Around Maryland

Regional air quality forecasts are about to get more accurate with expanded reporting sites amid mixed air quality on the Eastern Shore. The Maryland Department of the Environment unveiled on May 5 a new air quality forecasting system for the state that more than doubles the number of designated areas where forecasts and current conditions are available. According to the department, the u-per Eastern Shore occasionally finds itself in the plume of the I-95 corridor from Washington D.C. to Baltimore that contributes higher levels of traffic related smog. The Lower Eastern Shore has its own, cleaner airshed.

Baltimore is again on track to surpass 300 homicides and with crime surging, many neighbors are demanding action. “Once it gets dark, I do not come outside. Everywhere you turn, there’s a shooting here, a shooting there,” said Cory, who lives in a Southwest Baltimore community plagued by shootings.  Cory, who declined to give his last name, has dealt with so much loss—friends and loved ones killed. He lives in a neighborhood filled with vacant homes and shootings almost daily. “There’s so much going on today that it terrifies me. It really terrifies me,” Cory told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren.

The Prince George’s County teachers union launched an ad campaign Friday that calls for more investment by the school system into initiatives that would reduce class sizes and boost teacher pay. Two advertisements coordinated by the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association — which represents about 10,000 of the county’s active teachers and other education professionals — will air on all local network television affiliates and on multiple cable networks over the next four weeks.

Dozens of middle school students from Montgomery County, Maryland, were in a Rockville courtroom this week but not for a trial. Instead, they were attending a celebration. The 49 students were among the successful graduates of the county’s Truancy Prevention Program. The initiative is designed to help middle school students who’ve missed between 18-36 days of school get back to class and back on track. One of the proud graduates was 12-year-old Jaelynn Parada, a sixth-grade student at A. Mario Loiederman Middle School in Silver Spring.

In response to record heat expected this weekend, Johns Hopkin University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health will shorten it’s outdoor commencement ceremony. The ceremony is now anticipated to last around 2 hours, instead of 4 hours or longer. Due to the shortened event, those receiving their master’s degrees will not have their individual names read. Instead, the university said it will “confer master’s degrees by recognizing program cohorts by group…”

The Black-Eyed Susan cocktails were flowing, D. Wayne Lukas was telling jokes and things finally felt fully back to normal at Old Hilltop. While the Kentucky Derby winner isn’t at the Preakness, the tradition of the Alibi Breakfast returned Thursday to Pimlico Race Course after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. The event has evolved from its origins in the 1930s but still brings owners, trainers and other horsemen together for chicken and waffles in the kind of relaxed, lighthearted atmosphere the second jewel of the Triple Crown is known for after the intensity of the Derby.

Over the course of public hearings on Anne Arundel County’s proposed fiscal 2023 budget, residents raised concerns about changes to Jumpers Hole Road and higher pay for some school faculty. But to the surprise of County Council members and other leaders, the two meetings, held on May 9 and 18, were dominated by talk of building a rowing facility and providing more water access for rowers. The problem is that the rowing facility isn’t in County Executive Steuart Pittman’s proposed fiscal plan.

The Carroll Board of County Commissioners voted 4-1 Thursday to allocate an additional $2 million to Carroll County Public Schools for fiscal 2023, stating that the funds would be for one-time use to support staff salaries. Commissioners Dennis Frazier, Ed Rothstein, Stephen Wantz and Richard Weaver, voted in favor; Commissioner Eric Bouchat dissented. During discussion, Frazier called the leadership on the Board of Education “dismal.”