Around Maryland

Frederick County’s Board of Education on Wednesday considered ways the school district can cut costs — such as athletics and extracurriculars, class sizes and transportation — to address a nearly $49 million budget deficit. The board also discussed and debated potential changes to how much charter schools could receive out of the funds they’re eligible for, which could slightly decrease Frederick County Public Schools’ budget.

Johns Hopkins University President Ron Daniels is calling on protesters to end their encampment on the campus. The president wrote in a letter that the university will “take additional steps as necessary,” including disciplinary and legal actions. The Hopkins Justice Collective, among other organizations, has taken responsibility for leading the charge in calling on the university administration to divest from Israel as the death toll in Gaza rises, according to the Health Ministry.

Baltimore Water Taxi season is underway, and for people looking for a way to get around the Inner Harbor, there’s a new route and more options. “It’s a good enhancer to anyone’s experience in Baltimore,” said Michael McDaniel, the president and CEO of Baltimore Water Taxi. The company that owns the water taxi also operates the Charm City Circulators Harbor Connector, which is the city’s free maritime public transit option.

A group of Reservoir Hill residents are seeking to halt the construction of a proposed Amtrak tunnel that would curve beneath the historic West Baltimore neighborhood in a new civil rights complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Transportation. The complaint claims the placement of the $6 billion Frederick Douglass Tunnel would harm Black and low-income communities disproportionately and that Amtrak has not done enough to gather community feedback.

The body of a fifth person killed in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was recovered Wednesday. The Key Bridge Unified Command recovered the body of 49-year-old Miguel Luna, of Glen Burnie, from inside a red truck found by salvage teams, the unified command said in a news release late Wednesday night. The bodies of five of six victims have now been recovered. José Mynor López, a father of four who was originally from Guatemala and lived in Dundalk, is still missing.

Thousands of migrant children are coming to Maryland every year. One ZIP code in Southeast Baltimore saw an influx of nearly 1,800 migrant children from 2015 to 2023, among the most in the country over that time. ZIP code 21224, home to parts of Canton, Brewers Hill and Greektown, saw more children from other countries — most of them in South America — than all but 13 other ZIP codes in the United States.

Under a deal up for approval next month, two power plants in Anne Arundel County would continue to burn coal at least three years longer than planned — potentially costing Marylanders $250 million or more every year. PJM Interconnection, the region’s power grid operator, has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue an order approving its deal with power plant operator Talen Energy by June 18, according to a tariff filing last month.

The Leapfrog Group, a national nonprofit focusing on patient safety, released its spring hospital safety grades. The grades reflect how well hospitals prevent medical errors, accidents and infections. In the Baltimore area, three hospitals received “A” grades, including MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, MedStar Harbor Hospital and the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center.