Metro launched the “Fares Pay for Service” campaign on May 24 in an effort to deter people from boarding its buses without paying.

About 70% of Metrobus riders skip the fares, Metro said.

Metro General Manager Randy Clarke previously said that without the campaign to prevent fare evasion, Metro would lose out on an estimated $50 million in revenue this year.

The effort to get people to pay for rides has included instructing bus operators to remind riders the fare is $2.25. Reduced fares are available for seniors, students, riders with disabilities and people eligible for SNAP benefits.

Metro Transit Police, not drivers, will take action if riders do not pay, Clarke said.

“People will pay the fare, or they will be taken off the bus. If they refuse to comply with the officer, they will be arrested. They’re not going to be arrested for fare evasion. They’re going to be arrested for failure to comply or other things,” Clarke said.

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Addressing Montgomery County Board of Education board members who attended the ceremony Tuesday, “you saw my kid and every trans kid get outed in the commencement program,” Mendelsohn said.

“This publication hurt my child, and this is their last memory of MCPS,” she said. Murmurs of sympathy could be heard from the audience.

“My child, who has been known only by their chosen name for five years, officially, in all public school documents, was outed as having a very different name,” Mendelsohn told ������Ƶapp.

Under , staff are directed to adopt practices to avoid the inadvertent disclosure of a student’s gender and legal name when they differ from information in the school system’s gender identity intake form.

Mendelsohn said the child had filed Form 560-80 as an eighth grader.

“The school’s error in publishing my student’s birth name for their classmates, families, school staff, and the public to see violates the spirit, certainly, of MCPS policy,” she said at the board meeting.

When Mendelsohn addressed the board Thursday, she said that wasn’t the only time that her child was “outed” at school.

“Teachers typically have called the legal name of each student in that room in order to individually distribute exam tickets or tests, so before each PSAT, SAT, IB, AP, MCAP, whatever, they’re outed,” she said.

“My kid has turned somersaults to try to prevent this from happening,” she told the board.

Her child would try to arrive early to an exam room to collect their test ticket and avoid having their legal name called. Or, “they would delay until all the other students had collected their test tickets, and walk up and say ‘that one’s mine,'” she said in an interview.

Now, Mendelsohn wants to ensure that does not happen to other students.

School board members expressing sympathy and upset included president Grace Rivera-Oven, vice president Brenda Wolff, Laura Stewart and Rita Montoya.

“That is extremely alarming and concerning, and I apologize, Ms. Mendelsohn, I apologize,” Montoya said.

“It is disturbing, especially this being Pride Month. And so, we need to stand by our values, and I think that includes looking at our processes” surrounding the use of preferred names, Stewart told her colleagues.

In her interview with ������Ƶapp, Mendelsohn stressed that her child had a good experience with the school system overall.

“They have completely fond memories of Einstein High School. Their lovely friends, many lovely teachers,” Mendelsohn said. But “for them, it’s not a simple experience, getting through school.”

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Among jobs being cut are 43 social workers and 27 pupil personnel workers, specialists trained to advocate for students and work with schools on issues such as attendance, discipline and homelessness.

Some positions, like college and career navigators and school psychologists, were saved from elimination after further review by the board before Thursday’s meeting.

Board of Education President Grace Rivera-Oven was tearful as she told the packed hearing room that the board members struggled with the vote.

“This is incredibly personal, excruciating and painful,” she said.

Board member Julie Yang, who’s running for Montgomery County Council, also struggled to maintain her composure as she told the crowd, “The truth is, there is no way to reduce a budget by this magnitude without impacting people.”

“We have to make these painful decisions, and we cannot shy from that responsibility,” school board Vice President Brenda Wolff said.

But a member of the audience shouted a question to the board. Citing the shooting at Wootton High School in February, when school staff including social workers provided support to students, he asked, “Who’s going to support next year’s students?”

The crowd burst into applause.

The budget approved by the school board followed the Montgomery County Council’s approval of a $7.9 billion dollar spending plan that included $3.7 billion for the school system.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor had requested a budget increase of $179 million over last year’s allocation, citing increased expenses and mandatory expenses tied to the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a sweeping reform plan.

The council did not fully fund the school system’s request, but did increase school spending by $143 million, leaving MCPS $36 million short of its requested spending plan.

