Friday, March 29, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Around Maryland

Crisfield, ready for its annual close-up

Darlene Taylor was standing on West Main Street in Crisfield the other day and shouted a greeting to a woman she knew coming out of the Crisfield Discount Pharmacy. Seeing Taylor, the woman bolted across the street, to say hello and ask a question. “What’s going on with the pigeons?” she wondered. Taylor is not an ornithologist. Nor is she a hobbyist who keeps homing pigeons on her roof.

 

Maryland’s 50 most-improved schools, according to state test scores

More than half of the 50 Maryland schools showing the greatest improvement on the state’s English language arts test are in Prince George’s County. The Maryland State Department of Education on Tuesday released school-by-school results of the Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program, showing just how much — or how little — learning students have recovered since the pandemic.

Maryland shrimp? A select group of watermen will catch them for the first time this fall.

This fall, Sonny Gwin and a few other Maryland watermen will trawl the coast of Ocean City for a new bounty: shrimp. Thanks, climate change. Pass the cocktail sauce. For the first time, a small group will be allowed to catch and sell the crustaceans from Maryland waters, as part of a pilot program. Fisheries managers suspect that warming ocean temperatures and changing currents could be drawing greater numbers of shrimp north along the Atlantic coast.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Oceans Calling Festival returns to rock the boardwalk a year after rain delay

It was supposed to premiere last fall but was canceled due to unsafe weather from Hurricane Ian. Now, the Oceans Calling Festival is finally happening this weekend in Ocean City, Maryland. “I think the excitement from the last concert is still fresh in everyone’s mind,” city manager Terry McGean told WTOP last November.

Read More: WTOP
City celebrates opening of second food bank site

Several months after opening its doors to the public, Frederick’s second food bank location held a grand opening ceremony Tuesday. The Frederick Food Bank at Trinity, at 6040 New Design Road, provides a second food option for residents in need. Tuesday’s event featured free flu shots and health screenings, and food collection and distribution, according to a city release.

 

 

Orioles fans honor Brooks Robinson at Camden Yards: ‘He was Baltimore baseball’

Orioles fan J.T. Fauber stopped at the iconic statue of his all-time favorite player, Brooks Robinson, as he walked into Camden Yards on Tuesday. After smiling for a photo, another fan gingerly approached — his grim face and the tears in his eyes telegraphing his message: Robinson, a baseball legend uniquely beloved in Baltimore for his glove and his spirit, had just died. He was 86.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Baltimore Skyline
About 30k applications added to Baltimore public housing waitlist

All of the nearly 30,000 applications for Baltimore’s newly reopened low-income public housing program waitlist have been accepted following a surge in requests. The housing authority said in a news release that it will use a random sequence generator to determine the order on the wait list for the roughly 29,800 applicants, who will then have to complete eligibility interviews and provide documentation. As public housing units become vacant, residents will be pulled from the waitlist.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Food Bank re-opening: Expanded community kitchen areas, new meeting spaces to further hunger-relief efforts

After two years of major construction, the nonprofit Maryland Food Bank hopes to serve as a central point in the state for hunger relief efforts and expand its culinary job training program as it pushes for increased community efforts during national Hunger Action Month. Community members who work for the organization, helped support the cause or directly benefited from the food bank’s assistance gathered last week to celebrate the completed remodel and look towards the next chapter for the nonprofit’s hunger relief efforts.

 

Truck driver who fatally struck diplomat on bike in Maryland fined $2,000

A truck driver who fatally struck a State Department employee riding her bike in Maryland — shortly after the diplomat had returned from a presumably more dangerous posting in Ukraine — pleaded guilty to a traffic offense Monday and was fined $2,000. Santos Reyes Martinez, 52, admitted in court to causing the death of Sarah Langenkamp 13 months ago when he turned his flatbed building supply truck into a bike lane along River Road in Bethesda.

With the new academic year underway, how are Baltimore schools and families coping with food inflation?

“We are trying to be as fiscally responsible as we can, given that we are already set up with a limited budget,” said Elizabeth Marchetta, executive director of food & nutrition services for the Baltimore City Public Schools System. Since the start of the pandemic, the school system has seen higher food costs across all sectors, said Monique Rolle, BCPSS’s manager of meal planning and procurement. Their biggest jumps in expenses have been from meats and grains.

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