Around Maryland

When Adam Jones finished his 11-year run in an Orioles uniform in 2018, he’d left his name throughout the storied franchise’s record books. He’s seventh all-time with 875 runs scored, fifth with 1,781 hits, eighth with 305 doubles, fifth with 263 home runs, sixth with 866 RBIs and fifth with 595 extra-base hits. He also appeared in five All-Star games and owns four Gold Gloves and one Silver Slugger.

Maryland’s attorney general says a team of experts will conduct a detailed review of some 100 autopsies of people who died in police custody during the tenure of the state’s former chief medical examiner. Attorney General Brian Frosh announced details of the review Wednesday in a news release. Dr. David Fowler, who led the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner between 2002 and 2019, came under scrutiny after he testified for the defense during the 2020 murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who was charged with murder in the killing of George Floyd.

A couple of years into the pandemic, Shirley Neville had finally had enough of her shoddy internet service. “When I was getting ready to use my tablet for a meeting, it was cutting off and not coming on,” said Neville, who lives in a middle-class neighborhood in New Orleans whose residents are almost all Black or Latino.

State energy officials are bracing for a wave of applications for clean energy rebates expected as part of recently enacted federal programs. Mary Beth Tung, director of the Maryland Energy Administration, said federal rebate programs could double the number of applications her agency handles annually. “Our interest in these new federal programs, as you can imagine, is as strong as yours are,” Tung told members of the Senate Finance Committee Tuesday. “Rolling out these new programs is going to take quite a lot of effort on the part of everyone to make sure that it is done right.” Included in those programs is the home residential rebate program and the high-efficiency electric home rebate program.

The historic B.F. Shriver Cannery building in Sykesville’s South Branch Park is getting a new life, thanks to a $2 million grant from the state. The grant money is intended for infrastructure improvements needed to reuse the now-empty building. The funding will also be used to improve pedestrian access to South Branch Park.  “This funding will go a long way in helping Sykesville achieve our long-desired goal of seeing the cannery building put back into productive public use,” Sykesville Mayor Stacy Link stated in a news release. “The town will work diligently to develop options in the future reuse of the building, while ensuring that the public plays a part in the final say.”

Havre de Grace and Aberdeen were two of 18 municipalities recently honored at the Sustainable Maryland awards ceremony on Oct. 11 at the Maryland Municipal League’s annual fall conference, according to the University of Maryland’s Environmental Finance Center. “The Sustainable Maryland certification is an honor for the City of Havre de Grace, as our municipality makes a conscious effort to bring sustainability concerns into our policy and planning decisions,” the city’s mayor, Bill Martin, said of the award, according to a news release from Sustainable Maryland. In order to achieve a Sustainable Maryland certification, municipalities must form a “Green Team,” made up of local citizens, community leaders and municipality staff members and officials.