More than half a billion opioid pills permeated the Baltimore area between 2006 and 2019 as pharmaceutical companies targeted doctors with aggressive marketing campaigns, underplayed their products’ addictiveness and failed to block suspiciously large orders of painkillers, according to a trove of court records made public as part of the city’s lawsuit against some of America’s top drug companies.

The Maryland Department of the Environment held a public hearing Thursday along with the Maryland Transportation Authority regarding demolition work at the site of the Key Bridge collapse. The hearing and public commenting period are part of the MDE review process of an application, submitted by MTDA, to allow the demolition work.

The Montgomery County Council is considering a proposed bill that aims to reduce vehicular noise emissions by installing “noise camera” devices throughout the county. The bill is based on enabling state legislation passed earlier this year by the Maryland General Assembly session that was sponsored by Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Dist. 17), who represents Rockville and Gaithersburg and chairs the Montgomery County House delegation.

Cases of Islamophobia are on the rise in Maryland and nationwide, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The Council on American Islamic Relations detailed what can be done about the disturbing trend. “Definitely, it comes in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks,” said Zainab Chaudry, director of CAIR Maryland.

Frederick County residents and business owners intensely criticized representatives for a proposed transmission line project across Maryland during a town hall on Wednesday, alleging they didn’t care about the project’s potential impact on communities. Linganore High School’s auditorium was packed by 6 p.m. on Wednesday for a town hall discussion organized by Frederick County’s District 4 delegation in the Maryland General Assembly on the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP).

High school students in Montgomery County will have a new sport option this fall: pickleball. Montgomery County Public Schools will be adding pickleball as a varsity sport to 25 high schools following a successful pilot program. The program was offered in 11 high schools last fall, and its success led Dr. Jeffrey Sullivan, the director of system wide athletics for MCPS, to expand the program for the upcoming school year.

The Humane Society of Wicomico County (HSWC) is at a tipping point with an influx of rescues and is asking pet-loving neighbors for their help in homing a rapidly growing number of animals. According to the Humane Society, they are currently over capacity for dogs and at capacity for cats. Kim Nock, director of the HSWC, tells WBOC this is the most animals they’ve ever had and attributes the influx to economic and medical surrenders, as well as landlord rules.

Transylvania County, North Carolina, tried to solve its child care shortage by spurring the development of small in-home day care facilities — but the effort ended up creating only two of them. In the mountains of western Colorado, Mesa County’s attempt to create 8,000 child care slots stalled at the 5,000 mark. And in Iowa, the state has crafted a program for publicly funded, privately operated day care centers that has alleviated — but not ended — the child care shortage in the state.

 

The to-do list before the school year tends to sprawl. It can be hard enough to pick up school supplies, but a medical evaluation, required for school sports, might linger down the agenda. Baltimore-based apparel company Under Armour is attempting to bridge that gap, setting up an ambitious one-stop shop this weekend at their Tide Point campus.

 

On its final voyage, a 51-year-old naval vessel named the Denebola experienced a steering issue near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge on Thursday afternoon, prompting a temporary closure of the dual-span structure. The 946-foot ship regained steering ability, safely transited under the bridge and moored south of Annapolis, awaiting Coast Guard inspection.