Around Maryland

Environmental groups like the Center for Progressive Reform have been watching the story unfold for years, said policy analyst Katlyn Schmitt. Over the past two decades, the number of water pollution inspections in Maryland have trended downward, as have the number of corrective actions taken against facilities that broke the rules — by dumping excess contaminants into state waterways, for instance. But during the last several years, under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration, the groups were noticing some “dramatic” declines.

Marylanders are definitely feeling the pain at the pump as gas prices have soared past $4 a gallon, reaching record highs. As of Tuesday morning, data from AAA shows Maryland’s average price per gallon for regular unleaded gas sits at $4.19 — above the national average of $4.17 per gallon. These state and national averages have broken previous records set in 2008 around the Great Recession.

Parents, students and members of the community have their first chance to weigh in on what they would like to see in a new superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools through an online survey. The survey can be found at www.aacps.org/superintendentsearch. It opened Monday, and will close at 4 p.m. on March 21. Last week the Board of Education committee spear-heading the search announced that it has selected a firm to assist in the search, Illinois-based Hazard, Young, Attea Associates.

After previously announcing on Feb. 25 that it would maintain its indoor masking requirements, Johns Hopkins University has revised its COVID-19 protocols. Effective immediately, masks will now be optional for all students, staff, faculty and visitors who have received both their COVID-19 vaccination and booster shot, except in classrooms and other instructional spaces. Members of the campus community who are exempt from the school’s vaccine and booster policy must continue wearing masks, as will affiliates of the School of Medicine, who need to follow Johns Hopkins Medicine’s protocols.

As a grassroots, volunteer-based organization that connects home-schoolers across the state, the Maryland Homeschool Association has tracked data collected by the state education department on home-schooling rates for nearly 20 years. It always tended to fluctuate seemingly randomly, said founder Alessa Keener, never changing by more than 9%. “Some years, it goes down. Some years, it goes up,” she said. “There’s never really been, I think, a good explanation (as to) why.”

As spring approaches, Harford County remains at a low community level as the number of new cases and the testing positivity rate continue to decline, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. Harford County reported 113 new cases from Feb. 28 to March 7, a 23.13% decline over the previous week, according to CDC data. There were 18 new hospitalizations in the new seven-day reporting period, a 34% increase over the previous week. Also, the test positivity rate stood at 2.75, a 0.58% decline.

Baltimore Police Officers Keith Gladstone and Carmine Vignola arrived at fellow officer Robert Hankard’s house on a late March evening in 2014 in dire straits. The pair needed a toy gun. Fast. Another officer, Wayne Jenkins, had just run a man over in Northeast Baltimore. The man wasn’t in possession of drugs or a gun, and if Gladstone and Vignola didn’t help Jenkins plant evidence soon, there could be trouble, according to federal court filings.

Keith Davis Jr. asked a Baltimore judge to dismiss the charges against him ahead of a fifth murder trial because he argues they are the product of prejudice by State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby — a legal argument closely mirroring one the city prosecutor made in defense of her federal indictment. The timing of charges brought against Davis and statements made by Mosby and her prosecutors are evidence of “deep animus, prosecutorial misconduct, and vindictiveness” that tainted his criminal cases beyond reproach, Davis’ lawyer argued in a motion.