“This is a budget that creates more problems than it solves,” Taylor told the school board before Thursday’s vote, noting that some one-time funding mechanisms leave challenges for next year’s school spending plans.

The budget passed with a 7-1 vote. Voting no, school board member Rita Montoya said the school system should have looked harder for ways to avoid cutting existing jobs that have a direct impact on students.

“Because I cannot look you — our community in the eye and say that I feel that we’ve done that, I cannot support this budget,” Montoya said to enthusiastic applause.

Board member Laura Stewart told the crowd that as tough as this budget process has been, “Guess what? Next year is going to be harder. Next year we will continue to look at cuts. This is the reality we are in,” she said.

Before the vote, parents, students and staff members appealed to the school board to protect jobs that provide direct services to students.

Ayana Manzanares, a clinical social worker the cuts would not reduce the needs of students.

Students come to school with issues like suicidal thoughts, depression, anxiety, she said, and “today’s vote is not what MCPS can afford, it is about what MCPS is willing to risk.”

Students joined staff members to comment before the board vote.

“Support staff are often the first to notice whenever a student is struggling,” Grant Nelson, an 11th grader at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, said.

David Stern, the president of the Montgomery County Education Association, which represents thousands of classroom teachers and school staff, said he was relieved to see some jobs saved.

However, Stein told ������Ƶapp that the school system is “chronically underfunded” despite budget increases.

“We are not back to a per-pupil funding that we were in 2009 before the Great Recession,” Stein said.

Looking ahead, Stein agreed with Taylor that next year will be “very, very, very difficult.” And he suggested an all-hands on deck approach to school funding.

“I think there’s some work that our partners at the state government need to be doing in order to be giving revenue flexibility to the counties,” he said. “We cannot continue to be in this cycle of cutting, cutting, cutting and then wondering why services are not being provided to our students and our families.”

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It all started with a lunchtime meetup of the Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Student Government Association.

The SGA members were brainstorming on who to get to speak at their 2026 commencement exercises.

That’s when Noah Grosberg said to his classmates, “Maybe we should just try for someone big,” and the first person who came to mind was former first lady Michelle Obama.

Grosberg explained that he thought she was a good choice because, “I know that she’s such a proponent of youth advocacy and really empowering younger generations.”

So the social media campaign by the Class of 2026 began with a simple pitch of Grosberg declaring, “This is day one” of trying to get Michelle Obama to speak to their class.

Then, the pitches became more elaborate. “The B-CC Administration really embraced it,” said Grosberg, adding that each post gained steam with a few views to hundreds of thousands of views.

And a wider swath of the B-CC community got involved. In one post, staged on the school’s sports field, Grosberg dashed from one group of students to another, pointing out the Poms, B-CC Cheer, the Ritmo Latino dance group, B-CC Moves, the hip-hop dance team and the B-CC Chamber Choir.

Grosberg said he knew it was a long shot, but couldn’t resist trying: “Always dream big, and always try hard, and fully express yourselves no matter what.”

Then, he recalls, the students got word after months of trying that the former first lady would be delivering a message — virtually — at their graduation. But there was a little caveat: “We had to keep it a secret,” said Grosberg.

So on Monday, June 1, when Grosberg stood in front of his graduating class at the commencement, he shared a message with his classmates.

“The truth is the biggest moments in life always begin the same way. With somebody willing to look ridiculous, somebody willing to speak first, to try first, to care first.” Grosberg said. “Ladies and gentlemen, a special message from the former first lady of the United States of America, Mrs. Michelle Obama.”

Recalling that moment, Grosberg said, “It was awesome. I got goose bumps on my arms” and he listened to the roaring crowd as Michelle Obama began her address by congratulating the graduates on their accomplishments and noting how committed they were to getting her to speak. She said, “Getting your chamber singers serenading me.”

Obama told the students, “I want to share what brings me hope. And the answer is simple: it’s you. Young leaders like you who aren’t afraid speak your mind and refuse to give up when the going gets tough.”

She continued, “You showed me, even with just a few videos — a lesson we can all use right now. That with enough persistence, creativity and belief, we all can still achieve anything we set our minds to.”

Before concluding her speech, she told the students, “Best of luck as you go forward, and of course … roll ‘Rons!”

Grosberg explained that last comment by explaining that the name of the school’s sports teams is the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Barons and “Roll ‘Rons!” is the school’s cheer.

