Around Maryland

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.

The Montgomery County, Maryland, native nominated to be the county’s new health officer has practiced medicine in the county where she was born and raised; her family goes back multiple generations. “When I think about medical practice, it is about the patient that is sitting in front of you, but it is also about the community that surrounds you — because really, they are all your patients,” said Dr. Kisha Davis.

A proposed update to the way public participation works at Carroll County Board of Education meetings was considered earlier this month by the board, but the issue was tabled Oct. 12 after a mostly negative public response. Carroll County Public Schools staff presented an update to the rules that would limit the maximum number of speakers at each meeting to 15. Members of the public would apply to speak on the day before the board meeting, and would be notified by noon on the day of the meeting if they were chosen to speak.

As Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott works to implement an ambitious plan for curbing the city’s rampant gun violence, his strategy has caught the attention of a national organization dedicated to promoting a public health approach to anti-violence work. Cities United chose Baltimore as the site of its ninth annual conference focused on reimagining public safety that organizers said will draw more than 450 attendees, including local government leaders and community-based, philanthropic, public safety and faith-based organizations from more than 75 cities.

The state Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to approve a $50,000 settlement, to be matched with Baltimore County funds and total $100,000, for a federal lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations by county prosecutors and police — which one board member said “shouldn’t have occurred.” The settlement approval brings to a close the yearslong court battle over how county officials responded to a woman’s alleged 2017 sexual assault.