Around Maryland

Republican county executive candidate Jessica Haire is facing criticism for receiving large donations from several groups linked to a developer in Silver Spring. Haire received about $90,000 from businesses listed at the address of Halle Companies, a developer connected to various projects around the county, including a proposed landfill in Odenton. Seven of the donations, each of $6,000, the maximum allowable by the State Board of Elections, were made in April while she received eight installments of $6,000 from companies at the Silver Spring address in June.

Trial attorney Ben Crump, who has represented families in the Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and Flint, Mich., civil rights cases, is adding parents Jovani and Shawnda Patterson to his list of clients as he joins their fight against Baltimore City and its public school system. The Pattersons sued in January, claiming both parties have defrauded taxpayers by failing to provide acceptable education to public school students. Scott Marder, another lawyer representing the Pattersons in the case, said this is a unique approach, noting that past school lawsuits have tried to argue over civil and constitutional rights.

It has been five months since the Environmental Protection Agency outlined why they had “no confidence” in the Conowingo Dam cleanup plan, and Maryland’s $25 million commitment hopes to change that. Matthew Rowe, assistant director in the Water and Science Administration of the Maryland Department of the Environment, noted the lack of funding sources by all the impacted jurisdictions was behind the agency’s doubt in the Conowingo Watershed Implementation Plan. Jurisdictions include the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. Aside from the $25 million already set aside prior to the EPA’s January letter, Maryland also earmarked $6 million for Conowingo dredging solutions.

Screeches of plastic against hardwood fill the room as a sweat-drenched skater flies around the edge of the track. Colorful makeup radiates above and below her eyes. With her left hand behind her back to preserve momentum, she sweeps through a long section of the track and comes up behind eight skaters. A referee skates beside her with their right arm pointed toward her and left arm raised up in the air. She skates up to the pack, where four skaters match her in blue and another four look ready for battle in bright orange.

For a project that never actually broke ground, the Baltimore Red Line has had a rather busy afterlife. In the seven years since its abrupt cancellation by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, the 14-mile proposed east-west rail link between Johns Hopkins Bayview Hospital in Southeast Baltimore and the Social Security Administration and Centers for Medicaid Services in the western Baltimore County suburb of Woodlawn has sparked a federal Title VI investigation into its demise, served as a flashpoint for multiple election cycles and inspired both state and federal legislation.

Baltimore police have released a draft map with the first boundary changes to the department’s nine districts in decades. Under the proposal, some of the biggest changes would come to the Central, Eastern and Southeastern districts. The Eastern would lose several neighborhoods to the Central (Johnston Square, Oldtown and Penn-Fallsway) and Southeastern (Middle East, Madison-Eastend and Biddle Street), while expanding into neighborhoods that were previously part of the Northeastern, such as Clifton Park, Coldstream Homestead Montebello and Berea.