“It was honestly awesome,” said Grosberg. “Because she made it super personalized, and ‘Roll ‘Rons’ at the end — that was great.”

Grosberg is headed to the University of Michigan with plans to major in history.

“I don’t really know exactly what I want to do” as a career, he said. “I know it sounds a little cliche, but I would like to help people if I can, whether that’s through public service or politics or something else.”

But it’s something Grosberg looks forward to exploring.

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And Kate Heald holds one of those jobs.

Heald is a college and career navigator at Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. She’s one of 27 school system employees in charge of helping students with their college and career search.

Heald’s work doesn’t stop with the college selection process. Like her colleagues across the school system, she then works to help students and their families figure out how to pay for their post-high school education.

The board has been presented a list of positions that could be eliminated by school Superintendent Thomas Taylor with, a move that Taylor made after the county council approved all but $36 million of the school system’s proposed budget increase.

Heald is a 12-month employee and often provides transportation for kids who otherwise couldn’t get to college interview appointments and makes sure that a translator is available for meetings for those students whose families need that service.

“I truly care about these kids and believe that our youth are going to make this country a better place,” Heald told ������Ƶapp.

She said that the class of 2026 was “a phenomenal graduating class,” not just because of their academic accomplishments, but because of the way they cared for and supported each other over their four years in high school.

“This is a kind class,” Heald said.

At the graduation ceremony Monday, class president Donovan Hicks told the crowd to give a hand to the teachers who helped them learn and grow in the past four years.

And then, Hicks gave a special mention to “our counselors, who pushed us to try harder classes, and carried us through the college process. Special shout out to Mrs. Heald and to everyone else who was always in our corner,” he said, which led to an applause that rang out in the auditorium.

“I started to cry, I mean it’s just — it’s the proudest, most amazing moment that — it’s very hard to describe,” Heald said.

Prior to graduation, Heald said students, who had been aware of the potential elimination of Heald’s job, had been stopping by her office.

“They were streaming into my office,” she said, asking what they could do. “Kids that I didn’t even really know” told her that they’d reached out to the school board ahead of Thursday’s meeting.

Heald said she’s made up her mind that whatever happens and will make peace with it.

“I am fairly close to retirement,” she said. “I feel sorry for the young people that are just getting started. The job market’s really tough right now.”

Heald said she doesn’t blame the county council or the school board for the situation that could result in job losses. “I don’t envy them, I think it’s a very difficult decision” that the board faces, she said.

As she closes out the school year, Heald said she’s savoring the good news that students she’d worked with have gotten. One student who experienced a family loss, but has won multiple scholarships, and another who won a scholarship to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse.

“She blew me a kiss” at graduation, said Heald, “and I got tears in my eyes,” tears of joy.

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Before signing the bills, Elrich told a gathering at the Executive Office Building in Rockville it’s important for the county’s immigrant population to know they’re safe and that, “We’re here to help you and not put obstacles in your way.”

The bills seek to restrict U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a number of ways.

The Montgomery County Values Act, Elrich said, “basically directs the county executive to develop and publish guidance for all county agencies. It prohibits the use of county-owned parking lots and properties as staging areas or processing locations for civil immigration enforcement and it creates a public reporting mechanism for violations.”

Council member Kristin Mink, who led the council on the bill, responded to questions about ICE enforcement actions.

“That has been happening since before I wrote the bill, and it was the reason I wrote the bill,” Mink said. “We know that ICE stages in parking lots, both county and nonpublic parking lots.”

At the bill signing, County Council President Natali Fani-González, who pushed through the Trust Act, legislation that prohibits county employees and agencies from asking or collecting information on an individual’s immigration status, pointed out “over 30% of the people who live in this county, they’re immigrants, just like me.”

Three of the bills were expedited to take effect as soon as they were signed into law.

Bill 5-26, the Unmask ICE Act, bars any law enforcement agency, with some exceptions, from wearing masks in the course of their duties.

“It shows that we care about our residents and that we are going to fight with every tool we have. If we’ve got to go to court, we’ll go to court, because our residents are worth fighting for,” Council member Will Jawando, the son of immigrants, said.

Jawando was referring to the potential for legal challenges based on whether a local government can regulate the operations of a federal entity.

