Around Maryland

It’s been more than three weeks since over 150 residents were displaced by the massive blast and fire at the Friendly Garden Apartments in Silver Spring, Maryland. Now the next steps are finding affordable housing for many of them. “It’s a process of rebuilding — rebuilding their life — and so it’s gonna take a while and take time. But it’s really been gratifying to see the community coming together,” Robert Goldman, president of the Montgomery Housing Partnership, told WTOP.

Howard County Public School System Superintendent Michael Martirano has announced that school system staff would no longer be required to provide proof of COVID-19 vaccination or undergo weekly testing. The requirement was put in place Aug. 12, when Martirano said that all HCPSS employees would be required to provide proof of full vaccination or undergo regular COVID-19 testing for the 2021-2022 school year.

Crews will try to refloat a container ship that has been stranded in the Chesapeake Bay for more than two weeks, the U.S. Coast Guard said Monday. The Coast Guard, Maryland Department of the Environment and Evergreen Marine Corp. will make an initial attempt to refloat the Ever Forward at noon Tuesday, according to a news release issued Monday. A salvage company began dredging around the more than 1,000-foot (305-meter) container ship March 20 and weather last week delayed operations slightly, officials said.

Maryland’s highest court on Monday issued orders announcing the end of the COVID-19 health emergency period in the Maryland judiciary, effective April 4. “This is the final step in resuming complete Judicial operations, but we recognize that we still have more work to do,” said Chief Judge Joseph Getty. “We would not be in this position without the collaboration and commitment of our current and previous leadership.”

Three Harford County students — Bethany Davies, Chamiere Roberts and Nina Grafton — were named 2022 Women of Tomorrow at the 12th annual Women of Tomorrow Awards on March 24 at the Richlin Catering and Event Center in Edgewood. The Women of Tomorrow Awards, a program of the Harford County Community Services and Commission for Women, celebrates young women from the seventh to the 12th grade who stand out for their academic achievements and contributions to their communities.

Maryland Environment Secretary Ben Grumbles on Sunday said the Maryland Environmental Service would temporarily take control of Baltimore City’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant, the site of ongoing illegal discharges into the river. Grumbles said the city had failed to comply with a previous state order to immediately end illegal discharges of water pollution into the river.

Preparing for a trip to the bank, Marlon Mayorga, the owner of a small convenience store on Patapsco Avenue in South Baltimore, counted cash in the otherwise empty business early one morning. As he counted, a person in a hoodie and with their face covered entered the front door, turned toward the counter, pulled out a gun and demanded the cash. The robbery last month at La Bodeguita in Brooklyn is among 714 robberies recorded in the city so far this year. That’s a 24.6% increase, from 573 at the same time last year, according to latest available data from the Baltimore Police Department.

Annapolis’ Carr’s Beach, and the more laid-back Sparrow’s Beach, were regular destinations for Black families who were forbidden to visit whites-only beaches up and down the East Coast during segregation from the 1940s to the 1970s. As a teenager in the 1960s, George Trotter would pile into his uncle’s Studebaker with his siblings and other kids from the Old Fourth Ward in Annapolis and head down to Carr’s Beach.