Baltimore's School Renovation Plan, An Audit Of The SHA's Speed Camera Program, and The ACC Takes UMD To Court To Ensure Payment Of A $52-Million Fee

Baltimore education leaders have rolled out a plan to revamp the city's aging school system. Under the proposal, 136 schools would be renovated or rebuilt, and another 26 shut down. The plan will cost $2.4-billion over ten years. In order to pay for it, the city hopes to secure $32-million of state funding each year, which would be used to increase its bonding authority. That part of the plan needs approval from the General Assembly. And Baltimore's school board also has to sign off for work to get underway. If it does, new construction would begin in 2014. And in the 2012-13 school year, four schools would close: Baltimore Rising Star Academy, Garrison Middle, Patapsco Elementary/Middle, and William C. March Middle (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun, with additional reporting from WYPR Education Reporter Gwendolyn Glenn).

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has announced plans to expand Baltimore City's "vacants-to-value" program. There are more than 16-thousand vacant homes in Baltimore; the Mayor yesterday unveiled a 3-year goal of demolishing 15-hundred of them and renovating another 15-hundred (via the Baltimore Sun).

A newly released audit is critical of the State Highway Administration's automated speed camera program. The legislative audit, released yesterday, says the state allowed the program to begin without properly testing the cameras to make sure they were accurately recording how fast cars were going. An SHA spokesperson says that all the issues identified in the audit have already been addressed (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun). A program note: we'll have more on the speed camera audit at 1 this afternoon, on Midday with Dan Rodricks.

The Atlantic Coast Conference is going to court to ensure that the University of Maryland pays the full $52-million exit fee for leaving the league and joining the Big Ten. The ACC filed a lawsuit yesterday in North Carolina to enforce what conference officials say is an obligation on the part of Maryland (via our wire service; more here from the Daily Record). 

On today's edition of Inside Maryland Politics, WYPR Senior News Analyst Fraser Smith talks with The Sun's Higher Education reporter, Julie Sharper, about the recent and sudden move by the University of Maryland to leave the ACC and join The Big Ten.

Eighth District Congressman Chris Van Hollen has formally requested to serve another term as the top-ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee (via the Baltimore Sun).

The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant shut down one of its two reactors yesterday, after employees discovered problems with a control rod. A spokesman for the Southern Maryland facility says that the event prompting the shut down "at no time... [had] any impact on public health or safety" (via the Baltimore Sun).

We knew the campaigns over the ballot question on expanding Maryland's casino gambling program were expensive... now, we're finding out exactly how costly they were. State officials are saying more than $93-million were spent on the campaigns -- making them by far the most expensive in Maryland history. The ballot question passed by a four-percent margin; the winning proponents of table games and a new casino spent at least $49.4-million, while opponents spent about $5-million less (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

A new study indicates that Baltimore is one of the most under-policed cities in the country. The study from the University of California, Berkley places Baltimore 17th most under-policed among 242 cities used in the comparison (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).