Around Maryland

There was mixed reaction to a curfew at National Harbor for children 16 and younger that went into effect on Friday at the popular waterfront boardwalk in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Delores, general manager at hot sauce purveyor Pepper Palace said she had heard about the melee that broke out at the Harbor last weekend involving hundreds of rowdy teenagers.

A giant claw has arrived from Galveston, Texas, to aid in the cleanup of the Key Bridge collapse. The 1,000-metric-ton hydraulic wreck grab, also known as “Gus” by crew members, is attached to the Chesapeake 1000 crane that is capable of lifting 1,000 tons of the debris left after the Dali cargo ship crashed into the bridge March 26.

A month after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed, federal, state and local authorities as well as local community organizations have banded together to focus on recovery efforts. On March 26, the Key Bridge collapsed after a support pillar was struck by the container ship Dali, killing six construction workers and leaving tons of wreckage from the bridge in the harbor, diverting ships and significantly impacting operations at the Port of Baltimore.

Back home from a long weekend in West Virginia, Corey McKenzie was sound asleep in his home outside Baltimore when his phone jolted him awake with news that the Francis Scott Key Bridge had collapsed. The second-in-command with the Maryland Transportation Authority Police, McKenzie sped to the department’s headquarters veering from his normal commute that had twice a day for years taken him across a span he had just learned plunged into the water.

Maryland Office of the State Fire Marshal welcomed new Accelerant Detection K9, Taylor. Maryland Office of the State Fire Marshal announced that the addition of a new Accelerant Detection K9, Taylor. Taylor officially took over the reins of her “sister” Sky, who retired in March. Taylor and her handler, Senior Deputy State Fire Marshal Melissa Decker, graduated from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives K9 Class yesterday.

College students in Maryland have sympathy for others protesting the Israel-Hamas war. People in support of Palestine are protesting on college campuses across the U.S. as the war continues in Gaza. They’re calling on universities to disclose any investments and divest from any companies connected to Israel. Groups of students at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and George Washington University in Washington created encampments on campus.

From the beginning, many knew the economic impact from the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s collapse would be big. Brendan Heegan, founder and CEO of the e-commerce third-party logistics company Boxzooka, said we’ve yet to see all of the impacts, but adds there are ripple effects to be concerned about. Since the bridge collapse more than four weeks ago, the Port of Baltimore’s main channel has been closed.

Campus protests over the Israel-Hamas war arrived in D.C. with both Georgetown University and George Washington University seeing hundreds rally. GW had wanted protesters to clear out by 7 p.m. — and it requested police to get involved — but WTOP’s Scott Gelman reported that a D.C. police source told WTOP the department is now holding and not moving forward with clearing the encampment from campus yet.