The new map includes changes such as moving all of College Park, including the University of Maryland, into District 1. The city was previously split between Districts 1 and 3. Other changes include moving all of Greenbelt into District 3; moving Joint Base Andrews from District 8 to District 9; and moving South Laurel to District 4. Other portions of the county would also be affected by the new map.
Last month, tenants in Langley Park held a press conference to oppose a Prince George’s County proposal to upzone their neighborhood. Langley Park’s tenants were joined by CASA, an immigrant advocacy organization, but they also got a verbal boost from the Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG), a non-profit that usually advocates for upzoning in neighborhoods like Langley Park that are near public transportation.
Some advocates were surprised by the Coalition’s support, but they shouldn’t be. As Cheryl Cort, policy director for the Coalition for Smarter Growth told me: “Before we upzone, protections should be in place to not put residents at further risk.” Upzoning supporters increasingly recognize that upzoning isn’t right for every neighborhood. If increasing density limits are likely to increase rents, cause displacement, or disproportionately affect vulnerable populations, municipal governments should avoid it. Langley Park, in Prince George’s County, is one such neighborhood.
This article is the first in a three-part series to help demystify the redistricting process in Prince George’s County, and explain the impact it can have on our lives.
"Small doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 mRNA vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 appeared to produce strong antibody responses and comparable side effects to those seen in older age groups, according to the first top-line results from a Phase 2/3 clinical trial released by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech early Monday."
Smaller needles. Redesigned shipments to ease the storage needs in pediatricians’ offices. And enough vials of the COVID-19 vaccine to inoculate the 28 million U.S. children between ages 5 and 11. Those are among the plans announced by the White House on Wednesday as federal and state officials prepare for a regulatory decision to be made on …
Maryland Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) said the state will be ready to administer more booster shots and vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11 once the federal government gives the go-ahead. Federal approval for the boosters and vaccines for younger children is expected to arrive in the next few weeks, and Hogan …
Krystal Oriadha, who sat on Prince George’s County’s police reform work group last year, said the framing of Hogan’s “re-funding” initiative is a “slap in the face” to the community organizers who have been asking lawmakers to divest from law enforcement and reallocate the money toward social services, mental health and infrastructure.
“Issues of salary and retention came up for the police department, but that wasn’t the issue for the community,” said Oriadha, who co-founded the advocacy group PG Change Makers. “The community was talking about the devaluing of people of color and their lives and their bodies, so to me, saying you’re investing in police rather than in the communities and in the root causes of crime. . . . That’s a slap in the face to exactly what those workgroups and commissions were put together for.”
In early September, during a struggle in Oxon Hill, a Prince George’s County Police officer shot and killed a man with a history of mental illness after he pointed what turned out to be realistic replica guns at the officer. The shooting was investigated by the county police. From now on, though, all fatal police shootings will be investigated by a new unit in the Maryland Attorney General’s office.
On a December day in 2013, 14-year-old Qoyasha left class without permission and led administrators on a chase through the halls of his Salisbury middle school. The young man eventually returned to his technology classroom, but when school officials finally caught up to him, he refused to accompany them to the principal’s office.
As punishment for this episode of teenage defiance, one might expect a phone call home, detention or even suspension. Instead, an assistant principal summoned Sheriff’s Deputy Robert Parker to intervene.
For the first time in its 11-year history, a top U.S. financial regulatory body has formally recognized climate change as an “emerging threat” to the nation’s economic stability.
In a 133-page report released Thursday, the Financial Stability Oversight Council, or FSOC, noted that climate-fueled disasters are “increasing and already imposing substantial economic costs.” These costs are “expected to increase further” and climate change “will likely be a source of shocks to the financial system in the years ahead,” the report added. It highlighted that the effects of global warming will be most acutely felt by communities of color and financially vulnerable populations.
“It’s challenging to predict the future impacts of climate change, but we know that climate change has already started causing an array of economic harms,” said Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who is also the chairperson of FSOC. “Failure to address climate-related financial risks will only allow them to grow larger.”
Dozens of power plants, factories and other facilities across the Chesapeake Bay watershed were given latitude to skip pollution-monitoring deadlines, file late reports or release more pollutants during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a review of public documents shows.
In March, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a controversial policy, suspending the enforcement of a swath of environmental laws. Top officials at the agency said that the “enforcement discretion” strategy was necessary to allow industries to safely comply with social-distancing rules and lockdowns.
As the world gears up for a massive United Nations climate change conference next month, a couple of U.S. senators are working to ensure that the U.S. fumbles a once-in-a-decade opportunity to address its climate-warming emissions.
Just a few weeks ago, it seemed like President Joe Biden was on track to accomplish what previous administrations have attempted and failed to achieve: writing an emissions-reduction policy into federal law. That policy, the $150 billion Clean Electricity Performance Program, is a system of carrots and sticks that would have pushed America’s electric utilities to go green between 2023 and 2030. The power these companies supply to your home would become progressively cleaner over that timeframe, putting the U.S. electricity sector, currently the second-most polluting sector in this country, on track to producing 100 percent clean electricity by 2035.
A Study
Lack of access to a health-promoting food environment can lead to poor health outcomes including obesity which is a problem for African-Americans in Prince George's County, Maryland. Previous research examined the quality of the food environment at the regional level but did not consider local level indicators. In this study, we utilized an environmental justice framework to examine the local food environment in the County. We collected data from 127 food outlets (convenience stores, grocery stores, and supermarkets), in three racially and socioeconomically diverse communities—Bladensburg (predominantly African American/ Black, with the lowest median household income); Greenbelt (similar percentage of non-white persons as Hyattsville, with the highest median household income); and Hyattsville (dominated by a Hispanic population). We examined the availability, quality, and accessibility of food within each community, using a modified version of the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) healthy food availability index (HFAI).We also used ArcMap 10.6 to examine the spatial distribution of stores in relation to sociodemographic factors and generate descriptive statistics to examine HFAI score differences across the communities, sociodemographic composition, and store types at the block group level. Mean HFAI scores were 7.76, 10.75, and 9.60 for Bladensburg, Greenbelt, and Hyattsville, respectively, suggesting a relative disparity in access to diverse healthy and goo...
The Oct. 15 announcement from the Maryland Department of the Environment announcement is the first official warning issued anywhere in the Chesapeake Bay watershed for fish containing unsafe levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. But one expert said he expects more, given the amount of contamination found so far throughout the region.
PFAS are a group of thousands of synthetic chemicals that have been used since the 1940s in a wide variety of products, including firefighting foams. They persist in the environment and can build up in the blood and tissue of fish and people. Studies have found evidence that exposure to certain PFAS compounds increases risks of cancer and damage to the liver, thyroid and immune system. Infants and children may also be at risk of developmental problems.
“It is not a normal college experience to be living with mold and having respiratory issues and safety hazards in our living spaces,” Howard sophomore Thandiwe Abdullah told Fox5.
The students who have had issues with rats, roaches and mold say that workers have come to clean their rooms, but the conditions still haven’t changed much.
According to Fox5, one student said, “after they left, I noticed the mold grew back again this morning and they never cleaned out the mold in the AC and I can’t even live in there anymore.”
To ensure students that the school is listening their demands, the Board of Trustees said in a statement:
“Simply put, we hear you and we continue to welcome your viewpoints on all matters pertaining to Howard.”
