Around Maryland

A jurisdiction of one of Christianity’s oldest churches will hold its national convention in Baltimore this week, marking the second time this month that a prominent Christian faith tradition has held its most important regular gathering in the city. The Orthodox Church in America — one of the largest jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox church in the United States — kicks off its “All-American Council” on Monday at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor.

For a day, the Camden Yards complex in Baltimore was a soccer spectacular, and the purple seats of M&T Bank Stadium were replaced with a red and blue swirl of football fandom. Arsenal and Everton, the two clubs with the longest tenure in top-flight English soccer leagues, faced each other Saturday night in a friendly dubbed the Charm City Match, with Arsenal topping their Premier League rivals 2-0. The game mattered little — it was a preseason exhibition, after all — but for local soccer fans, hosting two storied sides was more than welcomed.

This fall, Allegany College of Maryland will launch the state’s only data analytics degree program, according to the school’s officials, which is one of several offerings facilitated by a recently renovated technology building. Students in the data analytics program, offered fully online, will have the option to enroll in a one-year certificate program with 30 credits, or a two-year, associate of applied science degree program that carries 60 credits. According to Autumn Becker, director of ACM’s Western Maryland IT Center of Excellence and data analytics program, the certificate provides an opportunity for career changers or students pursuing an associate degree in a related field who would like additional training in data analytics to enhance their resume.

A youth mission group from two Maryland churches is “safe” and headed home from Panama, a spokesman said Saturday, a day after a chaperone said about two dozen people were stuck at an oceanside compound amid protests that have shut down major roads in the country. “The mission group was able to make it through the protest blockade during a brief window early this morning and are now safe at a secure location where they are making flight arrangements to travel home,” Evan Knott, director of communications for the Chesapeake Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, wrote in an email Saturday morning.

Baltimore will host the top soccer league in the world Saturday. Arsenal and Everton, both of England’s storied Premier League, will play at 7 p.m. at M&T Bank Stadium in front of thousands of fans, and local supporters are organizing a slew of events: a podcast watch party, a pickup game of soccer, a block party, a march to the stadium — and Sunday brunch following the match.

In recent weeks, the Baltimore County school board has fought with its auditor in court, appeared on the verge of ousting its superintendent, and had its ugly internal interactions aired in a courtroom. Board members have a history of infighting, among themselves and with the system’s superintendents. Here’s a look at some of the recent acrimony. Is Darryl Williams in or out of a job? That was the question raised last month when the school board met in a special closed-door session in mid-June. And it remains unanswered.

A housing market correction may be underway in Greater Baltimore. Inventory in the region increased for the second straight month in June and while the median sales price remains higher than a year ago, the rate of price growth is slowing, according to new figures released Thursday by Bright MLS. The changes to the housing market in Greater Baltimore come after nearly two years of high demand and low inventory that drove prices to record highs amid the pandemic.

A high concentration of blue-green algae has been detected in Triadelphia Reservoir, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission said Thursday. Blue-green algae, a type of algal bloom, can produce harmful chemicals called cyanotoxins that can cause severe illness in humans and animals if consumed or touched. Drinking water filtered from Triadelphia Reservoir, located along the Patuxent River in Howard and Montgomery counties, is not affected by the toxic bloom.

More Maryland residents are just one click away from faster and more reliable internet service. On Thursday, the state got a $95 million federal grant to help families and students get online. During the critical stages of the coronavirus pandemic, Maryland students had to leave school and learn from home. For many, there was a problem, access to the internet.