Around Maryland

For the first time in about 15 years, Virginia officials voted to lift a prohibition on a winter dredge fishery for blue crabs in the Chesapeake Bay. Maryland officials and nonprofit leaders quickly objected to and denounced the Virginia Marine Resources Commission’s 5-4 vote on Tuesday. Maryland Department of Natural Resources Secretary Josh Kurtz said in a statement the reason blue crabs have seen a rebounding population since a steep drop in the 2000s can be “directly traced” to collaborative management between Maryland and Virginia.

The Maryland Department of Health on Tuesday released the results of new youth surveys on behavior and tobacco use, revealing a decrease in depression and suicidal thoughts among high school and middle school students. The percentage of high school students who responded that they felt sad or hopeless within the past year had been steadily rising since 2014. The percentage peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic at 39%.

Morgan State University is in the aquaculture business, and its Patuxent Environmental Aquatic Research Laboratory program was just awarded more than $600,000. The money will go toward aquaculture growth and to address the urban coastline climate. 8-month-old soft-shell clams, also known as steamers, reside at the Hatchery.

A portion of Maryland could feel the ground shaking Monday night as a small earthquake struck Montgomery County. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, a 1.8 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Spencerville struck just before 11:30 p.m. at a depth of 5.9 kilometers. The USGS received over a dozen responses from its citizen scientist contributors.

After a big surge in fatal crashes that claimed the lives of pedestrians in recent years, a new report from the Governor’s Highway Safety Association showed nationwide there was a more than 5% decline in such crashes in 2023 compared to 2022. But as encouraging as that sounds, the numbers are still much higher than those recorded nationwide before the pandemic, and still over 77% higher compared to 2010.

Montgomery County residents may see more duplexes, triplexes, townhomes and small apartment buildings in single-family zoned neighborhoods after the county’s planning board earlier this month unanimously approved an attainable housing initiative. The Attainable Housing Strategies project would give developers and property owners the option to build “middle housing” in areas that had decades-old zoning policies for single-family homes.

Whether it’s been an educational challenge, praise for student achievement or even questionable state legislation, Cheryl Bost has usually had a few words to say about it. But Bost, an elementary school educator for 35 years who has served since August 2018 as president of the Maryland State Education Association, won’t be heard from so much come this August. That’s because she will retire from the education profession after July 31.

Two state education boards set aggressive new goals Tuesday for student achievement, attracting and retaining a diverse teacher corps and reducing chronic absenteeism. It was the second time this year that the Maryland State Board of Education and the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board held a joint meeting, and members said their decision to set higher targets is intentional.

Construction has begun on the next phase of Ellicott City’s Safe and Sound flood mitigation plan, an 18-foot tunnel that will divert 26,000 gallons of water per second from the West End to the Patapsco River. The $141.5 million Extended North Tunnel is considered not only the focal point of the plan, but it is the largest public project in Howard County’s history.