AUDIT: DISABILITIES ADMIN FAILED TO COLLECT $119M: The Developmental Disabilities Administration failed to collect almost $119 million in provider payments in a timely manner, despite a new payment system that’s supposed to improve the agency’s financial forecasting, a new audit says. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
MARYLAND, JEWISH AND MUSLIM INSTITUTIONS ON HIGH ALERT AFTER IRAN STRIKE: Following the United States’ strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities, many world leaders have called for restraint and a return to the diplomatic table. Closer to home, Gov. Wes Moore said, “In response to yesterday’s military strike in Iran, I have been in close coordination with our cabinet, including the Maryland Military Department, to ensure Marylanders at home and abroad are protected.” Michael Howes/The Hagerstown Herald Mail.
- Muslim and Jewish institutions in Maryland said they were already on high alert when U.S. strikes on Iran over the weekend just ratcheted up the level of vigilance even higher. That message was picked up over the weekend by government institutions around the state, which said they went on high attack Saturday on Iran and a retaliatory strike Monday on a U.S. military base in Qatar. Laura Lifke/Maryland Matters.
MOORE SAYS STATE READY TO RESPOND TO DEADLY HEAT; URGES CAUTION: On Monday morning, Gov. Wes Moore signed a State of Preparedness declaration ahead of a potentially hazardous heat wave with dangerously high temperatures for much of Maryland. The National Weather Service said extreme heat is expected Monday through Thursday, with increasing humidity, requiring heightened awareness and preparedness from Marylanders and those visiting the state. A State of Preparedness enhances the state’s ability to respond swiftly and effectively to potential hazards and threats in advance of an actual disaster. Staff/The Garrett Republican.
- “Many Marylanders are at risk for heat-related illness during extreme heat like we are experiencing this week,” Maryland Health Secretary Meena Seshamani said in a written statement. There’s already been one heat-related death in Maryland, which came before the current heat wave hit. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
- Here’s what to know about the heat dome and how to cope and stay safe during it. Clara Longo de Freitas and Alexander Taylor/The Baltimore Banner.
DESPITE ITS PAST, FIRM GETS GREEN LIGHT FOR PILOT PLASTICS RECYCLING PLANT: A chemical company with a history of environmental violations has gotten the green light to move forward with a pilot plastics recycling plant at its Columbia headquarters. W.R. Grace & Co. submitted an air permit application to the Maryland Department of the Environment in September 2023. The agency’s decision comes nearly two years after the company submitted the application and despite fierce opposition from nearby residents and other community members. Jess Nocera/The Baltimore Banner.
STATE PROMISED CHANGES TO DRUG PROGRAM THAT NEVER CAME: Change seemed imminent in January for patients of a troubled drug addiction program in Baltimore. State health regulators said they would be transferred to new treatment providers and moved out of squalid, drug-ridden and roach-infested apartments. Some patients hoped they would at last get the help they needed. But little improved in the months that followed, some former patients of the program, PHA Healthcare, said in interviews. Alissa Zhu/The Baltimore Banner.
ARUNDEL PROGRAM SUPPORTS STUDENTS LOOKING FOR ADDICTION HELP: Karen Siska-Creel, Anne Arundel County’s school health and support director, helped create the Screening Teens to Access Recovery Program in Anne Arundel County Public Schools. The STAR program is a partnership with the county Department of Health that allows school nurses to pair middle and high schoolers with substance abuse treatment services. Siska-Creel said since its inception, about 50 students have been referred to services. Lizzy Alspach of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
JUDGE OKs POWER COMPANY’s ACCESS TO PRIVATE LAND: Despite fierce opposition from Maryland landowners, workers for a New Jersey based power company can access private land to survey for the proposed Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project power line, a federal judge ruled on Friday. U.S. District Judge Adam B. Abelson, in a 52-page opinion , dissected the landowners’ arguments one-by-one, including their assertion that the power company could not be granted access rights because it was not a “body politic or corporate having the power of eminent domain.” Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
- The federal court injunction marks an early win for New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group, the company contracted to build a new transmission line across 67 miles of Central Maryland. The project has sparked an uproar among landowners along its route as well as vows by at least one county sheriff to not support the company’s efforts to survey properties. Adam Willis/The Baltimore Banner.
BWI/MARSHALL (AKA FRIENDSHIP) AIRPORT TURNS 75: On a clear spring day in 1947, city officials broke ground for Baltimore’s new airport — but not in typical, spadeful-of-dirt fashion. Instead, Mayor Theodore R. McKeldin climbed aboard a 20-ton earth mover, hit the throttle and rumbled away, singing “Off we go, into the wild blue yonder …” From the start, the airport, then called Friendship, grabbed headlines. Once completed, it dwarfed New York’s LaGuardia Airport (four times larger) and included a 9-story control tower, the tallest in the country. Mike Klingaman/The Baltimore Sun.
MAYOR SCOTT SIGNS BUDGET, DEFENDS SALARY HIKES: Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Monday approved the city’s annual budget, which included salary increases for several top city employees and his chief of staff. Asked about the justification for salary increases, Scott responded with a direct verbal jab. “First of all, the chief of staff didn’t get a raise. He got a new position that has a higher salary,” Scott said. “So if you [go] from your position to being an editor, you’re probably going to get an increase in your salary. That’s how it works when you grow up in your job.” Brooke Conrad/The Baltimore Sun.
