Around Maryland

The Badowski family had just sat down for dinner at their Assateague Island campsite in May when they spotted wild horses galloping in the distance. Within seconds, the horses had surrounded the family vacationing from Bel Air, seizing ears of corn still steaming from the grill, ripping open a bag of chips and nosing through their hastily abandoned dinner plates. “We could barely get out of our chairs in the time it took them to get to our campsite,” said mother Caitlin Badowski, 40.

Crafts, entertainment, ice cream, fireworks and farm animals will be on hand at the 125th Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair, which opens this weekend. The weeklong fair, which has been held since 1897, runs through Aug. 5 with activities at the Carroll County Agriculture Center, 706 Agricultural Center Drive in Westminster. Admission is free, but parking is $5 after 4 p.m. Parking will be free all day on Sunday. According to a history published in the 1997 Carroll County Fair Guide, the current version of the fair traces its roots to a picnic held Aug. 14, 1897, at the Otterdale Schoolhouse, in Taneytown. The fair moved to Westminster in 1954, to what is now known as the Carroll County Agriculture Center.

With a warm, welcoming smile, Carleen Goodridge greeted her guests like they were family. As each one entered her newly opened café, The Stand by Le MONADE, nestled between the city courthouse and Mercy Hospital in downtown Baltimore, she walked over and embraced them. Her hair was fashioned into two waist-length braids that draped over the shoulders of those she hugged. I’m grateful and ecstatic,” said Goodridge, a 44-year-old Bayview resident. “Being in Baltimore has helped me complete my identity and find a better version of myself.”

While Maryland sports bettors grow increasingly impatient waiting for mobile betting to be approved, the amount of potential tax revenue the state is losing grows as well. Despite Governor Larry Hogan’s fiery push to have online sports betting ready for the kick-off of the 2022 NFL season, no launch date has been set. How much money has Maryland left on the table as a result of the mobile betting delay? Let’s look at some numbers.

It’s been a lean season for crabbers and crab lovers alike, with the Chesapeake Bay’s popular crustaceans at their lowest level in more than 30 years. Commercial crabbers in Maryland and Virginia aren’t catching their limits, and the harvest in the first few months of the season was so meager that some gave up trying.

A group of public health academics is urging Baltimore leaders to speak up and act quickly to curb the rise of monkeypox, warning that the virus already is disproportionately harming the city’s LGBTQ community. Anyone can get monkeypox, an infectious disease that causes painful lesions, fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes and more. It is painful and can require multiple weeks of quarantine and isolation, but is rarely fatal. Monkeypox spreads through direct or close contact with an infected person and so far in the U.S. has been affecting predominantly men who have sex with other men.

The only way to explain the legendary radio DJ “Weasel” is by the music. Not some shock jock, he’s guided Baltimore through the history of song: hillbilly string bands from the 1920s, zydeco from New Orleans, Motown and Go-go, punk and new wave, you name it. He’s played Spanish Conjunto bands, even those awful dogs barking “Jingle Bells.” “That’s a masterpiece!”

Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich wants the U.S. Department of Transportation to delay for at least 60 days a final decision on Maryland’s plan to add toll lanes to the Capital Beltway and Interstate 270. In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Elrich (D) urged the federal government not to render its final verdict on the proposal until the public has had an “adequate” opportunity to review a new — and voluminous — environmental analysis.

Mental health, affordable housing and disparities related to diversity are the top three needs facing Frederick County, according to a study commissioned by The Community Foundation of Frederick County. Devereux Consulting, of Silver Spring, interviewed 35 community leaders for the Frederick County Human Needs Assessment’s 2022 update to a 2018 study. The update was posted to the Community Foundation’s website Monday.