Around Maryland

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.

Community activists rallied around Baltimore's Department of Public Works employees who went to work on Wednesday with the temperature approaching 100 degrees. Outside of the gates of the sanitation yard in Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood, the group demanded safer and healthier working conditions weeks after DPW worker Ronald Silver II died from a heat-related illness while on the job.

The American Lung Association in Maryland Tuesday announced the start of its 2025-2026 research awards and grants cycle, expanding its research opportunities with two new awards The new awards include a grant supporting research on the impact of indoor air quality on lung health, and a joint research award in partnership with the American Thoracic Society to commemorate the Lung Association’s 120th anniversary.

Free pre-K is on the table for every 4-year-old in Baltimore City, giving parents a reprieve as the price of child care soars — even if it sometimes means accepting an open spot outside of a family’s neighborhood school. Baltimore City Public Schools is ahead of the curve in offering what effectively amounts to universal prekindergarten for 4-year-olds, as the district has done for at least a decade.

Whether or not the replacement Francis Scott Key Bridge will be fully federally funded — or if the state of Maryland will need to chip in 10% of it — remains to be seen, but one sizable payment that will cover a portion of the rebuild has already landed. The Maryland Transportation Authority received a $350 million insurance payout this month from Chubb, the Key Bridge’s insurer.

Parents would be able to let their children advance to the fourth grade, even if they failed to meet reading standards that would otherwise lead to them being held back, under a proposed revision to the state’s controversial literacy program. The change, reviewed Tuesday by the state Board of Education, comes as parents and advocates have filed nearly 1,000 comments in response to the literacy plan unveiled last month, and its proposal to retain third graders who are not reading at level.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating a housing discrimination complaint against Baltimore County government leaders after an Owings Mills business owner alleged being obstructed from a development opportunity based on her race and gender. Angela D. Coleman, the leader of an organization called Sisterhood Agenda Inc., filed the complaint with HUD in April and received notification in May that it had been accepted by the federal government for investigation, according to documents reviewed by The Baltimore Banner.