Around Maryland

A new audit found multiple problems with how the Maryland Department of Human Services distributed public benefits, including that the agency gave tens of thousands of recipients benefits during the pandemic who didn’t qualify for the programs. The fiscal compliance audit spanned four years ending in May of 2021, which included the period during the pandemic when federal and state governments raised income thresholds and eased requirements to allow more people access to federal funding.

For the fourth straight year, juvenile rockfish numbers in Maryland waters were well below the historical average, according to a survey conducted by the state Department of Natural Resources. Researchers, who visited 22 different spawning areas in the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries this year, caught an average of 3.6 recently hatched rockfish per sample, slightly more than last year’s 3.2.

How to relieve crowding at Freedom Elementary School in Sykesville has been on the minds of Carroll County Public Schools staff and the Board of Education for years. A redistricting plan was initiated in September 2019, in response to recommendations in the school system’s 2019-2028 Educational Facilities Master Plan. At that time a Freedom Elementary Redistricting Committee was convened to address overcrowding at that school.

The inaugural Maryland Italian Festival is coming to Bel Air next fall. Organized by the Harford County-based organization the Society of Italian American Businessmen, the three-day festival will take place at the Harford County Equestrian Center over the weekend of Sept. 29 through Oct. 1, 2023. “There’s gonna be something for everybody,” said Elio Scaccio, one of SIAB’s founders and one of the festival’s organizers.

The Montgomery County Council unanimously passed a comprehensive General Plan overhaul Tuesday, just ahead of the appointment of a new planning board and the election of a new council, the political bodies that’ll implement anticipated consequent policy or zoning changes. The overhauled plan, dubbed Thrive Montgomery 2050, provides long-term, strategic guidance for how the county should develop over the coming decades.

Health officials warn of an early surge in respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases nationwide. RSV is a common respiratory virus that causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can lead to health complications in infants and older adults. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), RSV is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in children younger than 1 in the United States. Sean O’Donnell, Montgomery County’s public health emergency preparedness manager, said at a media briefing on Monday that local hospitals are seeing a rise in RSV hospitalizations.

With early voting scheduled to kick off in Maryland Thursday and continue through Nov 3, counties, organizations and even individuals across Maryland are mobilizing initiatives to get  as many residents to the polls as they can. In some cases, they are using cars.  In others, they are boarding prospective buses.  Early voting sites are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.