Around Maryland

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.”

Baltimore's largest book drive event is right around the corner. The Maryland Book Bank's "Books for Kids Day" is on May 4 and leaders with the organization want you to donate as many books as you can. Right now, there are over 50,000 books inside the Maryland Book Bank's warehouse. All of them are donations to make sure every kid has a book of their own.

It has been three weeks since the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, collapsed after a cargo ship crashed into one of its support structures, and the U.S. Coast Guard is now taking journalists on boats to get a closer look at the wreckage and how it’s being cleared. WTOP’s Nick Iannelli was one of just a few reporters who got the chance to do that Tuesday, circling the disaster site and getting a 360-degree view of the wreckage.

The Baltimore County Board of Education unanimously approved a new public charter school Tuesday night. The Bilingual Global Citizens Public Charter School has a green light to open in the eastern part of the county in the fall of 2025 with a curriculum that would teach in English, French and Chinese. Casey Kirk, the district’s charter school supervisor, and Melissa DiDonato, its chief academic officer, presented a recommendation to the board March 19 to approve the school, which would be the county’s only language immersion school.

Nearly 50 years ago, Rudiger Breitenecker began a quiet crusade for rape survivors. A doctor at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and a former assistant medical examiner for the state of Maryland, the handsome Viennese native calmly asked those who had been sexually assaulted if he could collect bodily fluids as evidence and freeze them to help police catch their assailants. Between 1977 and 1997, nearly 2,000 women, men and children, agreed.

As the Dali cargo vessel approached Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge last month, construction workers on it were repairing potholes. In the seconds before the ship struck the bridge, its pilot made a mayday call. That enabled local law enforcement to help stop any additional traffic from driving on the bridge. But, according to attorneys for Julio Cervantes, one of two workers who went fully into the water and survived, the crew wasn’t warned about the imminent collision. Instead, they said, the workers were sitting in their cars on a break.

The Incident Command Post, it's the headquarters of the operation for Key Bridge cleanup, where all parties involved come together to manage the response efforts. WMAR-2 News got a tour of what goes on behind the scenes. Addressing problems, answering questions right there on the spot, making it a unified command.