Around Maryland

Things have changed gradually and steadily at Baltimore’s biggest mosque since Hanan Williams started working there 17 years ago. The modest building that once constituted the Islamic Society of Baltimore in Windsor Mill has tripled in size. A private school that was situated in trailers has its own indoor wing, a gym hosts sporting events and prayer-session overflow, and three red domes surmount the sprawling, sand-colored complex.

One after the other, drivers pulled up the hilly terrain of The Alameda onto school grounds. A woman wearing a leopard-dotted headband and Baltimore City College sweatshirt emerged from the entrance near the football stadium. She stood in front of the orange door with a posted sign: “ALL FOOD DELIVERIES HERE.”

The question of where new cannabis dispensaries should set up shop in Prince George’s County divided the council last fall, igniting a layered debate about quality development and the potential for legalization to advance social equity in a county harmed by the War on Drugs. While council members never settled on whether to restrict new shop locations, they are nearly united in opposing a move by state lawmakers that would block them from doing so in the future.

Consumers in Maryland lost millions of dollars to fraud and scams last year, as the nation as a whole hit a new benchmark for fraud losses: more than $10 billion in 2023. Marylanders made 43,433 fraud reports in 2023, according to data released by the Federal Trade Commission. Most of the reports — 14,968 — were for imposter scams, where a scammer impersonates a government or business official, or even a personal contact, to earn a person’s trust or intimidate them to get them to send money.

Brandon Gruszczynski, who manages the LGBTQ Baltimore Eagle Bar & Nightclub in Old Goucher, fondly remembers a once-vibrant gay scene in Baltimore. It was during the ’90s and early 2000s when patrons could hop from bar to bar for hours on any given night or attend other activities, such as house parties, drag bingo or game and trivia nights throughout the week.

There have been at least 12 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of February 16. Three were on college campuses, and nine were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left seven people dead and at least 19 others injured, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.

On the eve of the second anniversary of the state’s temporary takeover of the Back River sewage plant in 2022, Baltimore City is calling on a private company to manage its key facilities. The so-far-unannounced, no-bid contract with Operations Management International (OMI) will start at $50 million and could increase to $100 million over an eight-year period.

Marylanders have an opportunity to see how sap was tapped from trees over time to make maple syrup. Brittany Roger, the manager of school programs at the Irvine Nature Center in Owings Mills, gave 11 News a demonstration of how tribes would tap for sap in the Northeast thousands of years ago. “We can only tap in a time of year when the night temperatures are below freezing and the daytime temperatures above 40,” Roger said.