WYPR News

Starting Monday, teachers throughout Maryland will be getting an education on how to do their jobs in the new reality of online learning.

The head of the teachers union in Baltimore County said her members are anxious about what is a very uncertain time, as school administrators react to the coronavirus pandemic.

Campaign headquarters are usually filled with the nonstop motion of excited volunteers and harried election staff. But on a recent Sunday, Shannon Sneed, who’s running for city council president, sat alone at her headquarters’ conference table, making calls to voters as campaign volunteers and staffers followed suit in their own homes.

Under the novel coronavirus pandemic, the nature of local campaigning has changed: On any other sunny weekend afternoon, the freshman city council member and her team would have been knocking on doors throughout the city to connect with voters. Instead, Sneed and every other candidate in major city races have cancelled the usual barrage of rallies, fundraisers and door-knocking outings in order to limit the spread of the virus. 

   About 3.3 million Americans, including 42,000 Marylanders, filed for unemployment benefits last week, surpassing the previous record from 1982 by more than four-and-half times. 

The Labor Department's data from last week is one of the first official signs of how many people are suddenly out of work: last week’s claims are nearly five times the amount of those at the peak of the Great Recession, according to NPR.

“Nearly every state providing comments cited the COVID-19 virus impacts,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. “States continued to cite services industries broadly, particularly accommodation and food services.”

Federal Investigators recently discovered a group of scammers who set up a phony website that appeared to be affiliated with the Johns Hopkins University's very popular map that shows all the COVID-19 cases in the world.  

Now that schools will remain closed through at least April 24, school systems across Maryland are scrambling to come up with ways to teach children from a distance.

Baltimore County School Superintendent Darryl Williams said instruction on line will begin for county students on Monday, April 6.

There have been at least 30 cases in Baltimore County over the past 10 days of people violating social distancing rules as authorities try to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

Statewide it is illegal for more than 10 people to gather together.

Public schools in Maryland will be closed for four more weeks, through April 24.

And school officials may, over the next four weeks, decide to extend the closure, Gov. Larry Hogan said at a press conference Wednesday. He called the idea that students will return to their classrooms in four weeks “somewhat aspirational.”

Gov. Larry Hogan and Baltimore Mayor Jack Young got a preview on Tuesday of plans for a field hospital at the Baltimore Convention Center. The site’s initial 250 beds are part of a larger plan to increase hospitals’ capacity in the face of rapidly rising coronavirus infection rates.

The goal is 6,000 beds more than Maryland hospitals already have. Hogan said he arrived at that number — a number he called “mind-boggling” — based on what doctors and other experts said could be the need in the worst-case scenario.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said President Trump could be putting lives at risk by saying he wants the country opened by Easter.

The president Tuesday said the U.S. economy is in jeopardy. During a Fox News town hall, the president said, “The faster we go back, the better it’s going to be.”

After confirmed cases of COVID-19 ballooned over the weekend, Gov. Larry Hogan ordered all non-essential businesses closed at 5 p.m. Monday. He said the measures are necessary to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and could potentially save thousands of lives.

Cris Jacobs had just started streaming from his phone, duct taped to a music stand in his basement in Reisterstown.

“What’s up everybody,” Jacobs asked. Normally at a gig that would have been met by whoops and applause. This time, Jacobs heard nothing.

Approximately ten thousand state employees who are required to work during Maryland’s COVID-19 state of emergency will no longer receive extra pay during this period.  

While many Marylanders are social distancing or self-isolating during this time of the novel coronavirus outbreak, hospital healthcare workers are testing and treating patients at an accelerated rate, under utterly stressful circumstances. 

The University System of Maryland has announced that all undergraduate classes at its 12 institutions will be online-only for the rest of the semester.

Towson University is part of the University System of Maryland. Last week, coronavirus fears prompted its students to be sent home days before spring break began. Those students are trying to figure out what’s coming next…and grapple with the new normal.

The Maryland General Assembly’s abrupt departure this week from its annual session obscured the end of another, gentler era.  Mike Miller, who guided the Senate for 33 years before stepping down to join the newcomers in the back benches, was missing.

Miller, who has prostate cancer, had been hospitalized a week earlier complaining of pains.

Now, current and former members are remembering their times with him on the rostrum.

Gov. Larry Hogan discussed Maryland’s first death from the novel coronavirus and handed down additional emergency orders that are effective immediately during a Thursday morning news conference. 

Hogan first announced the death of a Prince George’s County man in a tweet Wednesday night. The man was in his 60s and had an unspecified underlying health condition and no known travel history.

“This man was infected by community transmission,” Hogan said Thursday. “Unfortunately, we are only at the beginning of this crisis. While this is the first death in Maryland, it won’t be the last.”

 The Maryland General Assembly adjourned its annual 90-day legislative session on Wednesday, 19 days early as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was the first time since the Civil War that the legislature cut its time in Annapolis short.

Schools across Maryland were to be closed this week and next to slow the spread of coronavirus. Now, system administrators are preparing for the real possibility they might be closed even longer. 

There are five cases of the novel coronavirus and the first evidence of community transmission in Baltimore, city officials said Wednesday. 

“Baltimore is moving to a new phase of response,” said Mayor Jack Young, who announced during a news conference he was placing the city under a state of emergency.  

  As state lawmakers hurdle toward an early end to the legislative session, lawmakers passed two bills on Tuesday that aim to help Baltimore with its crime-fighting efforts.

The state Senate passed two changes to the sales tax on Tuesday night. One of the bills extends the sales tax to digital products, such as e-books and streaming services. The other raises taxes on tobacco products.

Governor Larry Hogan announced Tuesday several new measures to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Maryland.

Last week, Hogan ordered schools in Maryland closed. Monday, he ordered bars restaurants, movies and gyms to close and Tuesday he said he would cut MARC train commuter service by 50 percent and reduce local bus, light rail, Metro and commuter bus services.

He also said the state would switch to cashless tolls and that he has asked that the deadline for the federal real ID be extended.

Gov. Larry Hogan issued a proclamation Tuesday that moves the April 28 Maryland primary elections to June 2 due to the novel coronavirus pandemic. 

The decision affects both Maryland’s presidential and local primaries, including primaries for mayor, city council president and other offices in Baltimore City.  Early voting will begin May 21 and run through May 28.

The 7th congressional district special election to fill the remainder of the late Elijah Cummings’ term will still be held in April, using solely mail-in ballots.

A sweeping overhaul of Maryland’s public school system is one step closer to fruition after the state Senate passed it Monday night. The changes came out of what’s known as the Kirwan Commission, a state panel that spent three years developing recommendations for making Maryland’s schools globally competitive.

The state Senate voted Monday to pass a bill that aims to provide some relief to residents from some of the effects of the current COVID-19 outbreak.

Gov. Larry Hogan took unprecedented action by closing all bars, eat-in restaurants, movie theatres and gyms starting at 5 p.m. Monday in order to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus and protect public health.

“We should continue to expect the number of cases to dramatically and rapidly rise. We have never faced anything like this before,” Hogan said. “This is going to be worse than almost anyone is currently understanding.”