Bill 13-26, the ICE Out Act, bars the county from issuing building permits or occupancy permits for privately owned detention facilities. That bill was sponsored by Council member Evan Glass, who cited the proposed conversion of a warehouse into an immigration detention facility in Washington County.

“We proactively stood up and said, ‘We will not let that happen here,'” said Glass, who said the county wanted to reassure immigrants that they are “welcome, safe and seen.”

Both Jawando and Glass are running for Montgomery County executive.

Another bill, Bill 14-26, was sponsored by Council member Kate Stewart. That bill — now signed into law — seeks to make recovering a vehicle less of an obstacle for families whose loved one is taken into custody from their car.

Stewart said constituents let her office know that when immigrants were detained by ICE, their vehicles were left by the roadside, and towed.

“As family members are dealing with locating, reaching, trying to figure out where their loved ones were taken, at the same time they had to figure out where their vehicles were,” Stewart said.

And once the vehicles were found, Stewart said, “if their names were not on the title, that they could not get the car out of impoundment.”

The bill removes that obstacle by broadening the documentation a family member or household member would need to release the vehicle.

At one point during the bill signing, lawmakers and Elrich were asked about whether the new laws make it more difficult for law enforcement agents and officers to do their jobs. Fani-González said the council consulted with local law enforcement.

Montgomery County Police Chief Marc Yamada was at the news conference when the Trust Act was introduced, and Fani-González said the legislation was supported “because they understand that in order for the police to do their job, people need to feel safe and trust police officers.”

“I’m proud that they have been with us 100%,” she said.

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“The devastating damage caused by the severe statewide freeze requires a unified and coordinated response to restabilize our farming community,” Moore said in the directive.

“The April freeze caused catastrophic damage to commodity and perennial crops, leading to historic losses in fruit and grape yields that will result in a multiyear recovery cycle for vines and orchards,” Moore said.

In a letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins earlier in the week, Moore requested emergency loans and other federal aid. Apple, peach and barley crops were near total losses in some jurisdictions, he wrote.

Under Moore’s directive, the Maryland’s Department of Agriculture is to waive the regulations mandating that Class 4 wineries source at least 51% of their ingredients from in-state producers or have 20 more acres in cultivation.

The agency is also to facilitate distribution of all available federal disaster funds, and encourage Maryland institutions, organizations food banks and consumers to buy local products whenever possible to support farms and agricultural businesses.

The governor also directed the state Department of the Environment to prioritize applications for water permits for agricultural production.

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They ranked third in the nation in their students’ reading recovery rates, and were fifth in math recovery, according to the from Harvard and Stanford Universities and Dartmouth College.

D.C. led the U.S. in math and reading recovery.

The data was presented at the Maryland State Board of Education meeting Thursday.

Trish Brennan-Gac, executive director of literacy nonprofit Maryland READS, said the state board is correct to celebrate gains in reading, but proficiency is “nowhere near where we need to be.”

“It is not that we are No. 3-ranked in reading proficiency,” she told ������Ƶapp. “It’s a rate of change, and we are making a faster rate of change,” than most school districts nationally.

Brennan-Gac was at the meeting to ask that the state board consider ways to reduce the use of technology in classroom instruction and support a return to print and textbooks in schools.

“This is no longer a fringe concern. It is a growing movement, and it’s not about social media and phones,” she told the board.

Brennan-Gac said the board and Maryland schools superintendent Carey Wright can take a “visible meaningful leadership role.”

“You can develop transition guidance and funding pathways for districts that are ready to move now, and send a clear signal to the field that Maryland prioritizes developmentally appropriate instruction aligned to brain research that shows how books, not tech-based platforms, are effective in wiring kids’ brains for reading,” she said.

The Maryland State Department of Education has issued guidance to school districts on the use of cellphones in schools, and this year issued guidance on the use of artificial intelligence. In both instances, the state has made clear that it leaves implementation of policies to individual school districts.

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Gabe Albornoz, the director for the department, told ������Ƶapp that opening up the pools is just the start of what the county can offer this summer.

He knows that in the current economy, many teenagers are looking for extra income.

“We know that we need to do more, and youth employment is an area that we are particularly interested in investing more in,” Albornoz said.

“Many of our summer camp positions are filled at this point, but we still do have some positions available in aquatics,” he said. “We’re always looking for lifeguards,” and while that requires certification, Albornoz said, those jobs pay well and, “We can help with the certification process.”

