HEAT-RELATED ILLNESSES CONTINUE TO RISE: This year, more than 1,000 Marylanders have sought medical assistance for heat-related illness. Emergency room and urgent care visits for heatstroke, heat exhaustion and hyperthermia are the highest recorded in the last five years, according to the health department. Yet, since 2019, the Maryland agency responsible for investigating unsafe work environments initiated only 32 inspections into employers reported for heat stress-related issues. Matti Gellman/The Baltimore Banner.
- Libraries, senior centers and other government buildings in Carroll County are being used as cooling centers this summer to provide a brief reprieve from extreme heat. However, according to some climate experts, current HVAC systems cannot sustain themselves in a time of climate change and extreme heat. Lizzy Alspach/The Carroll County Times.
PEDESTRIAN DEATHS SHOOT UP IN MARYLAND: Pedestrian fatalities increased in Maryland last year even as state agencies, local jurisdictions and grassroots organizations work to improve the safety and experience of roadways for all users. Maryland saw an 18% increase in pedestrian deaths in 2023 amid a 5% decrease nationwide, according to preliminary data from the Governors Highway Safety Association released in June. Kiersten Hacker/The Baltimore Sun.
MORE PARENTS USING RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION TO OPT OUT OF VACCINES: With schools set to start in a couple weeks, most parents of kindergartners are working to make sure to get required vaccinations for their children before sending them off to school. But not all parents. Over the last decade, more parents have opted their children out of vaccination requirements through the use of nonmedical religious exemption – especially in recent years following the COVID-19 pandemic. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
ADVOCATES UNITE TO DEFEND 2023 CHILD VICTIMS ACT: With several appeals of the constitutionality of a law that removed time limits for lawsuits brought by people sexually abused as children pending, child and victims advocacy groups, current and past lawmakers, and the state attorney general lined up to defend the 2023 Child Victims Act. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Sun.
THREATS TO MARYLAND BRIDGES STUDIED IN 2001: Engineering studies commissioned by the state of Maryland in the early 2000s contemplated vulnerabilities to the area’s critical bridges, including the possibility of a “ship impact” at the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and threats to California’s Golden Gate Bridge in November 2001, consultants studied potential threats to five bridges in the state of Maryland. Hayes Gardner and Dana Munro/The Baltimore Sun.
FLURRY OF ADS IN MARYLAND SENATE RACE: A flurry of new political advertising in Maryland’s Senate race represents the first wave of an onslaught coming to voters accustomed to sleepy Senate contests. Erin Cox/The Washington Post.
COUNTY LEADERS TO ADDRESS BUDGETS AT MACO CONFERENCE: County leaders say they will be packing their budget concerns rather than their beach blankets as they head to Ocean City this week for a convention that often sets the table for the coming legislative session. The Maryland Association of Counties annual four-day summer convention that kicks off Wednesday is expected to draw roughly 3,000 elected officials and government workers from the state’s 24 political subdivisions. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
PUSH IS ON TO SAVE OSPREYS IN THE BAY: Barnett Rattner, a scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey’s Eastern Ecological Science Center, and USGS wildlife biologist Dan Day have been visiting osprey nests around Tilghman Island on Maryland’s Eastern Shore every 7 to 10 days since early spring. They’re part of a multipronged effort to assess the birds’ breeding success around the Chesapeake Bay following a troubling report last year of a drastic reproduction decline in Virginia’s Mobjack Bay. Timothy Wheeler/The Bay Journal.
RIVERKEEPER THREATENS SUIT OVER MUDDYING OF GUNPOWDER: For more than two years now, the Gunpowder River has turned orange or brown whenever there’s a hard or steady rain. It happened again in mid-July, after back-to-back downpours dumped 1.5 inches on the area over two days. Anger has grown on both sides of the Gunpowder, a tidal tributary of the Chesapeake Bay that separates Harford and Baltimore counties. Gunpowder Riverkeeper Theaux Le Gardeur has formally notified the three companies building a 200-acre housing development in Joppa that he intends to sue them for failing to keep the soil from washing off their project. Timothy Wheeler/The Bay Journal.
