Around Maryland

More than half of Prince George’s County public schools will shift their starting and ending times by up to 15 minutes in the next academic year as part of ongoing changes that school officials say could ease transportation issues. About 68 percent of the youngsters in Maryland’s second-largest school system, or about 86,000 students, use buses each day. But just over 800 drivers drive students to and from school, and 200 more are needed, according to a transportation audit released in January.

At a news conference to highlight the prosecutions of 20 young people on charges including armed robbery, carjacking and assault, Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said he had a message for parents and guardians. “I want you to listen closely. Because I’m talking to you,” Bates said. “If you don’t remember anything else about this press conference, just remember two words: parental accountability.”

Anne Arundel County has expanded the powers of its Human Relations Commission to further address discrimination at the county level, which could expedite the process of getting complaints heard. The County Council on Monday unanimously passed the county’s first extensive anti-discrimination law. It will empower the commission to investigate discrimination complaints in noncounty employment and public accommodations, in addition to housing.

Nonprofit organizations in Carroll County are advocating for a new county ordinance stipulating how they will use the tax revenue from the sale of adult-use cannabis in Maryland. The Board of Carroll County Commissioners heard from agencies at a public hearing Thursday describing how the tax revenue collected from Maryland’s Community Reinvestment Repair Fund, could be a financial benefit.

Five state agencies that are key stakeholders in the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future have less than two months to submit documents for implementing that education reform plan. The June 15 deadline was set Thursday by the Blueprint Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB), which oversees the $3.8 billion plan through 2032.

In March 2023, the Maryland Department of Health began sifting through almost 1.8 million Medicaid enrollees to see who still qualifies for the federal health care plan for low-income households. A year later, the department has processed over 1.5 million Medicaid enrollees, and has determined that most people still qualified, while hundreds of thousands of others were no longer eligible.

For many students in Montgomery County public schools, the bathrooms remain a no-go zone due to drug use and fighting. That’s according to testimony at the most recent Board of Education meeting on April 11. During the public comment segment of the meeting, David Gebler, an English teacher at Kennedy High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, told board members that often, “the halls reek of marijuana.”

Tasha Gresham-James steers her black Nissan Rogue through Dundalk’s rush-hour traffic. Even with the windows closed, the pungent odor of diesel fuel is hard to miss, as are the single-family houses that sit cheek by jowl with truck parking lots, bars, manufacturing and transit facilities — even a driver training school. On and on, through main roads like Holabird and Dundalk avenues, and alleyways not much wider than driveways, trucks lumber through residential neighborhoods.

After months of a nationwide search and interviews, the Columbia Association has selected a new leader. Shawn MacInnes will start as the organization’s new president and CEO on June 17, according to a news release. The Columbia Association, a massive homeowners group that in many ways functions like a city government, has been without a full-time president and CEO since Lakey Boyd’s abrupt departure 15 months ago.