Around Maryland

About the changes in juvenile justice laws that took effect Friday, some prosecutors, defense attorneys and justice reform advocates agree on one thing: The laws are likely to result in increased caseloads for the Department of Juvenile Services. But whether that will have an effect on crime rates — or deter young offenders — is less clear.

Tourism revenue for Frederick County reached a record total in 2023, bringing in $539 million, up from $518 million the year before. The money came from 1.9 million visitors to the county, comparable to the number for 2022, according to a press release from the tourism organization Visit Frederick. The tourism rate shows the highest visitor total since 2019, the last year before the COVID-19 pandemic, the release said.

If you’re trick-or-treating Thursday night, expect to come up empty-handed at about one in 10 houses. That’s according to a new poll by the UMBC Institute of Politics, in which 11 percent of Marylanders said they will pretend they’re not home on Halloween. Fortunately, you’ll have some luck on the rest of the block, where 77 percent said they plan to give out candy or treats, and 5% said they will be handing out something else.

Baltimore is on a fast-approaching deadline to obligate all $641 million of its federal COVID-19 relief funds by the end of this year — or else it will lose the money. Around $501 million has been obligated as of Sept. 30, per a new report released Thursday by the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs. That number does not include interagency agreements, according to Chief Recovery Officer Shamiah Kerney.

More than 200 community members attended a special event at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center (UM BWMC) – a member organization of the University of Maryland Medical System (UMMS) – kicking off the health care provider’s new Courtney Speaker Series with Baseball Hall of Fame member Cal Ripken Jr. During the program, Ripken also announced a new collaboration between the foundation he co-founded in honor of his father and UMMS.

Growing up in Baltimore, Angela Crenshaw remembered hearing the names of Maryland’s African American history “titans” like Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman. Her school history books, however, only mentioned Tubman briefly, detailing her time spent helping slaves escape on the Underground Railroad. It wasn’t until Crenshaw began working as a park ranger at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Visitor Center in Dorchester County that she truly connected with Tubman’s life and story.

Baltimore renters who have lived in the city for at least a year in one of more than 120 neighborhoods can access a grant up to $20,000 to purchase a home in any of those same neighborhoods, thanks to an expanded program from Live Baltimore. The city’s marketing arm, which operates as a nonprofit organization, said in a Wednesday news release that as many as 100 residents could tap into the funding as long as they purchase homes in “grant-eligible” areas. That includes much of East and West Baltimore, as well as neighborhoods south of the Hanover Street Bridge.