Around Maryland

Annapolis unveiled pay-per-use Bird e-bikes and scooters last week as part of a micro-mobility program rollout to help people navigate the city in something other than a car while Noah Hillman Garage is under construction. A few days into its operation, some residents began questioning why parts of the city, including public housing communities, the Naval Academy and St. John’s College, and other private properties, weren’t included in the program.

In a multi-hour hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, lawmakers hammered Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert M. Califf about long-standing problems with food safety operations that critics say contributed to a nationwide shortage of baby formula that has shaken trust in the FDA. The food safety part of the agency, according to experts, has been chronically understaffed and underfunded.

When Steve Lockard leaves his job of four years as superintendent of Carroll County Public Schools, he will be returning to familiar territory, one county over. On July 1, Lockard will become principal at New Market Elementary School in Frederick County. On May 19, the Carroll County school board announced it had hired Cynthia McCabe, who has served as the county’s chief of schools since 2019, to become Carroll’s next superintendent. Her four-year term begins July 1.

More than 800 Baltimore County employees did not receive cost-of-living raises they were due in January because of an “antiquated compensation system,” the county’s inspector general found. The oversight by Democratic County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s administration affected 838 nonunion employees across departments. They include clerks, administrative aides, office assistants, social workers, nursing assistants and security officers. Inspector General Kelly Madigan’s office launched an investigation after receiving a complaint in February that certain clerical employees in the county’s Department of Recreation and Parks had been unfairly excluded from a 2% pay increase, according to her report released this week.

There are thousands of children across Maryland who not only haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19, but also lack protection from influenza and the kinds of diseases that routine shots long ago made scarce, such as measles and chickenpox. It’s a worrisome trend for public health experts, who see a surging number of children infected with the coronavirus and fear another outbreak in particular may be on the horizon — measles.

Maryland has received a $989,000 settlement from the Ford Motor Company as part of a multistate complaint alleging the automaker made misleading claims about some of its vehicles, Attorney General Brian Frosh said. Prosecutors in Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Illinois, Vermont and Arizona said the automaker falsely advertised the fuel economy of 2013–2014 C-Max hybrids and the payload capacity of 2011–2014 Super Duty pickup trucks. “Ford bragged about the fuel efficiency of its C-Max vehicles and about the payload capacity of its Super Duty pickup trucks. We were convinced, after our investigation, that Ford’s claims were false and misleading,” said Frosh.

The city Planning Commission last week approved five additional video billboards for downtown. The panel voted Thursday to add the high-tech advertisements to a list of other prominent downtown buildings that was approved in March. The move brings a total of 11 large, flashy and colorful billboards that will have no audio into the central business district. The first batch of video billboards was given a thumbs up by the commission on March 3 after a lengthy, raucous meeting that included push back from downtown residents who decried “visual clutter” and traffic woes, among other issues.