As the summer season gets underway, Albornoz said there’s also been a focus on providing programming for teenagers in an attempt to avoid massive gatherings or so-called “teen takeovers.”

“We do want to flood the zone with as many programs as possible,” he said, “particularly in areas where youth have a harder time accessing transportation.”

Albornoz also said older teenagers often want less structured activities.

“More often than not, they’re just looking for a safe place to hang out with a caring adult helping to oversee and making sure that everything’s fine,” he said. “We do have extended hours of drop-in use at our recreation centers to meet that need.”

There are 23 rec centers across the county, which also offer a variety of structured activities from sports to arts and more.

The key to making those a success, said Albornoz, is asking teens for their input.

“Teenagers who work on our staff through our Teen Works programs provide real-time input on what’s cool, what’s not cool, what’s going to work,” he said.

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In his letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, Moore pointed out that some counties lost 99% of the peach crop, for example. He also wrote that according to the Maryland Wineries Association, there was a total loss for 36% of grape acreage.

“Swift action is essential to provide for the stability Maryland’s farmers need to recover from this catastrophe and prepare for the next growing season,” Moore wrote.

Moore’s request for the disaster declaration follows one made by the Maryland Farm Bureau on May 14. In that letter, Maryland Farm Bureau President Jamie Raley wrote, “Maryland farmers are resilient, but they cannot weather this storm alone.”

Parker Welch, executive director of the Maryland Farm Bureau, told ������Ƶapp that assessments of the scope of the losses are still being calculated.

“We’ve had some farms say they’ve lost upwards to $2 million to 100% of their expected profit for the year,” Welch said.

He also said that in discussions with farmers and with researchers at the University of Maryland, “Several had the comment that it was the worst they’d seen in their career whether that was their research career or their farming career.”

Welch explained the importance of getting a disaster declaration by saying that it “unlocks a lot of resources for losses and damages” that Maryland’s farming families have suffered.

Along with grapes grown for Maryland’s wineries, Welch said crop losses included “strawberries, blueberries, apples, peaches, a lot of those pick-your-own products that people enjoy going out to the farm and picking.”

The Maryland Farm Bureau represents 7,000 farm families across the state, and Welch said when it comes to agriculture, “I think sometimes it’s lost on Marylanders that it’s still the state’s number one commercial industry and contributes more than $8 billion to the economy each year.”

Between the freeze in April, when overnight temperatures plummeted at a time when young crops were at a vulnerable stage, and drought conditions that existed into the spring, Welch said a “perfect storm” of conditions worked against farmers.

Welch urged consumers to visit farms in their area to purchase produce that is available and urged patience if they don’t see what they’d normally be looking for at this time of year.

Asked about whether he’s optimistic that Maryland will get the disaster designation it’s looking for, Welch pointed out that Rollins was in Pennsylvania Tuesday and signed a disaster declaration for 17 counties. So when it comes to Maryland, Welch said, “We will remain hopeful.”

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And it’s also the season when Black birders gather and celebrate the natural world and invite others to enjoy the community of people who share their interest.

Octaivia Nettles, who holds the title of Ministry of Birding with the , wasn’t always a bird enthusiast.

Originally from the Midwest, Nettles said she moved to Texas, then to the D.C. region, and that’s where she noticed something.

“The regional differences between birds really piqued my interest. I like to say that around 2023 is when I started taking birding seriously,” she told ������Ƶapp.

One thing she noticed is that while mockingbirds in Texas and mockingbirds in D.C. might look alike, they sounded different.

“Our mockingbird may be mocking a blue jay or a hawk in Texas, and that will sound completely different than the mockingbird that is mimicking the same species over in the Midwest, in the South, or on the East Coast, ” she said.

It turns out birds, Nettles said, do have regional accents.

As she settled into the D.C. region, Nettles looked around and found the DC Bird Alliance.

“I met the people in that organization that were like-minded, and it’s just been wonderful since then,” she said.

Stereotypes about birding — that birders are white and middle or upper class — remain, Nettles said.

“There are barriers to entry into a lot of these green spaces, circling back to what happened with Christian Cooper in New York,” she said, referring to Cooper, a birder and now the host of National Geographic’s “Extraordinary Birder.”

