Around Maryland

A leading regional environmental group is using the federal government’s latest study on the health of the Chesapeake Bay to push for more aggressive action in 2025 and beyond. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its latest biennial report charting progress on regionwide efforts to reduce pollution in the Bay.

A cadre of Republican and Democratic state’s attorneys have launched efforts to share case metrics not typically available to the public, and they’re doing so despite the prosecutors’ own professional organization opposing the idea. The projects already underway in Baltimore City and Charles, Frederick and Montgomery counties are done in consultation with criminal justice researchers from top universities and are backed by grant funding.

In December, a 42-year-old agricultural worker picking oranges in Arcadia, Florida, began acting erratically. The worker died of heat stroke, government records show. Last August, a 36-year-old roofer working in high heat index conditions in Pontiac, Illinois, returned to the roof after a break then became confused and collapsed. He was unresponsive and rescued from the roof but died of hyperthermia — an abnormally high body temperature.

In the ongoing question of safety concerns within the city of Hagerstown, the parties attending a meeting convened Monday by Sen. Paul Corderman were, for the most part cordial — although there had been some controversy about who had been invited and who hadn't. And after the meeting, a county official who did not attend continued to criticize the city government over its police department.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office is seeking an even split between the state and local jurisdictions for an upcoming opioid settlement with the grocery chain Kroger, marking a change from how previous opioid settlements were divided. The office proposed a 50/50 split for the settlement, which would include $1.2 billion for state and local governments over 11 years that would be divided among 33 states where Kroger has stores.

A Burtonsville, Maryland, woman and a Montgomery County 911 call taker credit each other with lifesaving actions that led to a joyous family reunion. They both have vivid memories of the evening of May 11. “It was just like any other day,” said Henry Estrada, a 911 call taker and dispatcher at Montgomery County’s Emergency Communications Center (ECC).

Caitlin Moroney came to New Market, Md., four years ago for the historic house she found in the good school district. She has learned to appreciate the Frederick County town for much more than that. “I love the location. … When we have people coming in from out of town, people love to come here because we go to the battlefields, we see a gazillion museums, we pop into Baltimore to go to the Walters Art Museum — we’re really well located,” Moroney said.

Baltimore faces an increasing threat of coastal flooding from rising sea levels, worsened by storms like Debby. To help manage that risk, the U.S. Army of Corps Engineers announced this week it would recommend Congress fund about $77 million to build floodwalls to protect two of the city’s major thoroughfares, the Fort McHenry and Harbor tunnels.