Around Maryland

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.

A judge has ruled that Andrea Barr, the chief auditor of Baltimore County Public Schools, can keep her job, shooting down a county school board challenge over a vote that should have renewed her contract. Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Sherrie Bailey granted Barr a preliminary injunction Thursday morning after a two-day trial between Barr and the county board of education. Barr can continue working until the court can hold a trial on the merits of the case. A hearing has not yet been scheduled. The board is not allowed to retaliate against her, nor interfere with her employment.

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby earlier this week commented on an Instagram post about the repeated prosecutions of Keith Davis Jr., potentially violating an order prohibiting lawyers involved with the case from talking publicly about it for a second time. Attorneys for Davis cited Mosby’s comment in a legal paper supporting their argument earlier this month that she should be held in contempt of court. The new filing brings yet more attention to a case that has become a sore spot for the Democrat, who is seeking a third term as the city’s elected prosecutor.

When Karen Yoho ran her first campaign for the Frederick County Board of Education four years ago, she checked public voting records from the previous election. The information allowed the retired elementary school teacher to see the addresses of every county resident who voted in the school board race two years earlier. They were the most likely to vote again, she figured, so she’d knock on their doors — every one she could — and ask for their support.

Early in-person voting in Maryland’s primary elections begins Thursday, but issues with sample and mail-in ballots sent to voters have been cropping up across the state over the past few weeks as election boards adjust to redrawn district maps and a delayed election date. In Montgomery County, 791 residents received two mail-in ballots after state ballot vendor Taylor Corp. mistakenly mailed an additional ballot to a batch of voters, according to county and state officials.

The town of Cheverly, Maryland, and its roughly 7,000 residents have a unique and proud community, but they don’t have a proper coffee shop. But there are plans to change that and bring much more. Tucked mostly between U.S. Route 50 and the Baltimore-Washington Parkway as they converge on the D.C. line, Cheverly residents love to live there, even though the town does not have all of the amenities that many communities have.

All five candidates running for the District 1 seat on the Carroll Board of County Commissioners are Republicans. Commissioner Stephen Wantz of Westminster currently represents District 1, which stretches across the northern part of the county and includes the towns of Taneytown and New Windsor. Wantz, a Republican, was first elected as commissioner in 2014 and will finish his second term of office this year; he is a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates to represent District 5.