Around Maryland

More than 800 Baltimore County employees did not receive cost-of-living raises they were due in January because of an “antiquated compensation system,” the county’s inspector general found. The oversight by Democratic County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s administration affected 838 nonunion employees across departments. They include clerks, administrative aides, office assistants, social workers, nursing assistants and security officers. Inspector General Kelly Madigan’s office launched an investigation after receiving a complaint in February that certain clerical employees in the county’s Department of Recreation and Parks had been unfairly excluded from a 2% pay increase, according to her report released this week.

There are thousands of children across Maryland who not only haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19, but also lack protection from influenza and the kinds of diseases that routine shots long ago made scarce, such as measles and chickenpox. It’s a worrisome trend for public health experts, who see a surging number of children infected with the coronavirus and fear another outbreak in particular may be on the horizon — measles.

Maryland has received a $989,000 settlement from the Ford Motor Company as part of a multistate complaint alleging the automaker made misleading claims about some of its vehicles, Attorney General Brian Frosh said. Prosecutors in Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Vermont and Arizona said the automaker falsely advertised the fuel economy of 2013–2014 C-Max hybrids and the payload capacity of 2011–2014 Super Duty pickup trucks. “Ford bragged about the fuel efficiency of its C-Max vehicles and about the payload capacity of its Super Duty pickup trucks. We were convinced, after our investigation, that Ford’s claims were false and misleading,” said Frosh.

The city Planning Commission last week approved five additional video billboards for downtown. The panel voted Thursday to add the high-tech advertisements to a list of other prominent downtown buildings that was approved in March. The move brings a total of 11 large, flashy and colorful billboards that will have no audio into the central business district. The first batch of video billboards was given a thumbs up by the commission on March 3 after a lengthy, raucous meeting that included push back from downtown residents who decried “visual clutter” and traffic woes, among other issues.

In a medical malpractice verdict, a Howard County jury awarded more than $5 million to a woman who suffered lifelong pancreatic damage after receiving a diagnostic procedure in 2014. Jurors granted the patient, Karen Cain, just over $1 million for past medical expenses, $1 million for lost wages, $72,000 for future medical expenses and $3 million for noneconomic damages — though that figure was reduced to $740,000 due to Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages in health care malpractice cases.

When Gail Curley began her job as marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court less than a year ago, she would have expected to work mostly behind the scenes: overseeing the court’s police force and the operations of the marble-columned building where the justices work. Her most public role was supposed to be in the courtroom, where the marshal bangs a gavel and announces the entrance of the court’s nine justices. Her brief script includes “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” — meaning “hear ye” — and concludes, “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.”