Deaths down but Maryland seeks to keep housing ‘COVID-19 remains’ in makeshift morgue in downtown Baltimore parking garage

A makeshift morgue housed in a downtown Baltimore parking garage that put a harsh spotlight on a massive backlog in cases at the state medical examiners’ office is poised to remain in business until January to accommodate “COVID-19 remains.” The Maryland Department of Health turned to the makeshift morgue space during the pandemic’s peak in January, spending about $30,000 a month, and officials have asked the state spending board to approve paying an additional $180,000 in rent during its meeting Wednesday.

Maryland kids in distress are being kept in emergency departments for weeks, months

Hundreds of Maryland children have spent weeks or months living in emergency departments and other areas of hospitals over the last few years — confined to bare rooms and barred from going outside, seeing friends or having access to an education. The longer these children with behavioral issues stay, hospital physicians and administrators say, the more their mental health deteriorates, and the more that limited and costly emergency room resources are shifted away from other patients.

‘Look at me now’: Using neuroscience to help at-risk kids — and change Maryland’s juvenile justice system

Raynold Smith beefed with another man for months and when they crossed paths in March 2021, both were armed. The reason Smith didn’t pull the trigger? In a split-second moment, when life and death hung in the balance, he glimpsed a child’s car seat and suddenly realized everything his enemy stood to lose. Almost immediately, Smith felt a bullet rip through his leg, narrowly missing a major artery and immobilizing him for weeks.

Montgomery County Schools working to fill hundreds of teacher, staff vacancies

Three weeks before school begins, Montgomery County Public Schools is facing roughly 500 teacher and support staff vacancies, mirroring a national shortage of educators that has left school systems scrambling to fill positions. The school system — Maryland’s largest with roughly 160,000 students — is trying to recruit and hire teachers in a more competitive environment than in previous years, Schools Superintendent Monifa B. McKnight said Monday during a media briefing on the system’s staffing. The school district’s biggest hiring needs are for special education instructors, elementary school teachers and school psychologists.

Park Heights apartment complex design receives a thumbs up, will advance

Plans for a 53-unit multifamily project in Park Heights are moving forward this year as a major overhaul of the disinvested Baltimore neighborhood continues. The project at Park Heights and Virginia avenues in Northwest Baltimore is a companion to a senior apartment complex expected to break ground in the fall by Henson Development Co. and NHP Foundation. The latest project will be called Woodland Gardens. The site today at 4701 Park Heights Ave. is a vacant lot.

Ocean City crime had lower-key summer start, as police keep high-visibility

Ocean City police had a less busy start to the summer, Police Chief Ross Buzzuro told the Town Council, noting a dip in patrol officers. During the July 18 council meeting, Buzzuro reported there were 5,182 officer calls for service in June 2022 as compared to the 6,144 during the same month last year. Citizens calls for service in 2022 were 2,739, lower than the 2021 total of 3,141.

30 years at Camden Yards is about much more than just baseball

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a magical place. When you enter the ballpark, the sights, aromas and sounds take you back to a simpler time — to a place where the hustle and bustle, the fears and frustrations, the stresses of life fade away for a few hours. Some of my happiest memories reside at Camden Yards, the old-timey, red-brick ballpark at the edge of downtown that is marking its 30th anniversary this weekend. At least once a year, it’s where my daughters and I have a standing date. They’re not huge sports fans, but there’s a connection to the Orioles and the stadium that always gets them excited.

Maryland, other states post Yellow Alerts to try to nab hit-and-run drivers

Debbie Geneau was on her way to the bank in Bakersfield, California, one afternoon in July 2020, when three cars headed in the opposite direction crashed. One hit the divider and went airborne, landing on top of Geneau’s Dodge Charger, killing the 65-year-old office manager. The driver responsible for the chain-reaction crash fled the scene. It took nine months for police to figure out who she was and arrest her. She was charged with a hit-and-run resulting in death or permanent serious injury and with vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence. “The biggest thing for me was that I wanted justice for my mom and some type of closure for my family,” said Geneau’s daughter, Dawn Elliott, of Edmond, Oklahoma.

‘I couldn’t be happier’: Lifetime of service leads Naval Academy graduate to become Anne Arundel priest

Serving others has always been James Bors’ mission in life. Bors attended the Naval Academy in the 1980s, served in the Navy for seven years after that and eventually became a father, husband, teacher and parishioner in Annapolis. When asked what motivates him to give so much of himself, Bors paraphrases Scripture: “And he who receives a lot, is able to give a lot.” On June 18, Bors took the latest step in his lifetime of service. He was ordained by Archbishop William E. Lori at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore and assigned to St. Jane Frances De Chantal Church in Riviera Beach, a stone and brick Catholic parish a short walk from the Patapsco River.

DNA evidence may link Maryland’s Chincoteague pony origins to Spanish shipwreck

Before beginning his latest research project, Nicolas Delsol had never even heard of Misty of Chincoteague, one of the fabled feral ponies from the barrier island of Assateague, along the Maryland and Virginia coast. Local legend has it that the horses descended from survivors of a Spanish shipwreck 500 years ago, though that has never been proven. But now Delsol, a French-born archaeologist, has evidence that the story may be more than just a myth. Delsol unearthed a genetic connection between the wild breed and horses from 16th-century Spain.