BIDEN, HARRIS TO HOLD EVENT IN MARYLAND: President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are to hold an event in Maryland on Aug. 15 — their first joint trip since the president announced he would not be seeking a second term. “We’re thrilled to have the president and vice president together in Maryland,” Ken Ulman, the chair of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said Friday. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
DESPITE TROUBLES, OLSZEWSKI STILL SET TO WIN HOUSE SEAT: With less than three months to Election Day, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. is still poised to win the seat of retiring U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger in November despite calls for him to step aside. Lia Russell/The Baltimore Sun.
IVEY LEADS IN PRIMARY TO FILL VACANT PG COUNCIL SEAT: With about 85% of the votes counted, Prince George’s County Council Chair Jolene Ivey is maintaining her strong lead since Tuesday’s special primary election in the race for a vacant at-large council seat. According to unofficial results Friday, Ivey had received 28,723 of the 60,340 tallied in the Democratic primary, or nearly 48%. That’s more than 10,000 votes ahead of the second-place Democrat, Bowie Mayor Tim Adams, whose 18,410 votes accounted for about 30% of the vote Friday. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
FORMER DEM CHAIR LAUNCHES SCHOLARSHIP FOR FORMER PRISONERS: Former Maryland Democratic Party chair Yvette Lewis and her husband, Ed, have made the first steps and donations to launch a new scholarship program at Bowie State University, one that will eventually help formerly incarcerated people earn a degree from the historically Black university. Natalie Jones/The Baltimore Sun.
MEDICAL WASTE INCINERATOR STILL POLLUTING AFTER GUILTY PLEA: So the far South Baltimore residents who have been contending with the medical waste incinerator on Hawkins Point Road for the last 35 years, the facility has been a chronic pollution juggernaut. Despite pleading guilty last year to more than 40 violations of its state permit and agreeing to pay $1.75 million – possibly the largest criminal environmental penalty in Maryland history – and then being sued again by the state for more violations, the company’s smoky emissions keep coming. Fern Shen/Baltimore Brew.
LOCAL POWER GRID OPERATOR FAILS TO PLAN; COST KEEP RISING: Electric bills in Baltimore have been especially high this summer after weeks of scorching temperatures. Besides the heat driving up the cost, some elected officials and environmental and consumer groups argue, is regional grid operator PJM Interconnection’s failure to plan for the future. The 40-year-old coal-fired Brandon Shores power plant was set to close in June 2025. Its fate, however, is in limbo as PJM argues it needs the plant to meet its obligation to provide reliable service. Bria Overs/The Baltimore Banner.
66-YEAR-OLD CHARGED WITH HATE CRIME IN FIRE OUTSIDE JEWISH MUSEUM: A 66-year-old man was arrested Saturday in connection with a fire set outside the Jewish Museum in Maryland on Sunday. Baltimore Police obtained an arrest warrant Friday for the man, later identified as Assadollah Hashemi, who was suspected to have caused the damage at the facility last weekend. Dana Munro/The Baltimore Sun.
- Howard Libit, the executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said Wednesday a construction crew working on renovations at the institution on Monday found the remnants of the fire at the foot of the museum entrance, sandwiched between two historic synagogues. Jess Nocera/The Baltimore Banner.
MAYOR SCOTT, FIANCEE MARRY IN SURPRISE CEREMONY: Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott married fiancee Hana Pugh on Sunday in a private ceremony that guests said was a surprise. The Charm City love story, which began in 2022 when they met at a downtown music festival, led to wedding day at a garden in Northeast Baltimore. Dillon Mullan and Emily Opilo/The Baltimore Sun.
- Pugh is operations director for Bmore Empowered, a nonprofit that offers programming for Black girls and women, along with administrative and accounting support to Baltimore nonprofits and women-owned businesses. Justin Fenton/The Baltimore Banner.
CARROLL SCHOOL BUSES INVOLVED IN 55 ACCIDENTS: Carroll County school buses were involved in 55 traffic accidents last school year, according to Transportation Services Director Michael Hardesty. That’s an average of 1.5 incidents during a typical full week of school. The number of incidents is consistent with the previous school year, though 2023-2024 saw fewer preventable accidents than 2022-2023. Thomas Goodwin Smith/The Carroll County Times.
