Around Maryland

By the end of June, health care providers in Maryland will lose nearly three-quarters of the funding they use to find and treat thousands of people with HIV. Advocates and providers say they had been warned there would be less money by the Maryland Department of Health, but were stunned at the size of the drop — from about $17.9 million this fiscal year to $5.3 million the next. The deep cuts are less than three months away.

Baltimore police are sharing more details after a new push to crack down on traffic violations. In an exclusive interview with WBAL Radio, Commissioner Richard Worley said BPD performed nearly 700 traffic stops this past weekend alone. Since implementing the increased focus on traffic enforcement on March 29, Worley said the department is averaging more than 200 traffic stops per day.

Clearway Energy Group has closed on $174 million in construction financing and has begun construction on Dan’s Mountain, a 55 megawatt wind farm in western Allegany County, the company said. Dan’s Mountain is the first new onshore wind farm to be constructed in Maryland in nearly 10 years and is expected to increase the state’s wind energy generating capacity by nearly 30%.

Nationwide, crime is trending generally down, and that’s the case in Prince George’s County, Maryland, too — but not when it comes to violent crime, which county police said is up so far this year. At a Monday afternoon hearing, Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz offered a quick rundown on where things stand after the first third of the year, as he went over the department’s budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year.

The promises echoed into a massive warehouse once used by Bethlehem Steel: $350 million in public and private investment, 2,000 new jobs and the return of manufacturing to Sparrows Point within a year. It was March 2022, the tail end of the Omicron wave of COVID-19 in the U.S., and a company called United Safety Technology hosted local politicians and federal officials at a groundbreaking of its state-of-the-art nitrile glove factory — jumpstarted by a $96.1 million investment from the federal government.

Baltimore City is suing the owners and managers of the Dali, the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26, causing it to collapse and killing six construction workers. The lawsuit claims the owners of the Dali were negligent in letting the ship leave the Port of Baltimore without failing to fix known power problems.

Quantum Loophole Inc., the developer of the first master-planned data center community, Monday announced it broke ground on its 600-acre Nature Reserve at the more than 2,100-acre campus, Quantum Frederick. The nature reserve will act as a carbon-sink onsite, enabling operation of the first carbon negative industrial-development of its kind.

The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take up a Biden administration appeal over the regulation of difficult-to-trace ghost guns that had been struck down by lower courts. Ghost guns, firearms without serial numbers that are usually privately made, have become more common on American city streets, and especially so in Baltimore.

As final drafts are being prepared for Washington County's Fiscal Year 2025 budgets, the proposed capital budget has reduced a bit. Originally proposed at $73.8 million, the newest draft totals $65.8 million. Chief Financial Officer Kelcee Mace told the Board of County Commissioners the change was made in response to their requests and the requests of the departments and agencies affected.