In 2020, Cooper, who was in Central Park birding, asked a woman, Amy Cooper (no relation) to leash her dog. When she refused, he videotaped her and she called police claiming that Cooper had threatened her and her dog. The woman was white. Cooper is Black.

That incident, Nettles said, created a push to open outdoor spaces to everyone, especially those who felt unwelcome because they didn’t fit the image of what many people imagine a birder should look like.

“I think that it has definitely been an intentional push on our end to make sure that people who are younger, people who are of color, people who are on the spectrum, people who need access to these spaces,” have that access, Nettles said, and feel comfortable and welcome in outdoor spaces.

One thing about the practice of noticing birds around you, Nettles said, is that once you start, “you cannot unbird yourself.”

It’s a habit that sticks — in a good way

Nettles said she likes to pay attention to the birds that are sometimes dismissed by birdwatchers that are fixated on finding the flashier or rarer species.

Instead, she focuses on the birds that many overlook as boring or just too common to count.

“There is no such thing as just a ‘A, B, C or D bird,’ because they are all very much contributing to our environment,” she said.

Her personal favorite is the American grackle.

Nettles said what makes birding so appealing is that it gets people outside; whether they know it or not, they often find themselves benefiting from that restorative experience.

“I had my birding app, where it kind of takes in all of the bird sounds, and I had at least 10 species within 10 minutes. You really just never know what’s there until you take a second to sit back, look, and just appreciate that we’re all sharing this space. We’re all sharing these green spaces and the urban spaces together,” she said.

She said the love for the hobby is very simple — “It’s just cool.”

“It’s really cool to get to know your environment. It’s cool to know who your neighbors are,” she added.

During , there are a wide range of activities for beginner and experienced birders alike. Some are limited, and booked up, others have flexible capacities, and Nettles said new activities are added throughout the year

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Under the , teenagers younger than 18 can still be charged as adults in cases of first-degree murder and rape.

At the bill-signing ceremony Tuesday, Maryland General Assembly Senate President Bill Ferguson said, “Here in Maryland, we charge more children as adults than every other state, other than Alabama. This bill will change that.”

Ferguson said in some instances, Maryland charged 14-year-olds as adults: “For cases, that almost always, almost always, ended back into the juvenile court anyway.”

Ferguson said the legislation will keep cases “in the right court from the start, which actually, and by the data, makes us safer and is better for those young people.”

While the bill was celebrated at the signing at the Maryland State House, Ivan Bates, the president of the Maryland State’s Attorneys Association, wrote in a statement, “violent juvenile crime continues to grow out of control because the Department of Juvenile Services is ill-equipped to handle these young, violent repeat offenders.”

Bates, who testified in opposition to the bill, added, “sending these violent offenders back to the juvenile system and giving them a timeout is not the answer to such egregiously violent crimes.”

Gov. Moore touted the bill, telling ������Ƶapp in an interview that while crime is down among most other categories, juvenile crime cases are often clogging the system.

“On average, that process takes about four months, and in some cases, it’ll take much longer. that delay does matter because it means that accountability comes too late for that young person; it means the services come too late to that young person, and it means that we miss a critical window to change behavior and actually improve outcomes,” he said.

Moore said by automatically charging minors as adults does not give the state the opportunity to get them “the services and supports that they need, and the vast majority of cases just to kick down a juvenile court anyway.”

Immigration and travel laws

One of the others bills signed into law by the governor puts additional protections in place for people who It stems from the 2024 deaths of a Bowie couple that died during extreme heat while performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

The family of Alhaji Alieu Dausy and Haja Isatu Wurie said once they were in the Middle Eastern country, they received messages saying the travel agency they booked the trip through did not provide proper documents, preparation, food, water or transportation. They were forced to walk for two hours and were among the 1,300 people who died in the extreme heat.

Gov. Moore told ������Ƶapp that while the bill “was inspired by a tragedy,” it will benefit thousands of other Maryland travelers.

“It requires all sellers of travel to register annually with the Department of Labor; it requires that they prove that they hold at least $1 million in professional liability insurance before accepting any payments; and it also makes sure that it establishes the sellers of travel services registry fund, because what that will do is that will help empower the state to aggressively enforce safety standards and ensure that every Marylander can know that the agency that they’re booking with is in good standing,” he said.

