Around Maryland

For the first time in more than two years, travelers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, and many other airports nationwide, are no longer required to wear masks. A decision by a federal judge in Florida to throw out a national mask mandate for public transportation across the U.S., giving airports, mass transit systems, airlines and ride-hailing services the option to keep mask rules or ditch them entirely, resulting in rules that vary by city and mode of transportation.

Each summer for more than a decade, Baltimore artist Ernest Shaw Jr. sold his paintings from a stand at Artscape, the city’s free arts festival. Through the years, booth fees rose from around $25 to a whopping $700. During that time, Shaw said, out-of-town vendors supplanted local ones and the art seemed to become secondary to Ferris wheels and turkey legs. He eventually made his exit.

Baltimore’s summer entertainment is heating up with a sizzling lineup for the 45th annual AFRAM Festival. After a cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a hybrid experience in 2021, Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks announced AFRAM Festival will return to Druid Hill Park for a two-day in-person event Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19.

Howard County, Maryland, is aiming to make a big investment in its schools: $105.9 million. That’s how much is in County Executive Calvin Ball’s proposed budget for school construction. It’s the most in at least the last 20 years, according to the county, and it would mean an additional 2,400 spaces for students by next year. “We are building facilities that will foster excellent environments for teaching and learning,” Ball said in a statement Tuesday.

The Carroll County school board voted last week to develop a new policy on the use of political symbols, specifically flags, inside public school buildings. The decision came in reaction to some parental concern about rainbow Pride flags that some teachers in Carroll County Public Schools have been displaying inside classrooms. Community members and schools Superintendent Steven Lockard said that the Pride flags are used to show support for LGBTQ students, but school board members said they believe the flags are political symbols and displaying them in schools goes against the recently revised political neutrality policy of the school system.

When the insects first started appearing en masse near the docks of Weaver’s Marine Service in Essex around 2008, owner Sam Weaver wasn’t sure what they were. “We didn’t know. We were spraying in the air. People were spraying for mosquitoes and all kinds of things,” he said. In truth, the insects were midges — tiny aquatic flies that occur in their greatest densities in nutrient-rich bodies of water.

After wrapping up final amendment discussions Monday night, the Anne Arundel County Council voted 7-1 in favor of adopting the structure of the county’s Police Accountability Board. This new board, which each county is mandated to create under the Maryland Police Accountability Act approved by the General Assembly last year, will review outcomes of police disciplinary matters considered by charging committees, and require regular reports of the disciplinary process and make policy recommendations. By law, the boards are to be in place by July.

While the number of driving deaths decreased in Maryland last year, state officials said the number of crashes is far too high. Maryland transportation authorities said states across the country saw an increase in roadway deaths last year, but Maryland saw a decline of almost 3% -- 519 fatalities in 2021 compared to 573 fatalities in 2020.