ACLU SAYS STATE DESTROYED KEY RECORDS FOR MENTALLY ILL DETAINEES: At the Baltimore Central Booking and Intake Center, detainees with serious mental health issues are typically kept in the inpatient mental health unit, part of the aging facility that has become known for its “extremely harsh” living conditions, according to attorneys for the ACLU’s National Prison Project, which tours parts of Baltimore’s pretrial jail complex as part of a decades-old health care lawsuit. Handwritten logs painted a different picture than other records produced for a lawsuit by Centurion Health, the jail’s mental health provider. For example, a Centurion-provided record would describe a detainee as refusing to leave their cell, but the handwritten logs showed that they were actually not allowed to leave due to behavioral issues. Ben Conarck/The Baltimore Banner.
NEW DELEGATE AMONG STRING OF VACANCY-RELATED APPOINTMENTS: The House of Delegates is one vacancy shy of a full chamber following the swearing-in Monday of a new delegate, Teresa Saavedra Woorman (D-Montgomery). Woorman, an aide to Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D), is just the most recent in a string of vacancy-related appointments to the legislature over the last two years. Bryan Sears, William Ford and Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
SPORTS BETTING GENERATES $6.3M FOR PUBLIC ED IN JULY: Sports betting in Maryland generated nearly $6.3 million for public school education in July, the fourth-best one-month transfer since sports betting began in the state, according to the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
MOST HARFORD SCHOOLS VISIBLY IN NEED OF REPAIR: Nearly three-quarters of schools in Harford County are visibly in need of repair or functionally unreliable, according to a presentation by district officials at Monday night’s school board meeting. The operations department shared its requests for state funding for construction and renovations for fiscal year 2026. For the state to commit capital improvement funds, County Executive Bob Cassilly will first have to sign off on portions of the projects covered by local government, district facilities planner Missy Valentino explained. Dillon Mullan/The Baltimore Sun.
STATE WARNS COUNTY AGENCIES OF POSSIBLE MALWARE THREATS: Maryland officials are warning county agencies and employees to be wary when handling requests under the state’s Public Information Act, after malware attacks using a similar scheme reportedly hit some county attorneys in Virginia. Maryland Association of Counties officials, who posted the warning last week, said they are not aware of any attempts against Maryland offices, but wanted to put local officials “on lookout mode.” Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
NTSB, ATF JOIN PROBE IN DEADLY BEL AIR HOME EXPLOSION: The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what it called a natural gas explosion at a home in Bel Air on Sunday that killed the owner of the home and a BGE contractor. Cody Boteler and Clara Longo de Freitas/The Baltimore Banner.
- “Our hearts are broken for the two victims and their families. Our team of highly qualified investigators and our partners at ATF are dedicated to providing an answer that will lead to safer communities,” acting Maryland state fire marshal Jason M. Mowbray said in a statement. Jasmine Hilton and Emma Uber/The Washington Post.
COLUMN: SOME FLAGS DON’T FLY LIKE THEY USED TO: An absence of flags supporting the former president’s third presidential campaign in a blue town like Annapolis in a blue state like Maryland shouldn’t surprise anyone. Maybe this should: As I’ve rambled this summer, through Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I’ve looked for Donald Trump banners fluttering on political winds and seen almost none. Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner.
B’MORE REACHES $45M SETTLEMENT IN OPIOID SUIT: Baltimore has reached a second $45 million settlement in its lawsuit against multiple pharmaceutical companies and drug stores for their part in the city’s opioid crisis. The agreement Friday with CVS comes two months after the city reached a similar agreement with Allergan Finance in June. That company was given 30 days to pay the $45 million settlement to the city; the agreement with CVS gives it until the end of the year to complete the payment. Elijah Pittman/Maryland Matters.
Here are just eight of the hundreds of submissions proposed for a new Howard County flag. To see the full list of submissions click the image to go to the home page of the Howard County Flag Commission.
HOWARD RESIDENTS SUBMIT 209 FLAG PROPOSALS: Howard County residents already have no shortage of ideas for what their new county flag should look like. After the county invited people to submit ideas for redesigning the flag, more than 100 people sent a total of 209 designs to a commission tasked with reviewing them. Officials said 184 met the criteria , and those entries were shared online earlier this month. Abby Zimmardi/The Baltimore Banner.
- Between April 1 and June 30, designs were submitted to the 19-member Howard County Flag Commission, and from those, 184 are now under consideration. Sherry Greenfield/The Baltimore Sun.
‘GOLD BAR SCAM’ HITS MONTGOMERY RESIDENTS: The elaborate scam is taking place nationwide. Fraudsters pose as federal agents, finding targets online or over the phone. They tell them their bank accounts are no longer safe. And eventually, after a series of communications, the swindlers persuade their targets to buy pricey gold bars and hand them over for safekeeping. And in Montgomery County — an area just north of Washington with large pockets of wealth — the scam is hitting hard. Dan Morse/The Washington Post.
