Around Maryland

Nearly 60 years after it closed its doors, the Harriet Tubman School in Columbia will reopen this weekend, transformed as a cultural and education center to highlight historic contributions of Black Howard County residents. A public ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Harriet Tubman Cultural Center will be held 10:30 a.m., Saturday, at 8045 Harriet Tubman Lane, Columbia. The Harriet Tubman Foundation will also host the annual Harriet Tubman Day celebration from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the site, with food, music and other activities.

With every arabesque, every jete and every pirouette, members of Baltimore’s Ballet After Dark dance away their pain. The group, which was founded in 2014 by dancer Tyde-Courtney Edwards, toe-shoed their way into the national consciousness this summer when they performed during the audition segment of the NBC’s reality television show, “America’s Got Talent.” The group might not have made the show’s finale. But they made their point. “We’re trauma survivors and dancers that use performance to reclaim relationships with our bodies and lives using the healing power of dance,” Edwards, 35, said during the broadcast, which NBC network says reaches an estimated six million homes.

Doctors have told health services to prepare for a new era of cancer screening after a study found a simple blood test could spot multiple cancer types in patients before they develop clear symptoms. The Pathfinder study offered the blood test to more than 6,600 adults aged 50 and over, and detected dozens of new cases of disease. Many cancers were at an early stage and nearly three-quarters were forms not routinely screened for.

Five police officers will not be charged in the 2021 death of a Virginia man after a preliminary report from the Office of the Attorney General cleared them, police said. Daniel Michael Holley, 23, died on Nov. 14, 2021, in Frederick Health Hospital, two days after police used a Taser on him during an altercation, a news release from the Frederick Police Department said.

Once, Baltimore drinking water was a constant danger. Poor sanitation left the water dirty and often unfit to drink. In the early 20th century, “summer diarrhea,” a seasonal rise of gastrointestinal illness caused by microorganisms, was a leading cause of death among infants and children. Such dangers have become a distant memory in Baltimore, at least until city officials detected E. coli in the tap water.

Coppin State University will get $1,108,885, and Frostburg State University is set to receive $828,371. Coppin State is one of three historically Black colleges and universities to be chosen for the program. The other two are Prairie View A&M University and Winston-Salem State University, which received awards of about $700,000 each.

University of Maryland alumnus Stanley R. Zupnik has made a $25 million commitment toward a new building that will help prepare new generations of engineers and foster collaboration between disciplines in the A. James Clark School of Engineering. Named in his honor, Stanley R. Zupnik Hall will be the new home of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and will include mechanical engineering, the Quantum Technology Center and the Maryland Transportation Institute.