Around Maryland

The interpreter’s phone rings regularly and often. On the other side of the line are fellow Afghan refugees sharing the concerns and questions that come with restarting their lives in Baltimore. The challenges are many, the interpreter said: learning another language, navigating immigration paperwork, figuring out how to use the public bus system and struggling to find a job. Many families are making this transition alone, separated from relatives and friends.

Work to convert the former elementary school of the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall into a community center starts this week with a goal to open the $12.5 million facility next July. Interior demolition is underway at the former city public school in Upton that will transform into the Justice Thurgood Marshall Amenity Center at P.S. 103. The center will honor the life, career and legacy of the nation's first Black U.S. Supreme Court justice who was raised in West Baltimore. He became a civil rights activist and later an associate justice on the Supreme Court from October 1967 until October 1991. Marshall died at age 85 on January 24, 1993.

The Harford Community College Board of Trustees has approved a $56 million general operating budget for the coming fiscal year, a $4.3 million increase above the current operating budget. With this budget increase, tuition should remain the same, according to the budget presentation June 14 by Trevor Jackson, vice president of finance and administration at the college. “Given the unpredictable fluctuations in the economic market, we know that finances are a primary concern for many of our students,” said Harford Community College President Theresa Felder. “By freezing tuition rates, students will not realize the additional burden of increased academic costs.”

The prehistoric-looking horseshoe crabs native to the Delmarva Peninsula are on the move for their annual migration down the Atlantic coastline back to Maryland. According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the peak of the horseshoe crab spawn depends on late spring and early summer high tides, culminating on or around each full and new moon in June.

The Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center was temporarily on lockdown after a potential security threat occurred Monday afternoon, Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services officials said. Around noon, correctional staff became aware of a “potential security risk” at the facility via the camera and video systems, DPSCS spokesperson Mark Vernarelli wrote in an email.

Howard County will soon begin offering students and their families free meal options, according to government officials. There will be several opportunities to access free meals this summer, officials said. “During the school year, many of our children in Howard County receive free or reduced-price meals, but when school is out in the summer, our children and families relying on those meals still need options,” Howard County Executive Calvin Ball said. “Plus, as we’re seeing the costs of groceries increase, it’s making it harder for folks in our community to make ends meet.

Maryland’s top court has reinstated a man’s double-murder conviction, saying an expert’s trial testimony regarding the killer’s height based on video surveillance was validly admitted despite unknown variables — such as whether he was standing on level ground — and strict new limits on the admission of expert testimony. The Court of Appeals decision marked its first on the admissibility of expert testimony since it abandoned in 2020 its long-held “general acceptance” standard of admission in favor of a “reliability” standard in Rochkind v. Stevenson.

As law enforcement agencies across the country struggle to recruit officers and strengthen community trust, the Baltimore Police Department has announced an internship program in partnership with two historically Black universities in Baltimore. A group of eight students and recent graduates of Coppin State and Morgan State universities, who have started their summer internships with the department, attended a news conference Tuesday at Coppin State. The pilot program, which could become a nationwide initiative by next year, focuses on exposing participants to all aspects of police work, including its inherent complexities and ongoing reform efforts.