Other bills signed into law included the “.” The law requires school systems to create “bell-to-bell” phone policies at all elementary, middle and high schools by the 2027-2028 school year.

Moore, however, did not sign two important immigration-based bills — the Community Trust Act and the Data Privacy Act — but will

“Maryland will always work with the federal government when that coordination makes our people safer, but we are not going to let untrained, unqualified and unaccountable ICE agents just deputize our well-trained local law enforcement officers to do immigration work,” he told ������Ƶapp.

Moore said the state plans to work with local law enforcement departments to create task forces to handle “the most violent offenders … and I don’t care about their immigration status.”

“Local law enforcement does critical work in their communities to keep us safe, and this legislation ensures they can focus on doing that job and not necessarily ICE’s,” he said. “We’re not going to allow them to deputize our local law enforcement agencies in order to do immigration work.”

Also, a that was passed is designed to add to the state’s housing stock by barring local jurisdictions form collecting development impact fees or excise taxes on residential projects until after construction is finished. The intent is to ease any upfront barriers to building more new homes.

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Your yard could require less water, help defend against erosion and support wildlife. All you have to do is plant native flora.

At the in Silver Spring, Maryland, staffers guide plant lovers who may want to start with one corner of the garden or convert their entire lawn to a meadowlike landscape dotted with wildflowers. The co-op provides retail sales, and also offers maintenance, design and installation of native gardens.

Will Coleburn, the design and plant-sourcing lead for the cooperative, welcomes every visitor to the retail space and is quick to reassure them that no one’s judging their selections.

“We’re not purists,” he said. “If you love some things that aren’t native, it’s totally OK to have some of those; preferably if they’re not on invasive species watchlists.”

Birders may want to consider adding native species to their landscapes.

“A lot of people love birds in their gardens, and if you want to attract birds to your garden, native plants are a great way to do that,” he said.

Coleburn said the look of a native landscape is decidedly different from the carefully cultivated green lawn that’s been the traditional favorite in many areas. Instead of a formal lawn, the yard converted to native plants will have “a little looser, wilder look that can also be really functional and require less maintenance,” he said.

That doesn’t mean a lack of color, Coleburn said. The variety of native plants can provide colors from spring through fall.

“There’s a lot of showy natives that are also pretty easy,” Coleburn said. “One that immediately comes to mind for sunny areas would be rudbeckia, or some of our coreopsis which are really lovely, fairly hardy plants but that have a more traditionally ornamental aesthetic.”

One familiar rudbeckia is the Maryland state flower, the Black-eyed Susan.

Among the candidates for a showy fall flower, Coleburn recommends symphyotrichum oblongifolium.

“I know that is a mouthful with the botanical Latin,” Coleburn said.

It’s a plant that’s more commonly known as the aromatic aster.

“It’s going to do great in full sun to partial shade,” he said. “It’s going to be covered with purple flowers. It’s very showy in that way, in the fall.”

While guiding customers through the selection of flowers and shrubs at Swamp Rose Co-op, Coleburn points out that “no garden is maintenance free. That’s what makes it a garden — is human intervention.”

But he said there are a number of advantages to adding or switching to native landscapes.

Before making any big conversion, Coleburn advises homeowners who live in areas with homeowners associations, or HOAs, to be “aware of kind of what the regulations are for your community is always a great to start.” And he said that can start with a conversation with the HOA board.

“If you’re concerned about needing to maintain a more traditional landscape aesthetic, that’s still possible to do with native plants,” Coleburn added. “It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be crazy wild.”

Lawns are intensive in terms of the need for water, fertilizer and pesticide use, Coleburn said.

“If you can get rid of that and get something beautiful that is functional for wildlife and that has flowers, I think that is something that people really appreciate,” Coleburn said.

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Fisher said she would happily rank her daughter’s education with that of any student at one of the D.C. area’s private schools.

“She had friends from her junior high who went to private schools, and her experience of high school was better than theirs — like hands down,” Fisher said.

From the academics offered to the extracurricular activities, she said, the opportunities at Montgomery County Public Schools are second to none.

“Any class you want to take, any club you want to be in, any activity you want to do,” Fisher said of the school system. “And the support structure to get the grades while doing it” is built into the school’s offerings.

Her pride in her daughter’s education is the kind of parental feedback the school system loves to hear. But Fisher said she has a message for the Board of Education: don’t go through with the staff cuts proposed at the May 21 school board meeting.

