Around Maryland

A pair of Naval Academy graduates have highflying dreams for the Annapolis hotel scene, a vision that earned them both friends and enemies in a town rich with tradition, but dependent on tourists. Over the past three years, former helicopter pilots Cody Monroe and Clint Ramsden, who are both in their early 30s, have purchased five properties with the goal of boosting the city’s “luxury” accommodations. “The city has been longing for a higher-end option for a long time now,” Monroe said. “We are looking to increase the number of offerings that Annapolis has on the high-end of the hotel spectrum.”

Beginning Monday, service on four Camden Line Maryland Area Regional Commuter trains will be suspended for two weeks, the Maryland Transit Administration announced Sunday. The changes aim to avoid service disruptions stemming from “severe freight train congestion” on the CSX Transportation rails, according to the MTA, with particular delays expected between Dorsey and Camden Yards. CSX owns the railroad and dispatches Camden Line MARC trains.

Baltimore City Schools apologized to students, families and staff Thursday afternoon for scheduling parent-teacher conferences on Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, begins this year at sundown Oct. 4 and ends at sundown Oct. 5. Observance of the Day of Atonement involves fasting and attending services.

At the request of prosecutors, Baltimore police will assign a detective to reinvestigate the murder of Woodlawn High School student Hae Min Lee, whose killing two decades ago was examined in the hit podcast “Serial” and a popular HBO documentary. A spokeswoman for the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office said police agreed to reinvestigate Lee’s killing in light of new evidence of alternate suspects. That police will review the case further validates the work of defense attorneys, activists and internet fans who argued over the years that Lee’s imprisoned ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, is innocent.­

Following several altercations at sporting events in the first two weeks of school, Anne Arundel County Public Schools is implementing new rules regarding student and fan behavior. Starting Friday, anyone engaging in violent behavior will be banned from attending games for 90 days, Superintendent Mark Bedell wrote in a letter to parents Wednesday.

In an effort to add more transparency to its Citizen Participation Policy for public school board meetings, the Carroll County Board of Education opted not to vote Wednesday night on policy changes and instead asked staff to tweak certain sections of it. Ten people spoke against the policy changes Wednesday night and the school board received numerous emails from the public during the last month, stating opposition to changes that included limiting the number of speakers at each meeting to 15 and allowing the board president to decide who could speak at meetings when requests exceeded the maximum 15.

The Howard County Board of Education pushed back its work session and initial vote on the superintendent’s proposed capital budget for fiscal 2024 to Sept. 29 to allow more time to consider public feedback. The vote was scheduled to take place at the Sept. 22 school board meeting. A. public hearing and work session were also scheduled for that meeting date and Howard County Public School System board member Christina Delmont-Small argued that the agenda was too crowded.

The Baltimore Police Department’s proposed new district boundaries, which officials say are necessary to modernize and streamline police operations, would shift areas of the city that have had more of the most violent crimes into larger, more violent Eastern and Western districts, a Baltimore Banner analysis has found. Those shifts have not gone unnoticed, sparking pushback from community associations and some city council members. But larger, more violent districts could actually be beneficial for Baltimore if police equitably realign resources, experts say.