Around Maryland

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.

Many child care centers in Baltimore tend to cater to single mothers, requiring the center operators, often based in the neighborhood, to provide ample doses of empathy and flexibility to support young families. “You have the single parent [and the] other parent is either locked up or incarcerated,” said Yvonne Turner, who owns Old Mother Hubbard’s Child Care Center. “They’re trying to make ends meet.”

Andrew Banasik wants to repaint his new office from a peachy-orange color to white. But personalizing the office is low on his to-do list. Sitting on the corner of Banasik's partially assembled desk − he's waiting on the delivery of a few office necessities − is a stack of books Banasik is reading. The stack is eight or nine books high and ranges from stories of enslaved people to battlefield farmstead guides, all about the Battle of Antietam in September of 1862.

The Dali — the cargo ship that collided with Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, leading to its collapse on March 26 — finally left Baltimore Monday on its way to port in Norfolk, Virginia. Traffic on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was temporarily suspended late Monday morning by the Maryland Transportation Authority “out of an abundance of caution,” as the 984-foot marine vessel Dali passed beneath, the authority said.