Around Maryland

State and Howard County officials said the completion of a Maryland Route 32 improvement project will result in faster, safer trips for travelers. Gov. Larry Hogan (R), Howard County Executive Calvin Ball (D), Transportation Secretary Jim Ports and State Highway Administration chief Tim Smith cut a ribbon Thursday to signify the official completion of a five-year effort to improve the road.

A judge has dismissed an appeal by City of Annapolis attorneys in a long-running personal injury case brought by a man who crashed his bike on a city storm drain in 2017. In an opinion released Thursday, Anne Arundel County Circuit Judge Richard R. Trunnell denied an appeal filed by Assistant City Attorney Joel Braithewaite, arguing that a jury erred in awarding a $300,000 judgment to Matthew Hager, of Annapolis, after he suffered serious facial injuries when his bike tire got caught in a gap in a city storm drain on Chinquapin Round Road.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Maryland now has 149 documented cases of monkeypox. But in Montgomery County, the supply of monkeypox vaccine is limited, according to County Executive Marc Elrich. “We won’t get any more doses until September, and that’s why the Health Department has established a preregistration program for anyone interested in the MPX vaccine,” he said.

The Rev. Bonnie McCubbin’s first task in her new job as archivist for the local branch of a major denomination was far from soul-stirring. It was to sort through thousands of files assigned to her care during the coronavirus pandemic. As she made her way through the rows of piled-up boxes at Lovely Lane United Methodist Church in North Baltimore’s Old Goucher neighborhood, her eye fell on a carton marked with a name that, to many Methodists, is at least as familiar and powerful as the Bible’s prophets and heroes.

Maryland is getting nearly $23 million in federal money for a new training program for the offshore wind industry. The U.S. Commerce Department made the announcement on Wednesday. The department says the program will partner leading employers and seven local unions to build a training model that meets the needs of employers and local communities.

Baltimore’s spending board approved three settlements Wednesday involving Baltimore Police, including $60,000 to be paid to a man who was arrested by the city’s rogue Gun Trace Task Force. The Board of Estimates unanimously approved the three settlements, which total $220,000. The $60,000 settlement will be awarded to Derrick Anderson, who sued the city over an encounter with Gun Trace Task Force members Evodio Hendrix, Wayne Jenkins, Marcus Taylor and Maurice Ward.

Richard Bennett has worked as an usher for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs since the team’s stadium opened in 2008. In that time, he has seen firsthand both the number of fans and the quality of the Waldorf stadium decline. Bennett saw the largest crowds from 2008 to 2010, but over the past couple of years, he said, attendance has been especially low. “It’s always been a struggle to tell people we’re back,” Bennett said. “That’s why we haven’t seen as many fans since COVID hit.” It’s not just the Blue Crabs, one of six minor league teams in Maryland, that are facing this challenge.