Around Maryland

When Kia Jefferson received a renewed lease in June for her apartment in Laurel, she said it felt “like somebody punched me in the gut.” The monthly rent on her home of 17 years would be increasing from $1,311 to $2,050. “It’s gotta be a typo,” Jefferson recalled thinking at first. A new landlord had taken over the Patuxent Place Apartments and begun renovating some units so they could be rented at far higher rates. Even though Jefferson’s apartment hadn’t been renovated — or even, she said, received a new coat of paint since she’d moved in — she and other longtime tenants faced steep increases.

The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office and defense attorneys for a 15-year-old who’s accused of shooting and killing a man who approached a group of squeegee workers have reached an agreement on a plea offer that would call for the case to be sent to juvenile court — over the objections of the victim’s family. A grand jury had indicted the teen in adult court on a charge of first-degree murder in the killing of Timothy Reynolds, which became a flashpoint in debate about squeegee workers in Baltimore.

Betty Fenner-Davis could yell for someone near her street as a kid and almost any of her neighbors living in one of the attached brick rowhouses in the Allendale neighborhood of West Baltimore would recognize her. More than four miles away in Little Italy in East Baltimore, Mary Ann Campanella remembers a similar camaraderie. She used to leave her home on High Street for school to the sounds of neighbors sweeping the steps to their homes as they greeted her and each other.

A vision for the Chesapeake Bay area to have a National Park Service designation is one step closer to reality Monday, as Maryland congressional leaders announced they have drafted legislation for the proposal. The Chesapeake National Recreation Area, as it would be known, could unify a number of existing parks and destinations around the nation’s largest estuary under a common umbrella, organizers say.

Harford County Public Schools and Harford Community College announced Thursday that eligible students who participate in dual enrollment courses, including those who are currently enrolled, will no longer be charged the cost of tuition, fees and textbooks. “We are thrilled to partner with HCPS to offer tuition-free college courses to our dually-enrolled students,” said Theresa B. Felder, president of Harford Community College.

Carroll County is on track to have a $13 million surplus at the end of the current fiscal year, said Ted Zaleski, county budget director, but admits “it’s only November. The revenue picture is still out there to unfold.” Fiscal 2023 started July 1 and ends June 30.

Despite recruitment and training efforts, the number of vacancies among Anne Arundel County school bus drivers has held steady more than two months into the academic year. The system publishes a weekly update with the number of driver vacancies. Two days after school started, 75 vacancies were reported Aug. 31, and 69 were listed Wednesday. Schools spokesman Bob Mosier said in a statement that the system has been able to maintain, but not increase, staffing levels. “As has been stated, we are treading water,” Mosier said in an email. Anne Arundel is not alone in its struggle — a shortage of bus drivers is affecting districts around the country.

When the nation’s Catholic bishops gathered for their annual general assembly in Baltimore two years ago, they faced a thorny, high-profile issue: U.S. voters had just elected as president Joe Biden, a practicing Catholic who also supports abortion rights. The expected clash between the conservative and progressive wings of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops over whether to censure Biden never broke into the open, as the clerics worked to hammer out a compromise statement that they finally released last year.This year’s assembly, which starts Monday at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront Hotel, promises no such headline-grabbing fodder for debate. But it could serve as one more testing ground for the ongoing back-and-forth between the liberal and traditionalist factions of the highest-ranking body in the Catholic Church in the U.S.