Around Maryland

Just weeks before Pimlico Race Course closes all public-facing activity, fans and friends were invited to gather for a special appreciation day as Maryland horse racing takes the first steps of an industry transition. Pimlico will cease training, wagering and all “customer facing activities” at the end of the month, as the racetrack’s new owner — the state of Maryland — prepares an overhaul of the facilities.

For more than a century, when someone wanted to buy a home all they had to do was walk into a real estate office and ask the agent to start showing them properties. That agent was paid by the seller if a deal ever went through. All that changed Saturday. As part the settlement of a lawsuit brought by home sellers, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) agreed that sellers’ agents will no longer share the commission with buyers’ agents for a successful sale. Now, buyers have to agree upfront to pay their agents independent of the seller.

Sen. Mary Beth Carozza (R-Lower Shore) loves the Chesapeake Bay, but she continues to make sure her General Assembly colleagues and the public don’t forget about the state’s five coastal bays. Carozza made that case last month when state officials unveiled new license plates that called for protecting the Chesapeake and as well as the coastal bays. She did it again Thursday, during this week’s Maryland Association of Counties summer conference in Ocean City, when she took three of her Senate colleagues on a tour of one of those bays between Ocean City and the mainland.

In a joyous graduation program at the Easton Volunteer Fire Department on July 14, 46 students completed the Upper Shore Workforce Investment Board youth program. The six-week work program gives students with learning disabilities and handicaps not only a path get out into the workforce, but many retain their jobs after completing the course. These teens do all kinds of things across five counties like washing dishes, taking movie tickets at a theater and working at a day care center. There are lots of different businesses who are willing to work with these students like Aaron’s Place, Dorchester Parks and Recreation and the Kent County Animal Shelter.

It’s officially that time of year. The smell of kettle corn and funnel cakes mixed with a crowd of carnival rides, live music and face painting: County and state fairs are ramping up across the D.C., Maryland and Virginia region. But one county in Maryland will miss out on all of the fun this year: Prince George’s. The state’s oldest county fair will not take place this September due to a lack of volunteers, said Debbie Herbert, president of the county’s fair association.

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.