HISPANIC STUDENT ENROLLMENT DECLINES AS FEAR OF ICE GROWS: Hispanic enrollment in Maryland public schools began to decline during the last school year after growing at an average rate of 4.7% a year since pandemic-era lows. As classes resume this fall, parents, teachers and other community members reflected on how immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump has cast a shadow over immigrant and Latino families and their public school students. Fewer a Latino students are showing up in class. William Hammann/Maryland Matters.
THE HIGH COST OF NOT MOVING THE FBI HEADQUARTERS: Fifteen years after the federal government set out to replace the FBI’s aging Washington headquarters – including building a new HQ in Maryland – taxpayers are still paying to maintain the deteriorating building as construction costs rise and work on a relocation site has yet to begin. Federal officials warned Congress years ago that delays would come with a price. Mennatalla Ibrahim/The Baltimore Sun.
LATE SPRING FROST KILLED FRUIT, NOW IT HARMS AGRITOURISM: With the fall season just a month away, Maryland farmers would ordinarily be preparing to welcome peak crowds at pick-your-own apple orchards. The loss of business, for many agritourism farmers across the region, is just another blow from the late spring frost. Harrison Palmer, chief of staff for the Maryland Department of Agriculture, estimated the April freeze caused a $45 million loss in crop value and value-added processing statewide with the biggest loss in the grape and wine industry, at more than $25 million. Gabriella Fine/The Baltimore Sun.
COLUMN: HERITAGE FOUNDATION STEPS IN TO FIGHT MARYLAND AMENDMENT: Samuel Everett Dewey will walk into an Annapolis courthouse Tuesday morning, ready to attack a Maryland constitutional amendment that would change boundary requirements for congressional maps. Dewey’s involvement and that of his organization, the Oversight Project, are as significant as the lawsuit itself — maybe more. Dewey is head litigator for the investigative provocateur group, created four years ago by the Heritage Foundation to root out supposed fraud in President Joe Biden’s administration. Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner.
JAMES ISLAND RISING FROM THE SILT AT LITTLE CHOPTANK RIVER: Barely three months ago, there was nothing here but open water — about 12 vertical feet of it from the gray-green surface to the silty bottom. Now, there stands a brand-new dot of land. It’s small but has room for multi-ton construction vehicles to roam hither and yon on a 12-acre plain interspersed with dunes. Everywhere is sand, and there’s more of it with each passing minute. “It” is James Island, taking shape in the mouth of the Little Choptank River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Construction began in June. Jeremy Cox/The Bay Journal.
B’MORE CONSIDERS HEALTH ASSESSMENTS FOR PROPOSED DATA CENTERS: Baltimore officials will consider Thursday whether proposed data centers should be required to assess potential health risks before they are approved for construction. The Baltimore Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss the proposal, which would require developers to submit health assessments for review by the Baltimore Department of Health. The assessments would examine potential pollution, nearby pollution sources and possible effects on drinking water, noise and traffic within a 1.5-mile radius. Chevall Pryce/The Baltimore Sun.
NUMBER OF SHOOTINGS IN HARFORD ON PACE TO PASS LAST YEAR: Harford County is on pace to end the year with more homicides and shootings than last year, as nearby jurisdictions report historic lows. With four months left in 2026, law enforcement agencies countywide have reported three homicides and five nonfatal shootings. That’s the same number of homicides Harford saw for all of 2025 and two more nonfatal shootings. The incidents include three shootings within three days last week, one of them fatal. Bryna Zumer/The Aegis.
ROADSIDE MEMORIAL SPARKS FEUD, TARGETING STATE LAW: Five months to the day after his 20-year-old son died in a motorcycle crash, Brad Hopkins told a Harford County District Court judge he has the right to honor his son with a roadside memorial along Route 152 in Fallston, and idea that is butting up against a family who lives near the site. Hopkins added that several nonprofit organizations, along with parents and family members, have contacted him about petitioning legislators in Annapolis to amend state law to allow roadside memorials, which they currently are not for safety reasons. Céilí Doyle /The Baltimore Banner.
BA CO PARAMEDIC PLEADS GUILTY TO SOILING COLLEAGUES’ FOOD: A Baltimore County paramedic pleaded guilty Friday to three charges related to masturbating and urinating on food and personal items at county fire stations and causing his colleagues to ingest his bodily fluids. Christopher M. Carroll, 36, agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors that could result in a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, followed by five years’ probation. Sapna Bansil/The Baltimore Banner.
ICE SEEKS CUSTODY OF HONDURAN MAN AFTER ALLEGED ASSAULT: U.S. ICE has lodged a detainer seeking custody of a Honduran man who turned himself in Friday to Howard County Police after authorities say he struck an ICE agent with his vehicle. Earlier last week, federal immigration authorities sought an arrest warrant under seal for 18-year-old Jimy Samuel Godoy Alfaro for a charge of assaulting, resisting, opposing, impeding or interfering with a federal officer. The charge stems from an Aug. 11 encounter with Godoy Alfaro in Columbia. Lillian Reed/The Baltimore Banner.
B’MORE POLICE OFFICER FIRED AFTER CONVICTIONS ON ASSAULT: The Baltimore Police Department has fired a police officer who was captured in a viral video driving directly at a man and striking him, following his convictions last week for assault and related crimes. Darreonna Davis and Dylan Segelbaum/The Baltimore Banner.
COLD WAR MISSILE SITE IN BA CO ATTRACTS HUNDREDS OF VISITORS A YEAR: An old Cold War missile defense base in Baltimore County has become a restoration project that draws hundreds of visitors each year. Nike Missile Site BA-79, an anti-aircraft missile base in Woodstock, operated from 1954 to 1974. It is one of five such sites that have not been lost to time or redevelopment; the others are in Alaska, New Jersey, San Francisco and Florida. The site sat abandoned for decades before Tom Reed began leading an effort around 2018 to restore and preserve it. Matt Hubbard/The Baltimore Sun.
CHEF PAUL TORRES, WHO COOKED FOR PRESIDENTS, DIES AT 84: Pepito “Paul” Limos Torres of Baltimore cooked for former presidents and foreign leaders, but sometimes his toughest critics were his grandkids. Torres, a Navy veteran and native of the Philippines, died July 19 of complications after gallbladder surgery. He was 84. Cayla Harris/The Baltimore Banner.
