Around Maryland

Crews in the Patapsco River are still cutting and lifting large chunks of what remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge as they clear the way to restore the full 700-foot-wide channel into the Port of Baltimore. While larger vessels have recently been able to transit cargo into and out of the port through a limited-access channel, heavier lifts are needed to restore traffic back to normal.

With Maryland nearing 1.5 million reported cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, experts are monitoring new variants of the virus that could create a surge in cases in the coming months. Despite its cutesy nickname, health officials say the so-called “FLiRT” variants of COVID-19 seem to be more successful at evading immunity despite previous infections or vaccinations.

Maryland transportation officials are prioritizing speed and experience as they seek bids from private companies to design and build the new Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Maryland Transportation Authority, an independent state agency responsible for the state’s eight toll facilities, including the Key Bridge, on Friday sent out a formal solicitation for proposals, calling for completion of the bridge design “as quickly as possible” to pave the way for construction.

There’s no one-size-fits-all solution for when a city contains more than 13,000 vacant homes and some 20,000 empty lots. Instead, Baltimore’s vast vacant housing landscape has ushered in waves of new ideas — and people, all hoping to slice off a piece of the pie. WaterBottle, a worker-owned cooperative, is one such example.

Maryland’s colleges and universities were reminded Monday that they have until Aug. 1 to update their Title IX guidelines to ensure all students, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, can participate in all programs. While Monday’s presentation was made to the University System of Maryland (USM) Board of Regents’ Intercollegiate Athletics and Student-Athlete Health and Welfare, a system vice chancellor said that a school’s failure to comply in any area could result in an institution not receiving federal money such as financial aid.

Dozens of parents and kids staged a sit-in outside Montgomery County Public Schools’ Board of Education headquarters in Rockville, Maryland, on Monday to demand the school system continue its virtual learning program. The school system announced last week that it would be shutting the Montgomery Virtual Academy (MVA) down due to budget constraints, leaving around 800 kids that are currently enrolled in the program in a lurch.

Larnell Robinson sat at a desk in his cluttered office last September, between a bookshelf full of Bibles and a table stacked with the overdose antidote Narcan. He slid out a list of residents of the West Baltimore high-rise where he was tenant council president — one of dozens of subsidized complexes that house the city’s poor seniors. One by one, he began scratching through names, conducting a grim accounting of the dead.

A Boonsboro High School student was not allowed to participate at her graduation ceremony Tuesday night because of concerns surrounding her makeup, leaving the 18-year-old and her family "heartbroken" on the big day. Nixx Cabrera-Guy is an aspiring piercer and tattoo artist and is the first person on her father's side of the family to receive her high school diploma. She said she was told by the Boonsboro High principal, Michael Kuhaneck, that she had to remove her makeup or she could not sit with her fellow students or walk on stage during the ceremony.

Since the collapse of the Key Bridge and the closure of the Port of Baltimore, the Maryland Food Bank said it has seen a rise of families in need. “The general consensus is they’re seeing anywhere from 20% to 30% increase in the amount of demand,” said Maryland Food Bank President and CEO Carmen Del Guercio, speaking about Baltimore-area partners since the bridge collapse.