Around Maryland

Shopping carts are being abandoned all over the place in Salisbury. It’s caught the attention of city leaders and they’ve had enough. Officials are working up legislation to get those carts back home and off the streets. At the City Council meeting on June 10th, officials held a first reading for the ordinance. If passed, the legislation would make it illegal for anyone to temporarily or permanently remove a shopping cart from a store’s property.

Anne Arundel County on Tuesday announced a new register of wills, Jasmine M. Jackson, following the resignation of her predecessor for misconduct in office. Previously an auditor in the office for 14 years, Jackson replaces Erica Griswold, who resigned after pleading guilty to charges stemming from cashing a cashier’s check intended for her office, according to a news release from the state prosecutor’s office.

Maryland fell behind a majority of states on markers of childhood health, as kids experience higher rates of obesity or being overweight and tens of thousands of children still do not have health care, according to a report released Monday. The 2024 Kids Count Data Book, which is based on data from 2022, ranked Maryland 27th out of the 50 states for kids’ health. Maryland has been slowly falling in the rankings in recent years.

The Montgomery County Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a $3.32 billion fiscal year 2025 operating budget for county schools, which represents an increase of 4.6%, or $147.3 million, over current spending. The budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 is $30.5 million less than the amount that the school board originally requested from county officials, leaving Montgomery County Public Schools to make significant cuts to close the spending gap.

The City’s B&O Railroad Museum just got a big boost to its renovation plans. The Bank of America on Monday announced a $500,000 grant to support the museum’s plan to restore the South Car Works building in the museum. The restoration plan will reconfigure the museum’s layout, with the entrance to be at the South Car Works building, create community-accessible spaces, an amphitheater, and a street-facing cafe, among other changes.

Baltimore is on track to record fewer than 200 killings this year for just the fourth time in five decades. But gun violence is decreasing across most American cities. So how does Baltimore, which a White House official called the “greatest success story” in the country in terms of violence reduction, stack up? Well, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress, Baltimore’s drop in gun violence through the first half of May this year ranks second among the 50 largest U.S. cities when compared to the same period in 2023. Philadelphia is the highest. Detroit is third.

The County Council’s budget comes up about $400,000 short of what the Salisbury Fire Department asked for. Meanwhile, an additional $75,000 will go towards other volunteer departments throughout the county. It has stirred up contention among local officials and fire department heads. Council President John Cannon said the move was fiscally responsible.

Montgomery County Public Schools announced Monday afternoon that no current teachers are expected to lose their jobs as a result of the district’s plan to increase class sizes for the next school year. The increase in class sizes–which was anticipated to lead to layoffs of up to 150 educators–is one of several budget-cutting moves that MCPS is undertaking to close a $30 million gap in its roughly $3.3 billion spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Kids can be on their best behavior this summer and this Maryland police department will still issue them a ticket. But that’s not bad news because the citations the Takoma Park Police Department will write up as part of the Operation Chill program reward good behavior rather than for offenses such as jaywalking or breaking curfew.