Around Maryland

Baltimore County officials Tuesday announced the new Baltimore County Volunteer Center, an online portal that will connect individuals of all ages with opportunities to become more active and engaged residents. By partnering with area nonprofits and government agencies, this one-stop-shop center will promote and highlight ongoing volunteer needs and help organizations increase their capacity while harnessing the skills and talents of community members.

Baltimore Police Commissioner Richard Worley was sworn in on Thursday, Oct. 5. The Baltimore Police Department has shared a video in which Worley provides a greeting to Baltimore residents and shares his vision for the Department. The message shared by Worley is as follows: “To the residents of Baltimore, I am deeply thankful for the opportunity to lead our police department and to work together in building trust and reducing crime.

The Greater Baltimore housing market continued to see high prices and low inventory in September but there are signs of a coming fall slowdown. The median home price in the Baltimore metro area was $379,000 last month, which was down from August’s record high of $385,000 but still up 4.1% compared to September 2022, according to a new report from Rockville-based Bright MLS released Tuesday. The year-over-year price growth is being driven by the low number of houses on the market, with inventory down nearly 60% compared to September 2019 and new listings at a two-decade low.

The Carroll County Board of Education will be asked to approve the school system’s $45.9 million capital budget request for fiscal 2025 on Wednesday at its monthly meeting. The request is $2.1 million higher than the version presented last month to the school board, mostly to accommodate new classroom space at Sandymount Elementary School. The school board said last month that it would prioritize construction projects at Liberty High, Sykesville Middle, Freedom Elementary, Cranberry Station Elementary, Friendship Valley Elementary, Sandymount Elementary and Taneytown Elementary schools in the 2025 capital budget.

A former legal secretary is suing Tydings & Rosenberg LLP over the law firm’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for employees.The federal civil rights lawsuit claims the firm rejected a religious exemption for the ex-employee, Cheryl Shigley, and ultimately terminated her in September 2021. Shigley’s suit asks a judge to reinstate her job at Tydings and order the firm to provide back pay and punitive damages.

Transit fare vending machines at bus and train stations around Baltimore will not accept credit cards for over a year while undergoing a software upgrade, the Maryland Department of Transportation said in a news release Monday. The outage is expected to begin Friday and continue until Dec. 2024 at Maryland Transit Administration bus, light rail and metro subway stations. Around 10% of fares purchased at the machines are by credit card, according to the department, and MARC train ticketing machines will not be impacted.

The number of juveniles being arrested in Montgomery County, Maryland, is down compared to 2019, but the nature of the crimes — and the ages of some of the juveniles involved — is what concerns police, prosecutors and the community. In 2019, there were 1,646 arrests of juveniles in Montgomery County, according to data from the Montgomery County Police Department provided to WTOP. That number plummeted to 393 in 2021 — during the height of the pandemic — but has steadily climbed since then.

Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg was about to deliver a sermon as part of a normally cheerful Jewish holiday celebration when word came that the “unthinkable” had happened: The militant group Hamas launched a broad-scale attack, sending thousands of missiles and groups of fighters into Israel, killing and kidnapping people by the hundreds. Wohlberg did something he’d never done in more than 50 years of public speaking: he tossed his notes and spoke off the cuff. He implored listeners last weekend to accept that such an attack is in Hamas’ nature.

The Baltimore Metropolitan Council’s “Look Alive” campaign took to the streets of Annapolis Thursday to educate drivers and pedestrians on the importance of roadway safety. The campaign deployed five “signal people” to perform an interactive campaign by walking the crosswalks of the four-way Forest Drive and Hillsmere Drive intersection, reminding drivers and walkers to obey traffic signs that are meant to keep them safe.