Around Maryland

Baltimore County police are starting to get back test results from a long-delayed project to process the oldest known collection of DNA evidence from rape cases. Last year, ProPublica wrote about the trove of evidence and the prescient doctor who began assembling it in the 1970s, long before preserving forensic evidence was common police practice. Police have processed DNA from 49 of about 1,800 remaining cases as of the first quarter of this year, according to a department memo obtained through a public information request and follow-up communications with a sergeant in charge of the cold case unit. Ten of the 49 cases yielded actionable DNA profiles, according to the sergeant.

Maryland is sometimes referred to as the “cradle of Catholicism” in the United States. But it has not always gently rocked its Black believers. For many of them, being Catholic has often meant keeping the faith despite racism within the confines of the Church. Archbishop William Lori, leader of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, has acknowledged that in a series of pastoral statements in recent years, spurred in large measure by the unrest that followed Freddie Gray’s death from an injury suffered in police custody. He established a Journey for Racial Justice Coordinating Council last year to oversee efforts at reconciliation and healing.

On a recent day, a man in a red shirt came into the Pennsylvania Avenue branch of the Baltimore library system and thanked the workers for saving his life. “He got Narcan from the library,” said Donna Bruce, a peer recovery supervisor for the Enoch Pratt Free Library System. “He came in to say thanks. To the library. And then he went to work.” Narcan is a brand name for naloxone, a remedy for opioid overdoses, and Bruce, with a sigh of satisfaction, said it’s a measure of success for a program launched in December at the branch that has aided hundreds of people and families affected by substance use and mental health issues.

On a sweltering Tuesday afternoon, Chante Richardson walked up two flights of concrete steps, past a sign reading “Happy 100th birthday Govans Branch!” and to a book drop that was filled to the brim with hardbacks and DVDs. Richardson couldn’t fit the two volumes she was trying to return past a bulky copy of William Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!” and dozens of other books haphazardly jammed into the bin. With the doors of the Govans branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library locked, the 33-year-old Baltimore resident was not able to take back books she had checked out for her goddaughter or pick up scanned documents she had accidentally left last time she was there.

The Harford County Sheriff’s Office, Harford County Office of Drug Control Policy, Aberdeen Proving Ground Federal Credit Union and the Harford County Sheriff’s Foundation have joined together to create the CORE trailer (Community OutReach Effort). The CORE trailer is a mobile educational platform that allows county agencies to take drug use prevention messages, in the form of interactive scenario-based lessons, directly to middle- and high-school-age youth in the community. On Thursday, Harford County leaders took a tour of the new unit at the Harford County Sheriff’s Office Southern Precinct in Edgewood. Elementary school students in the Sheriff’s Office Pledge awareness program demonstrated the interactive educational tools available inside the CORE trailer.

Streaming services reached over 80 million U.S. listeners in the first half of 2021, but the most popular services, such as Apple Music, Spotify and Tidal, are mostly only useful for listening to contemporary music and older material that was released by — at the very least — moderately successful labels. What these platforms don’t provide is a healthy selection of music that didn’t circulate much outside of its home region, and the majority of valuable music that local artists have released throughout history stands a chance of falling into the abyss.

Robyn Coller, 58, lives in a house in Charles Village without air conditioning. “It’s as hot inside as it is outside,” she said. This summer, that has meant many days over 90 degrees. “I’ve gotten kind of used to it,” she said. “But it’s horrible. It can be pretty bad.” On Tuesday, as temperatures soared to 96 degrees, Coller traveled to the Franciscan Center of Baltimore, a community outreach center and soup kitchen. She came for some food, she said. And once she felt the cool air of the fans, Coller said she felt better. The Franciscan Center is one of 11 cooling centers in Baltimore designated as spots to take refuge during Code Red days, when the heat index — a measure that combines air temperature and relative humidity — is forecast to be 105 degrees or higher.

Though none of the 219 monkeypox cases reported as of this week in Maryland were in Carroll County, the county’s health department is getting ready, if and when the virus arrives here, a health official said Wednesday. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, monkeypox is caused by infection with the monkeypox virus, which is part of the same family of viruses as the virus that causes smallpox. Monkeypox symptoms are similar to smallpox symptoms, but milder, and monkeypox is rarely fatal, the CDC stated.