Around Maryland

Hundreds of high school seniors in Anne Arundel County wrestled with the decision to attend the brand-new Severn Run High School over returning to their previous school. Severn Run High was built to offset overcrowding in Old Mill, North County and Meade high schools. The new facility boasts plenty of windows, state-of-the-art athletic amenities and 3D printers.

Carroll Community College will soon provide educational opportunities for adults and juveniles coming out of the criminal justice system. A new pilot program called the "Justice System to Careers Initiative" will soon offer career training to individuals before they re-enter society from the justice system as a preventative measure for adults and juveniles coming out of incarceration to avoid drug use or low-level crimes.

Two proposed ballot questions, one that would reduce Baltimore’s taxes and another that would offer payments to new city parents, were struck down Thursday by Maryland’s highest court, which found in separate rulings that both violated the state constitution. The Supreme Court of Maryland took up the two cases after separate Baltimore Circuit Court judges found that each question should not appear on ballots for city voters to consider this fall. Each judge ruled that their respective question was outside the scope of changes that citizens are able to make to the city’s charter.

Maryland environmental regulators proposed new restrictions Thursday on operations at a massive coal export terminal in South Baltimore, a long-awaited decision that comes after community members and activists have called on the state for months to shut the facility down. Among the most significant changes proposed by the Maryland Department of the Environment for CSX Transportation’s coal piers in Curtis Bay is a requirement that the company erect large physical barriers to prevent coal dust from wafting off the open-air site and polluting the surrounding neighborhood.

Customer service, customer service, customer service. That’s the conclusion of a paper published last month from a team of sociologists at Johns Hopkins University about the best way to help people using housing vouchers successfully move to neighborhoods with low poverty rates and access to good schools, jobs and other amenities.

From cultural and community festivals to food and music festivals, the D.C. region has a wide variety of events to look forward to in the fall and beyond. WTOP has rounded up some of the many upcoming festivals, fairs, parades, exhibits and more to anticipate this year across Maryland, Virginia and the District.

Standing at the lectern in the first-floor hearing room of Winchester Hall on Tuesday night, Adamstown resident Steve Black drew attention to a sign on the wall setting the maximum occupancy for the space at 204 people. “Imagine what this room would be like if there were 350 people in here — that’s what over capacity means,” he said.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation recently announced $8.9 million dollars in funding for conservation efforts in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The grants through the Chesapeake WILD Program will be funding over 30 projects, several of which are located on the Eastern Shore.