MarylandReporter.com (https://marylandreporter.com/)
Audit finds that the Maryland Department of Commerce failed to verify that companies given taxpayer-funded incentives actually created jobs; in the first six months of the year, opioid deaths in Maryland fell; 10 candidates on list for opening on Maryland’s Court of Appeals; Howard County residents protest proposed desegregation plans; Baltimore’s police commish tells state panel that no internal probe into Gun Trace Task Force corruption has begun; Baltimore mayor invites plaintiffs with grievances against police to speak to spending panel; and Montgomery County introduces ambitious racial equity bill.
The Howard County superintendent’s redistricting plan forces 7,300 students to switch schools, promoting equity by reducing the presence of low-income families at some schools and increasing their presence at other schools. Many of the plan’s proponents cannot defend it in good faith. Consider the example set by the County Council’s own segregation smear.
Rather than a new vehicle-oriented Chesapeake Bay Bridge crossing, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy strongly supports the research and immediate implementation of aggressive travel demand management (TDM) strategies to more easily cross the current Chesapeake Bay Bridge spans. Why not make the absolute best of what we currently have using technology and smart infrastructure-based planning, prior to embarking on a project that is literally years and billions of dollars away from happening? We need relief from congestion now.
On this anniversary of 9/11, it’s fitting for all Americans to take a deep breath, and remember a few simple things about who we are — ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
To blunt the impact of rising temperatures, officials have proposed dozens of changes, from creating more pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods to banning foam containers. But some neighborhoods, known as heat islands, will need added help because they already feel more of the harmful impact of global warming.
In a city marked by startling inequity, leaf cover is just one more thing that has been historically distributed in unequal measure. Baltimore’s poorest areas tend to have less tree canopy than wealthier areas, a pattern that is especially pronounced on the concrete-dense east side, in neighborhoods like Broadway East.
Heat waves are especially perilous because consecutive days with the heat index at 103 degrees or above greatly increase risks for older people, children, pregnant women and anyone with heat-affected chronic disease.
Researchers have mapped neighborhoods called urban heat islands, and data shows that temperatures here and in surrounding neighborhoods can run 8 degrees hotter than in communities that have more trees and less pavement. McElderry Park in Baltimore is one of these.
Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement last week that he will only consider a third Bay Bridge next to the existing spans on Kent Island was welcome news to leaders in Kent and Queen Anne’s counties, but reaction from conservation groups was mixed.
While supplies were generally ample in the Lower Bay through spring into summer, crabbers in other places had a hard time finding enough of the crustaceans to satisfy their crab-craving customers.
The Bay continued to be on the receiving end of high river flows in July. The flows have been higher than normal for 13 out of the last 15 months, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The pollution carried into the Bay during that span has led to worse than normal water