COVID-19 cases continue to pile up in Maryland and the state’s positivity rate hovers above 6%. But even as cases rise, risk of serious illness remains low. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is a global leader in the fight against COVID, guiding public policy and saving lives. “We are starting to see an uptick,” noted Assistant Scientist Shaun Truelove, PhD, who researches infectious disease dynamics and modeling. “The question now is, what does that uptick mean? And what will it become in the next couple weeks and next couple months?”

Gov. Larry Hogan is directing state law enforcement to assist local and federal partners should they be called to protect the homes of Supreme Court justices in Maryland. Over the weekend, crowds of abortion-rights demonstrators held protests outside the homes of Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, both of whom live in Maryland.

For years, the lawn outside the Eastport fire station has been crisscrossed with dirt footpaths worn by pedestrians who cut through the property between nearby residential neighborhoods and a commercial district. Capt. Dallas Lister, a 26-year veteran of the Annapolis Fire Department, has pondered what could be done to accommodate that foot traffic and spruce up the patch of grass. In 2020, Lister came up with the idea for a memorial park to honor three fallen members of the fire department and other community heroes.

Maryland’s top court grappled Monday over an impossibility defense as it heard the appeal of a man’s second-degree murder conviction for being an accessory before the killing of two Montgomery County teenagers on the eve of their high school graduations. Attorney John N. Sharifi, pressing Roger Garcia’s case, told the Court of Appeals a person cannot be guilty of assisting in the planning of a second-degree murder, which by definition is not premeditated and thus not planned.

Carroll County Public Schools announced Monday that Cynthia A. McCabe has been selected as the finalist for superintendent. McCabe has served as CCPS chief of schools since 2019. McCabe was the school system’s director of elementary schools from 2011 until she was elevated by Superintendent Steve Lockard to chief of schools. In this role, McCabe supported principals and the directors of elementary, middle, and high schools. This position also supervises student services and the technology services department.

Baltimore officials are seeking public feedback as they look to redraw longstanding police district lines for the first time in more than 50 years. The current boundaries of the city’s nine police districts were set in 1959, Mayor Brandon M. Scott (D) said at a Friday news conference. He called the police precinct redistricting “long overdue.” Baltimore had a population of 585,708 at the 2020 decennial census, according to the United States Census Bureau. In 1960, that figure was 939,024. While the city’s population has seen an overall decline since then, some neighborhoods have grown in recent years.

The Maryland State Police is joining agencies across the country in a national campaign aimed at keeping first responders safe. The initiative is meant to raise awareness about the “move over” law. This comes as an expansion to the state’s law, which will soon be in place this fall. “With people flying by at 55, 60, 70,80 miles an hour—not ideal circumstances for anybody, let alone first responders,” Maryland State Police spokesperson Ron Snyder said. Every day, thousands of law enforcement officers and first responders put their lives at risk as they take to the streets to help keep their communities safe, Snyder said.

There are an estimated 85,087 occupied housing units in Baltimore with “dangerous lead hazards” — and the total price tag for lead abatement work on those units could be between $2.5 billion and $4.2 billion, according to a recent report from the Abell Foundation. Lead hazard control for all of those units, which the report describes as “more limited in scope” compared with lead abatement, could cost between $851 million and $1.4 billion, according to the Abell report.