Maryland transportation officials just got a new partner in improving safety on the roadways, including a stretch of Route 1 in Howard County. Smart Growth America, a national leader in sustainable transportation and Complete Streets efforts, will provide technical assistance to the State Highway Administration as officials design, build and test three temporary safety installations across Maryland this summer.
Young people who live in or near Brooklyn Homes have been “close-mouthed” about last year’s Brooklyn Day block party that ended in gunfire, according to Kandice Golden, a Brooklyn resident who runs a girl’s program called Excellence Esthetics. But those same young people have been vocal about activities they’d want — hula hoops, jump ropes, bubbles and water games — at a healing and wellness event planned for July 2, which will mark one year since the event ended in gunfire that killed two and wounded 28, she said.
Properly attired officers don’t come cheap. Baltimore Police are seeking $8.35 million to buy new uniforms and access specialized tailoring services at next week’s Board of Estimates meeting. Even when spread across three years, the uniform request is five to seven times more than the historical cost of new uniforms. This increase comes despite the decline in sworn positions on the force.
Eight of the Dali’s crew members will be allowed to depart the ship and return to their home countries following a last-minute deal approved by a federal judge, while the ship is expected to leave Baltimore Friday evening. The agreement approved by a federal judge allows those crew members to depart the ship, which crashed into Baltimore’s Key Bridge on March 26, and return to their home countries.
The Public Service Enterprise Group, an energy company based in New Jersey, plans to build a new 500,000-volt transmission line across parts of Frederick, Baltimore and Carroll counties as part of updates to the regional power grid to accommodate growing power needs. The project, also called the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP), will be about 70 miles long.
The organizers behind a much-anticipated ballot question asking voters to slash the city’s property tax rate submitted more than 23,000 signatures Thursday, more than double the number needed to place the question on the ballot. The proposed question would ask voters to cut the city’s property tax rate from 2.248% to 1.2% over seven years. After that, the rate would be capped.
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts is working with the city to finalize their contract ahead of BOPA’s flagship event later this summer. Interim board chair Andrew Chaveas said during a special board meeting that due to prolonged negotiations with the city, BOPA missed a deadline to submit its contract to the city’s spending board, which has to approve it.
The U.S. State Department is testing a new online passport renewal system, which it says will make the renewal process easier and faster. That’s good news for Marylanders looking to travel overseas, especially after many faced extended delays last year due to “unprecedented demand” for passport services on top of the regular seasonal demand.
This Sunday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman and a group of 150 registrants will do something once considered revolting: jump into the Inner Harbor. The event, called Harbor Splash, is a milestone for a 14-year campaign that originally aimed to make Baltimore’s waterfront fishable and swimmable by 2020, led by the city’s Waterfront Partnership.
Casi O’Neill works at the heart of Maryland’s youth legal system, but she rarely does her job. If she did, the specially trained social worker hired by the Maryland Office of the Public Defender would be assessing the complex needs of children charged with low- to moderate-level crimes. As a forensic social worker and member of Baltimore’s juvenile division, O’Neill is trained to uncover why a child may have committed a crime in the first place.