kind of hard’: How American Indians in Maryland observe Thanksgiving
November 23, 2022 -

Growing up with an American Indian father and a Polish mother, Rosie Bowen immediately saw how different cultures observed Thanksgiving. The morning of the holiday, she would go to her American Indian grandmother’s home for dishes eaten by the Lumbee tribe: chicken ‘n pastry, an American Indian dish that consists of flat dough noodles and chicken in a sauce, collard greens, cornbread and fried chicken.“It was more soulful,” the 43-year-old Rosedale resident said, explaining that with tribes such as the Lumbee, whose tribal headquarters are based in Pembroke, North Carolina, traditional foods reflect the southeastern region where they are mostly concentrated. “My Native paternal grandparents house was very different from going to my Polish grandmother’s house.”

Read More: The Baltimore Banner
‘Ghost homes’ haunt Baltimore’s housing market. City officials think they have a creative solution.
November 23, 2022 -

Stepping over needles on the sidewalk, Alexander Cruz walked up to the crumbling front stoop of a West Baltimore home. He craned his neck and looked through an open third-story window to see whether the roof had caved in yet. Cruz’s company had a deal to buy this vacant rowhouse in the New Southwest/Mount Clare neighborhood, one of at least 15,000 in Baltimore. He wanted to renovate it, rent it to a family and remove the eyesore from a block on West Pratt Street that otherwise appeared to be occupied. Then Cruz learned the property owner owed more than $100,000 in property taxes and water bills that had gone unpaid for years, snowballing debt until it became overwhelming. Homes saddled with such debt are called “ghost homes” because their debts are so large that no one will buy the homes, condemning them to a sort of housing purgatory. The vacant homes then become crime magnets and fire hazards.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
To showcase heritage, stand against hate, Howard County plans for an Asian American Pacific Islander Cultural Center
November 23, 2022 -

More than five years ago, Lanlan Xu began advocating for Howard County to dedicate a community space to serve and celebrate the culture of the fast-growing Asian communities in the area. The former vice chair of the board of directors for Howard County Chinese School saw a need for a center that could host cultural showcases, help new immigrants settle, and build connections with the wider community. Xu and other Asian residents held a series of meetings and pitched the idea as a community impact project to Howard County leadership. Their efforts are paying off. Local officials are now in the initial stages of planning what Howard County’s first Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Cultural Center could look like.

Read More: The Baltimore Banner

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