Around Maryland

A tinny buzzing sound echoed through a third-floor laboratory of a building on North Wolfe Street. Perched on a stool, Dr. Thomas Hyde held an electric dental drill — the instrument he and his colleagues have found works the best for delicately extracting tissue samples. Another researcher handed him a dull pink slice of someone’s brain about the size and shape of a chicken cutlet.

Generation180 and the Maryland Energy Administration (MEA) Thursday awarded $24 million in grants to state schools through the Decarbonizing Public Schools Program to promote sustainability and clean energy. The Decarbonizing Public Schools Program grants are funding a range of projects in school districts from every corner of the state, including the installation of solar and geothermal systems, electrification of HVAC systems, LED lighting upgrades, energy data management and Net Zero Energy school construction.

A leading regional environmental group is using the federal government’s latest study on the health of the Chesapeake Bay to push for more aggressive action in 2025 and beyond. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its latest biennial report charting progress on regionwide efforts to reduce pollution in the Bay.

A cadre of Republican and Democratic state’s attorneys have launched efforts to share case metrics not typically available to the public, and they’re doing so despite the prosecutors’ own professional organization opposing the idea. The projects already underway in Baltimore City and Charles, Frederick and Montgomery counties are done in consultation with criminal justice researchers from top universities and are backed by grant funding.

In December, a 42-year-old agricultural worker picking oranges in Arcadia, Florida, began acting erratically. The worker died of heat stroke, government records show. Last August, a 36-year-old roofer working in high heat index conditions in Pontiac, Illinois, returned to the roof after a break then became confused and collapsed. He was unresponsive and rescued from the roof but died of hyperthermia — an abnormally high body temperature.

In the ongoing question of safety concerns within the city of Hagerstown, the parties attending a meeting convened Monday by Sen. Paul Corderman were, for the most part cordial — although there had been some controversy about who had been invited and who hadn’t. And after the meeting, a county official who did not attend continued to criticize the city government over its police department.