Around Maryland

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.

In a medical malpractice verdict, a Howard County jury awarded more than $5 million to a woman who suffered lifelong pancreatic damage after receiving a diagnostic procedure in 2014. Jurors granted the patient, Karen Cain, just over $1 million for past medical expenses, $1 million for lost wages, $72,000 for future medical expenses and $3 million for noneconomic damages — though that figure was reduced to $740,000 due to Maryland’s cap on noneconomic damages in health care malpractice cases.

When Gail Curley began her job as marshal of the U.S. Supreme Court less than a year ago, she would have expected to work mostly behind the scenes: overseeing the court’s police force and the operations of the marble-columned building where the justices work. Her most public role was supposed to be in the courtroom, where the marshal bangs a gavel and announces the entrance of the court’s nine justices. Her brief script includes “Oyez! Oyez! Oyez!” — meaning “hear ye” — and concludes, “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.”

Regional air quality forecasts are about to get more accurate with expanded reporting sites amid mixed air quality on the Eastern Shore. The Maryland Department of the Environment unveiled on May 5 a new air quality forecasting system for the state that more than doubles the number of designated areas where forecasts and current conditions are available. According to the department, the u-per Eastern Shore occasionally finds itself in the plume of the I-95 corridor from Washington D.C. to Baltimore that contributes higher levels of traffic related smog. The Lower Eastern Shore has its own, cleaner airshed.

Baltimore is again on track to surpass 300 homicides and with crime surging, many neighbors are demanding action. “Once it gets dark, I do not come outside. Everywhere you turn, there’s a shooting here, a shooting there,” said Cory, who lives in a Southwest Baltimore community plagued by shootings.  Cory, who declined to give his last name, has dealt with so much loss—friends and loved ones killed. He lives in a neighborhood filled with vacant homes and shootings almost daily. “There’s so much going on today that it terrifies me. It really terrifies me,” Cory told WJZ Investigator Mike Hellgren.

The Prince George’s County teachers union launched an ad campaign Friday that calls for more investment by the school system into initiatives that would reduce class sizes and boost teacher pay. Two advertisements coordinated by the Prince George’s County Educators’ Association — which represents about 10,000 of the county’s active teachers and other education professionals — will air on all local network television affiliates and on multiple cable networks over the next four weeks.