Friday, March 29, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Oral arguments slated for March in appeal over proposed crematory on York Road in North Baltimore

As justices consider whether a Baltimore zoning board was correct in deciding a crematory could be built at a York Road funeral home, lawyers were asked Wednesday to determine when they can argue before Maryland’s intermediate appellate court. The notice stating that oral arguments were slated for March came ahead of a Wednesday evening update from state environmental regulators, who have been waiting over the past three years to review whether to issue a construction permit to Vaughn Greene Funeral Services for the planned crematory.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Fifth graders in their classroom at school
Maryland school ratings are lower this year. Is attendance to blame?

There’s a surprising paradox in the 2023 Maryland School Report Card ratings released Wednesday. Across the state, fewer schools received three, four and five stars in the education department’s annual evaluation, even as test scores rose this year. So what happened? Are the state’s schools really getting worse? Probably not. A post-pandemic student slouch may be dragging down the ratings. Even though school attendance is gradually improving, too many students still aren’t showing up regularly.

OC Council Approves Partnership For Monster Truck Event

The town will pursue a partnership with a local company to co-produce a monster truck event scheduled for next fall. On Tuesday, Ocean City Special Events Director Frank Miller presented the Mayor and Council with a request to partner with The Metal Shop, a Delmar-based business, to co-produce the first annual Monsters of Metal Beach Brawl. Scheduled for Oct. 18-20, Miller said the event would fill a vacant weekend on the special events calendar and offer a family friendly activity that would benefit both the organizer and the town.

 

Maryland Report Card: Baltimore City outpaces rest of state in number of improved schools

The Baltimore City Public School System saw improvement in the number of schools that scored a three-star grade or above on Maryland’s school performance rating system, according to 2022-23 data released Wednesday. The Maryland Report Card grades individual schools on a one-to-five-star scale. Over a third of city schools, about 35% of its 148 schools, scored a three or above. The district is the only one in the region that saw more schools gain stars than lose them over last year, and BCPSS has more improved schools, by number and percentage, than any of the other school system in the state.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
37 men sue Maryland alleging decades of systemic rape at youth detention center in Baltimore County

Staff at a youth detention center in Baltimore County systemically raped boys incarcerated at the facility, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday. The civil complaint and request for a jury trial center on the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School near Loch Raven, where 37 victims, now men between 30 and 66 years old, allege sexual abuse from the 1970s through 2009. The lawsuit was filed by attorneys from law firms Levy Konigsberg and Brown Kiely on Wednesday morning in Baltimore City Circuit Court against the State of Maryland and the Department of Juvenile Services under the Child Victims Act.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
MTA leader speaks in Annapolis as Light Rail suspension continues

Light Rail service remains suspended Wednesday after the Maryland Transit Administration announced it would be shut down indefinitely for inspections and repairs. Meanwhile, MTA administrator Holly Arnold appeared before the Maryland Board of Public Works at a meeting. Comptroller Brooke Lierman asked her about several issues including the outage. “It is not a result of the budget actions in the past week. We were doing the overhaul and making sure we had been maintaining the system in a state of repair for the life of the vehicles.

Read More: WBALTV
Higher EV, hybrid fees among options to shore up Maryland transportation funding

Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld and other officials have sounded the alarm this year over the long-term health of the well the state taps for funding transportation — as Marylanders hop in more electric and fuel-efficient vehicles over gas guzzlers, the state has brought in less revenue from the gas tax factored into the price at the pump. Last week, Wiedefeld announced his office would be cutting more than $3 billion worth of funding from the state transportation budget it sends to lawmakers for signature, citing declining revenues and increasing costs.

Get the lead out: Baltimore urges city residents to test material of drinking water lines

Approximately 9 million lead pipes carry drinking water across the country, according to estimates from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Under a newly proposed rule, cities and other jurisdictions will be required to replace all service lines made out of the hazardous material within 10 years — but first, they have to find where they are. And that’s where you come in. Baltimore is among the cities asking homeowners to test their own pipes for lead and complete an online survey with their results, as it races to complete a required inventory of its pipes.

 

Read More: Baltimore Sun
More than 2,500 local children to receive presents through Toys for Tots

Christmas came early for hundreds of local families on Tuesday as volunteers from Toys for Tots rushed to fill shopping carts with books, board games and other donated items. Toys for Tots is a program of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Tuesday marked the start of the Frederick County campaign’s three-day distribution event.

Baltimore’s bold new plan for vacant housing has a major catch — $8 billion, actually

Baltimoreans seeking more bold and decisive action from city leaders got what they asked for Monday when a coalition of three disparate city entities united on a single issue for the first time in over 30 years. The Greater Baltimore Committee, joined by Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration and BUILD Baltimore, an interfaith community organizing group, released a “landmark” plan to remediate the city’s stock of vacant and abandoned housing, a conundrum it has faced for more than a generation.

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