Around Maryland

As her four sisters sat quietly near her in a room at the Baltimore Immigration Court, the 8-year-old girl played with a green bendable toy bunny given to her by an attorney — “Bendy,” children before her had named it. The bunny came out of a drawer filled with other toys meant to calm nervous children. “We have some superheroes,” Cate Scenna told the youngest girl, her hair in pigtails with pink hair clips.

At an anti-bullying presentation March 14 at Westport Academy, former NFL player Joel Gamble and children’s book author Stephen McGill read from their respective books: “The Justice Duo” and “The Electrifying Adventures of Mr. Powers.” Students were asked to use characters from the books to identify signs of bullying and learned what their “superpowers” were, such as speaking with a school liaison.

Parts of the mid-shore, including Dorchester and Talbot counties, were inundated overnight as flooding covered streets in low-lying areas. Residents in Oxford accustomed to periodic flooding found themselves grappling with what they described as increasingly frequent occurrences. Dave Carroll, who resides in Oxford, recounted the challenges of navigating the high waters, even having to carry his dog through his flooded property.

The Prince George’s County Council passed new restrictions aimed at limiting where cannabis dispensaries can operate. But one state lawmaker from a neighboring jurisdiction is unhappy with the new ordinance and the council that passed it. The county law might not stand for very long anyway.

The Unified Command team used the crane barge Chesapeake 1000 for some heavy lifting Sunday at the wreckage site of the Key Bridge in the Patapsco River. The Chesapeake 1000 is the largest floating crane on the Eastern Seaboard. The crane is being used to move a large piece of supporting steel from the bridge that will assist in opening a limited access channel that will allow one-way ship traffic to the Port of Baltimore.

Maryland has a new website with information about federal, state and local resources and programs related to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday. The website includes details for affected workers and businesses. It also includes major traffic updates for commuters and guidance on in-person resources available through Maryland Business Recovery Centers.

The same people who brought you “Christmas in the Corn” are hosting Maryland’s very first tulip festival. The Maryland Tulip Festival features some 100,000 tulips as far as the eye can see at Local Homestead Products in New Windsor. “We wanted to bring something different to Carroll County,” said Trevor Hoff, with Local Homestead Products.

Baltimore is one step closer to having a permanent office that serves as the city’s hub of services supporting its immigrant population. The more than decade-old Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs was created as a division of the mayor’s office that could be cut at any time. Under a bill being considered by the City Council, it would be added to the city code as a permanent office.