Around Maryland

In early April, a WTOP staffer noticed an unusual number of streetlights were out along the Beltway in Maryland, with more than 60 spotted between Interstate 95 and the exit to Connecticut Avenue. This left large sections of the interstate where streetlights exist, in the dark. Was it just one section of highway being plagued by the outages?

The Frederick County Council on Tuesday voted unanimously to confirm the appointment of Anthony Rosano to lead the county’s Division of Emergency Management. Rosano, who previously served as the division’s deputy director, was named acting director of the Emergency Management Division in January following the retirement of former director Jack Markey in December 2023.

Chuck and JoAnn Anderika were up before dawn Tuesday to bring their sailboat back home. The Anderikas set out around 6 a.m. from Solomons Island, headed for Baltimore. The couple wanted to ensure they made it in time to take advantage of a one-hour window for recreational boats to pass by the wreckage of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and into the harbor, where they have a slip.

Dozens of residents turned out for a community walk Wednesday evening with Baltimore County leaders. Baltimore County Police Chief Robert McCullough and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski took part in the walk. NAACP leaders said they helped organize it because they don't want people who live and work in the community to feel forgotten.

Howard County Executive Calvin Ball’s proposed fiscal 2025 operating budget provides the school system with $47 million above its required minimum funding level, and would supply $5 million in one-time funding to schools, Ball told the County Council Tuesday evening. The $5 million in “pay-as-you-go” spending, which funds capital projects with money from the county’s rainy-day fund, will “support one-time school transportation needs,” according to the proposed budget.

Less than two weeks after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge was destroyed by an out-of-control cargo ship, another huge container ship passed beneath a busy bridge connecting New York and New Jersey and then suddenly decelerated in a narrow artery of one of the nation’s largest ports. “We’re a dead ship,” said a voice over the maritime radio a short time later, invoking an industry term that often refers to a ship that is unable to move on it own.

The coronavirus pandemic caused a historic drop in Maryland’s prison population. But after the state of emergency ended and prisons filled again, the share of Black incarcerated people reached a five-year-high late last year, a Capital News Service data analysis has found. In March 2020, around 18,500 people were incarcerated in the state’s prisons. By summer 2021, there were almost 4,000 fewer prisoners.

The owners of White’s Ferry announced Tuesday that they have offered to donate the operation to Montgomery County to “enhance the odds” of reopening the historic Potomac River crossing, which has been closed since December 2020. “We are happy to propose a resolution to Montgomery County,” said Chuck Kuhn, the CEO of JK Land Holdings in a press release. “Our goal was always to get the ferry reopened.”