Around Maryland

Snow has always been “polar”-izing in Maryland, and that didn’t change Tuesday. “Shoveling snow — that I really don’t like,” Baltimore resident Melvin Hines said. By noon Tuesday, the snowfall was done, freezing rain tapered off and frigid temperatures took hold. Baltimore residents were out and about cleaning off cars, sidewalks and driveways for the first time in years. “There ain’t no strategy. It’s nature. Nature is going to take over this. Just making a little path for people if they want to start moving,” Hines said.

Drivers of electric vehicles in Middletown will have another place to charge up, with the installation of a charging station at the town’s offices. The Level 2 charging station will be unveiled Wednesday in the parking lot at the rear of the town’s Municipal Center at 31 W. Main St., Town Administrator Paul Mantello said Tuesday. The town already has one charging station, in the public parking lot along Elm Street, Planner Cindy Unangst said.

The night Kevin Torres was shot and killed in Highlandtown, his sister-in-law dialed 911 for help. “Hello, I speak Spanish,” she can be heard saying frantically in a recording of the call. Within 25 seconds, the 911 operator looped in an interpreter through Language Line, a telephone interpretation service the city has used for years. The 911 operator told the interpreter, Raúl, to ask for the address of the emergency.

Eric Stephenson remembers the day he had his epiphany about Baltimore. He was here on a work assignment and living in a comfortable apartment not far from North and Pennsylvania avenues. It was April 27, 2015, the day the uprising erupted in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death from injuries suffered in police custody. “I could smell the smoke from the fires and hear the young people walking past my window recounting what they had just witnessed,” Stephenson said.

The new School of Health Professions at Mount St. Mary’s University is set to open its doors this fall, with the first cohort of students arriving in January 2025. The school will house the university’s first health-focused graduate degree programs: a physician assistant (PA) program and an applied behavioral analysis (ABA) program. It will also be home to a functional pediatric behavioral health clinic, which officials say will be the first of its kind in northern Frederick County.

The Board of Education of Harford County unanimously voted on Jan. 8 to adopt an inclement weather policy that replaces three traditional snow days with asynchronous learning days for students during the 2023-24 school year. The Maryland State Department of Education requires local school boards to submit their inclement weather plans annually.

It’s budget season for local governments, and on Tuesday, Hagerstown Community College was the first agency to make its pitch to the Washington County Commissioners for their Fiscal Year 2025 budget. And it was the kind of budget request the commissioners don’t often hear. HCC President Jim Klauber’s presentation was comparatively short and sweet. The community college is not seeking any increase from the county for its operating budget this year, he said.

When her son, Izaiah Carter, was killed nearly a year ago outside Patterson High School, Michelle Hines couldn’t bear to let her other two children go back to city schools in person. So they began attending the city’s virtual school, a holdover from the pandemic. While most families were more than ready to ditch virtual learning after the pandemic, a small number of families saw it as a perfect fit for their children — and they don’t want to let it go.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day, observed annually on the third Monday in January, is widely known as a day of remembrance for the late civil rights activist and faith leader. For some in Frederick County, the federal holiday is also known as a call to service. This year, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on North Place in Frederick hosted around 350 volunteers eager to put their day off to good use.