The Baltimore Banner thanks its sponsors. Become one.
Maryland
Maryland surpasses 100 monkeypox cases, vaccines remain scarce
BALTIMORE — Maryland has surpassed 100 confirmed circumstances of monkeypox, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.
Over 4,600 circumstances of monkeypox have been confirmed all through the USA, 101 of them right here in Maryland, a CDC tracker reveals as of Thursday morning.
There are 21 confirmed circumstances within the Baltimore metro area as of Tuesday, based on Baltimore Metropolis well being officers.
As monkeypox circumstances rise, vaccines stay scarce within the state. Baltimore Metropolis started doling out its slim provide of 200 doses this week.
The vaccines are allotted to states by the federal authorities from a nationwide stockpile. In response to metropolis well being officers, the Maryland Division of Well being has an preliminary allocation of three,363 doses of the vaccine.
The MDH has allotted 3,000 doses to native well being departments, and has retained 363 doses to supply to different jurisdictions as wanted, based on a press release by the Baltimore Metropolis Division of Well being.
In Baltimore, officers are directing the sparse vaccine doses to these deemed most at-risk, with the “really marginalized” on the entrance of the road.
The virus is spreading principally via shut, intimate contact with somebody who has monkeypox, based on the CDC.
Signs of the virus, that are much like these of smallpox however milder by comparability, embrace fever, headache, muscle aches and exhaustion, based on the CDC. Contaminated people are identified to develop a rash on the face and different elements of the physique.
To keep away from an infection, it’s endorsed that individuals keep away from contact with those that have signs, put on a face masks round others and wash their palms incessantly with cleaning soap and water or hand sanitizer.
The outbreak has touched over 70 nations and led the World Well being Group to declare a world well being emergency over the weekend as authorities step up their efforts to fight the unfold of the virus.
Continue Reading
Maryland
A severe thunderstorm watch is up till 11:00 PM for Maryland
BALTIMORE — It is the last day of June and Mother Nature has us going out with a bang! The Storm Prediction Center has placed us under a level 2 risk for strong to severe storms in central Maryland and the eastern shore.
A Severe Thunderstorm Watch is also up until 11:00 PM. Multiple warnings have been issued across the state so far. Once our cold front passes through storms will exit the region and temps will fall. Dry skies are expected over the next couple of days.
Maryland
Full interview: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Maryland
7 men represent one of Maryland’s most diverse counties. Could that change?
Since 1956, a County Council of seven — most of them white and most of them men — has represented Baltimore County. That could change after a vote Monday to put the question of whether the council should expand on the ballot.
Though the council members have discussed changes to the body since the 1970s, they’ve never gotten this close to asking the voters to codify changes in the law. The question has become increasingly important, as the population has quadrupled to nearly 850,000 in the last 70 years. People of color make up half the population. The county is 30% Black with a fast-growing immigrant population from Arabic and Hispanic countries.
Today’s County Council includes seven men, six of whom are white. Many civil rights groups and progressive activists have complained the councilmen do not represent the diversifying county and its myriad interests, including affordable housing and accessible transit.
The council needs five votes to put the measure on the ballot in 2024. If the voters approve the measure, the council would expand by two members in 2026. The council would have to redraw political maps to determine where to put the additional districts, and it would have to alter the number of appointments to the planning board and board of appeals so the new council members also have representation there.
The effort would cost approximately $1.4 million in increased annual operating costs and $12.2 million in (one-time) capital improvement costs.
Council Chairman Izzy Patoka, who has been championing the cause of expansion since a workgroup recommended it in March, said he is confident that he has the five votes.
But of the councilmen polled this past week, only Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat, said he is supporting it. Republicans Todd Crandell, Wade Kach, and David Marks said they are undecided, as did Democrats Pat Young and Julian Jones.
One provision that may make the legislation more popular with Patoka’s colleagues is a change to make the councilman’s job a full-time position. Currently, each councilman makes $69,000 a year, with the exception of the chair, who makes $77,000. Some have other jobs, even though many have said that the position is really a full-time one.
It’s not clear how much the salary would bump up with a switch to full-time. In Montgomery County, council members have been full-time since voters approved a 2006 ballot. There, the members make $156,284 per year and the council president makes $171,912.46 annually.
The workgroup that recommended expanding the council by two people also recommended making the members full-time.
The group, called the Baltimore County Structure Review Workgroup, included 11 members and met nine times in 2023 and 2024, including holding a public hearing last January. While some wanted to expand by four, the work group’s consensus was to increase by two members.
Those who are undecided offered different reasons for their concerns, ranging from motives of advocates to philosophical reasons about democracy and government.
“In general, I am not in favor of expanding government, which this would do, but I also want to learn from my colleagues who are in support of the bill,” said Crandell, who represents the Dundalk area.
Young, who represents the Catonsville area, said the advocates who have contacted him and come before the council want four new members, not two, and he’s not certain two would allay their concerns.
Marks, who represents the Perry Hall area, said he’s been put off by a process that Democratic activists have driven, and said he would be more in favor of the expansion if those clamoring for it represented a broader cross-section of the county, including more Republican-leaning areas. Kach said he was “not happy” with the proposed council districts or the lack of public input in drafting a new map.
And Jones, the only Black member of the council, said he’s not sure the expansion will accomplish the goal of increasing diversity.
“No one cares more about diversity than I do,” he said. “But democracy is messy, and no one can say the people we have were not duly elected, and that citizens have choices.”
Several of the current members have had an opponent who was a person of color or a woman; they just didn’t happen to win. Caitlin Klimm-Kellner ran against Mike Ertel in District 6. She told the work group studying the expansion that she struggled because the district included 127,000 people. She hailed from the Rosedale side; Ertel, a longtime community organizer, was much more well-known in Towson.
“I think that if it was a smaller representation, a more localized district, that would not have been as much of a problem,” Klimm-Kellner told the group.
The council held public hearings on the proposed referendum on June 11 and June 25.
The voting meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the County Council chambers at 400 Washington Ave., Suite 205.
-
News1 week ago
Tracking a Single Day at the National Domestic Violence Hotline
-
World7 days ago
Israel accepts bilateral meeting with EU, but with conditions
-
World1 week ago
Is Israel’s Smotrich fulfilling his dream of annexing the West Bank?
-
News1 week ago
Supreme Court upholds law barring domestic abusers from owning guns in major Second Amendment ruling | CNN Politics
-
News1 week ago
A Florida family is suing NASA after a piece of space debris crashed through their home
-
Politics1 week ago
Supreme Court upholds federal gun ban for those under domestic violence restraining orders
-
Politics1 week ago
Trump classified docs judge to weigh alleged 'unlawful' appointment of Special Counsel Jack Smith
-
World1 week ago
New Caledonia independence activists sent to France for detention