Around Maryland

Maryland’s consumer utility watchdog joined the chorus of residents, legislators, environmental advocates and farmers concerned about a plan to build a 70-mile power line through Carroll, Frederick and Baltimore counties. David Lapp, the people’s counsel, wrote a letter voicing his worries to the managers of PJM Interconnection LLC, the utility that manages the power grid infrastructure in Maryland and 12 other states.

Boonsboro, Funkstown and Smithsburg will benefit from the county’s remaining, unallocated, American Rescue Plan funds. The Washington County Commissioners agreed Tuesday to divide $648,592 of the money the county received as a result of the American Rescue Plan Act between capital projects in these municipalities, except for $11,592 the county will retain to maintain its ARPA grant manager until final reporting is complete.

When Fortune magazine announced Tuesday that Silver Spring ranked No. 1 on its list of the 50 best places to live for families in the United States, it just confirmed what longtime resident Fig Ruggieri, 64, already knew. “My favorite part is probably that I’m so close to so much–Baltimore, D.C., being able to walk to the Metro and library and downtown Silver Spring.

Maryland transportation officials on Tuesday received federal environmental approvals necessary for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Federal Highway Administration determined that the new Key Bridge, like the vast majority of federal-aid projects, isn’t expected to have a major impact on its surrounding environment.

The Maryland Department of Health released a new online drug overdose dashboard Tuesday that will allow visitors to delve more deeply into demographic and geographic data. The dashboard is a new iteration of the state’s previous site, which was maintained by Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response. The new dashboard will be updated monthly, rather than every 90 days, and has new features like the ability to search data by ZIP code, age, race and gender.

The first humans to lay eyes on what would eventually become Annapolis, more than 10,000 years ago, likely gazed upward and saw it as a ridge above a wide river valley that led out to the Atlantic Ocean. Over millennia, fresh water from the rivers and creeks of the coastal plain and salt water from the sea devoured the shoreline, filled in the valley and created what we know as the Chesapeake Bay.

This week, Washington County resident Chris Keane attended his commencement. Not for high school, he’s already done that. Not for college, he’s yet to cross that milestone. But for something more novel, Maryland’s Service Year Option program, which started last year. The Herald-Mail covered the launch event for the program enacted in 2023 for recent high school graduates last October, recording the remarks of Keane, an inaugural year program participant, as he spoke about his early days serving at Horizon Goodwill in Hagerstown to Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, who backed legislation during his first year in office to create the program.

There is nothing like a snowball to beat the heat on a Baltimore summer day. Handmade snowballs could be readily found around Baltimore as early as the 1850s and 20th century machines helped further popularize the confection of shaved ice and flavored syrup that’s often topped with marshmallow. Not to be confused with other shaved ice treats like Japan’s kakigori, Hawaii’s shave ice, Mexico’s raspados or New Orleans’ sno-balls, which use finer shavings and are more likely to be drizzled with condensed milk than marshmallow, Baltimore’s snowballs have attained a cultural importance that transcends the mere need to beat the heat. So, how did they get so big here?

A member of the Prince George’s County Board of Education was serving on the board after taking a job with a school system in Missouri at the start of the year. But District 1 representative David Murray only resigned last week — around the time a complaint was filed with Maryland’s Board of Education. Murray’s new job as the chief academic officer for the Ferguson-Florissant School District in the St. Louis area was announced in December.