Community issues

Tavon Smith, an MTA light-rail operator, was sentenced to 18 months after pleading guilty to reckless endangerment. Smith in 2022 was operating a light-rail train that struck a vehicle driven by St. Frances Academy football player Lamar Patterson, who was killed.

Melachi Brown, 21, of Windsor Mill, who pleaded guilty to felony manslaughter in a two-vehicle crash that killed six people working in a Baltimore Beltway work zone, was allowed by a judge to serve the remainder of his 18-month jail sentence on home detention.

Gov. Wes Moore and other officials gathered Friday to celebrate a decision to build a light rail line to connect East and West Baltimore. But officials must decide whether to build a tunnel under downtown and identify funds to cover the $3 billion to $7 billion price tag.

Old Ellicott City on Saturday will play host to what organizers are calling the nation’s largest free music festival with female-fronted groups Saturday. The festival is expanding into Maryland this year after more than a decade of being held in Delaware.

For all the new providers, relatively few new patients are being served.

“This will not define your life,” U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander told Baltimore Police Officer Steven Angelini, as she sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in federal prison.

Maryland has seen two heat-related deaths so far in 2024 — both before 2023 even saw one.

Despite the record number of attendees at this year’s Baltimore Pride, some critics raised a slew of concerns, ranging from the overall safety of the event to the approach organizers have taken in the overall running of Pride Month offerings.

The White House is seeking roughly $4 billion in additional emergency funding from Congress for costs related to the collapse and repair of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and to respond to other disasters around the U.S. in recent months.

“The smoke box” at the Cannabis Science Lab in Baltimore is about as fancy as its nickname, but it’s in one of the most advanced marijuana research labs in the country.

Prosecutors have agreed to tell a judge whether the government used a controversial foreign surveillance method in their case against Brandon Russell, 28, of Orlando, Florida, who is accused of plotting to attack power substations around Baltimore.

Tiffany Knupp faces nine charges for embezzling $12,625 from the Gavin Knupp Foundation and a local restaurant that raised money for the foundation.

President Joe Biden pardoned former U.S. service members convicted of violating a now-repealed military ban on consensual gay sex, which will clear the way for them to regain lost benefits. The pardon goes even further to protect LGBTQIA+ service members than the controversial policy “don’t ask, don’t tell” that was repealed in 2010.

Gov. Wes Moore revived planning for the east-west transit line in Baltimore City last year, and officials have been studying potential routes and whether it should be run with rapid buses. State planners opted for light rail after months of study and public hearings.

In court documents filed on April 15 but not previously available in Baltimore Circuit Court, Patriot Steel Fabrication Inc., a firm based in Church Creek, Dorchester County, asserts that Chasen Cos. owes the business more than $915,000.

The Maryland Supreme Court has upheld a lower court’s ruling that Baltimore County Police Cpl. Royce Ruby could not be held liable for firing a shot that wounded 5-year-old Kodi Gaines after a long standoff with police in the boy’s home in 2016. Police fatally shot his mother, who had brandished a gun.

Northwest Hospital in Randallstown is adding more space to its emergency department as part of a broader effort to reduce wait times and improve patient experiences.

The rule is intended to restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution.

Tayzha Alona Warren, 12, has been found after being missing for a week, Baltimore County Police said Thursday.

Lime, the company behind green and white scooters that once zipped all over downtown, will once again deploy dockless vehicles on city streets, the Baltimore City Department of Transportation said Thursday.