Around Maryland

For the first time in county history, Anne Arundel County received Moody’s Investors Service’s top bond rating. An analysis from Moody’s explains that the upgrade from Aa1 to Aaa “reflects the county’s solid local economy that is experiencing ongoing expansion while its residents continue to boast very strong income levels.”

Americans reacted with empathy, pain, frustration and in some cases anger Wednesday to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s impassioned speech to the U.S. Congress pleading for more aid for a nation and a people under bloody siege. Across the country, thousands shared video of Zelenskyy’s speech on social media, many especially pained by a clip he shared of bloodied children in hospitals, bodies in neighborhood streets, crumbling facades of apartment buildings and a ditch where the dead of war were being buried.

Montgomery County, Maryland, will roll out a drop-off COVID-19 PCR testing option at several county recreation centers that aims to deliver results in 24 to 48 hours. The tests, whose results are analyzed in a lab, are designed to maintain PCR testing — which is often required for travel — in the county and free up space at county recreation centers, which are more fully reopening two years after the start of the pandemic.

Parents and other community members gathered Monday at the last of three public workshops to discuss the redistricting process for Howard County public schools in anticipation of a new high school opening next year in Jessup. New High School #13 is expected to open in fall 2023 and will be designed to accommodate 1,658 students in grades nine through 12. Representatives from the Howard County Public School System’s Office of School Planning, Cooperative Strategies spoke with community members to discuss the redistricting process for the 2023-24 school year.

The Board of Education of Harford County unanimously voted Monday to rename William Paca/Old Post Road Elementary School and John Archer School after it was pointed out by residents and the NAACP that the existing names had ties to slavery.“Environments for student learning, extracurricular activities and other school-sponsored  shall be designed by the school system as to be equitable, fair, safe, diverse and inclusive,” Superintendent Sean Bulson said in a report presented to the board.

A nearly 1,100-foot container ship ran aground off Pasadena in the Chesapeake Bay after leaving the Port of Baltimore late Sunday evening en route to Norfolk, Virginia. The U.S. Coast Guard issued a safety advisory Monday morning as efforts were being made to refloat the Ever Forward, which is part of a large fleet of cargo ships owned by Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine Corp.