At the meeting last week, the Board of Education discussed Superintendent Thomas Taylor’s proposal to eliminate more than 400 positions — some of which are vacant — in order to cut the operating budget. The move comes after the Montgomery County Council approved a budget that fell $36 million short of the budget request from the school system.

Among the positions included in potential cuts are college and career navigators, social workers and family engagement specialists.

Fisher said cutting those positions that have an impact on student life would be detrimental, and not just to a student’s emotional well-being.

Fisher said students in Montgomery County Public Schools choose challenging courses.

“They choose to do that work, but they choose it knowing that they have the structure to support them,” she said.

That support, Fisher said, goes a long way toward helping students manage demanding courseloads and handle pressures outside the classroom.

Thanks to the attention and services available, students “end up getting into these amazing colleges, and Montgomery County gets to tout the fact that they get in,” Fisher said.

But if the school system cuts staff that provide those services that improve students’ well-being, Fisher said she believes, “those numbers are going to change.”

She pointed to attendance at events tied to student well-being at Whitman. Parents support those programs through the “Stressbusters” events at the school.

“I can speak from first-person experience that we had hundreds of kids show up for events. If you do it at lunch, kids show up,” Fisher said. “Because they want the help so much. And they know they need it.”

Fisher said even though her daughter’s time in Montgomery County Public Schools has come to a close, as a parent, she will contact the school board to try to prevent cuts in areas that affect counseling, social work, and college and career placement.

When the Board of Education meets to hold a vote on the budget plan, Fisher said, they can expect to see parents there.

“I would predict it’s going to be a packed meeting with lots of requests to speak,” Fisher said. “The generals have to listen to the soldiers. … The soldiers include the parents and the kids.”

The cuts are needed, Superintendent Taylor said, because the Montgomery County Council approved a budget that failed to fully fund the school system’s budget request, leaving the school system with $36 million less than it asked for.

The Board of Education will meet June 4 to consider the superintendent’s budget proposal — including the staffing reductions.

Taylor said when the county council released its budget plan, his response would try to “keep reductions as far away from the classroom as possible.”

But, he added at the time, “Our choices are awful.”

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Recently, the District introduced the use of birth control in a pilot program to reduce the rodent population. But rat poisons, or, more formally, rodenticides, remain a go-to for rodent control on private and public property in urban settings and in the suburbs.

Veterinarians said that poses a real concern, as incidences of pets ingesting rodenticides have increased.

Dr. Karena Joung, senior hospital director at VEG ER for Pets at its D.C. location on H Street and in Chantilly, Virginia, said, “Both cats and dogs can be exposed, but we’re seeing more dogs that get into rodenticide.”

“It’s a very effective way of controlling rodents,” Joung said. “Unfortunately, rodents are mammals, and so are dogs and cats, and they’re also getting exposed.”

Typically, rodenticides are contained inside rat bait boxes.

“Even though people say they’re pet proof, they are absolutely not,” Joung said, adding many dogs, especially the larger breeds, can break open the rat boxes. “We do see poisonings, even from those ‘pet-proof’ rat boxes.”

Joung said rats can also scatter the bait outside the box. Anyone who lives in an apartment or condo, Joung said, should ask about what type of rodenticide is used on their property.

“Knowledge is power,” she said, and in an emergency, being able to tell the veterinarian what type of rodenticide their pet ingested can help in treatment.

“There’s an anticoagulant rodenticide, which means that it causes bleeding,” Joung said.

The good news there, she said, is that there’s an antidote for that.

Another type of rodenticide uses bromethalin, a neurotoxin that does not have a specific antidote. In that case, Joung said, “We need to catch it early to try to get it out of their system.”

No matter what kind of rodenticide a pet may have ingested, Joung said, “Call your vet, or come to VEG ER for Pets immediately, because the biggest thing that we want to do is take that toxin out of their system as soon as possible.”

“We’ve got about a two-hour window where we might be able to get some of this out.”

Joung stressed that pet owners should call their vets if they think their pet has been exposed to any type of toxin. And in the case of VEG ER, she said, “Please give us a call, the doctors actually get on the phone with you,” and can offer information and guidance.

One positive note, Joung said, is that pet owners seem to be more aware of the threat that rodenticides can pose, and don’t delay in calling for help.

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