Around Maryland

At the start of April, the hunger-relief nonprofit Maryland Food Bank noticed that there was a significant uptick in online traffic and web searches of Marylanders looking for places to secure food for their families. Carmen Del Guercio, CEO and president of the food bank, says that the organization noticed a 300% increase in activity on their website at the start of April compared to the first half of March, and he suspects that part of the interest is due to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning of March 26.

Delays in federal financial aid could prevent some Maryland students from attending college this fall. At the direction of Congress, the U.S. Department of Education simplified the Free Application for Federal Student Aid to help more families access federal aid. After a monthslong delayed rollout in December, many families in Maryland and across the country don't yet know whether they qualify for federal student loans as the deadline for college decisions approaches.

The roof of the Randallstown Community Center is newly covered in 1,850 solar panels, giving Baltimore County its largest-ever solar project, county officials said Wednesday. The project is expected to generate around 800,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, substantially lowering the cost of electricity at the community center.

Nautilus Community Solar, a Summit, New Jersey-based solar energy company, Wednesday announced the addition of solar farms in Howard and Wicomico counties totaling more than 5 megawatts (MW) of power. The farms will serve more than 500 residents within the Baltimore Gas & Electric Company (BGE) and Delmarva utility companies.

On a recent morning, the survey vessel Catlett departed South Baltimore’s Port Covington Marina with a crew of three for a 3-mile journey to the federal channel where, three weeks earlier, a freighter took down the Key Bridge. On this day, the crew’s assignment was to look for sunken cargo containers on the bottom of the Patapsco River.

When the Francis Scott Key Bridge was inspected in May 2021, it earned high marks. Its railings and guardrails met modern standards. Its foundations were “stable” and didn’t show signs of erosion at the riverbed. The protection around its piers was “functioning,” the best grade in that category. It wasn’t, however, assessed for its ability to withstand a collision from a vessel.

The city of Frederick will work with the Maryland Stadium Authority to design and make improvements to the city’s Harry Grove Stadium as one of the city’s major projects in the next fiscal year. The city and the stadium authority are in the preliminary design stages of a $17.5 million project to renovate the stadium as part of the city’s effort to bring affiliated minor league baseball back to the city, Marc DeOcampo, director of strategic planning and executive projects in Mayor Michael O’Connor’s office, told the mayor and aldermen Tuesday.

An annual report reveals improvements and challenges in Baltimore's air quality. The American Lung Association's 25th annual "State of the Air" report released Wednesday found 131 million people -- almost 40% Americans -- lived in areas with unhealthy levels of air pollution from 2020 to 2022 -- an increase of almost 12 million since last year's report.