A busy Friday for Cumberland  City Police. At approximately 8:12 AM, an officer of the Cumberland Police Department had responded to a financial institution on Evitts Creek Drive for an alarm.  While on scene, unrelated to the alarm, the officer overheard a male subject yelling nearby.  The officer then observed Paul Lepley standing near the ATM, yelling obscenities and blocking other clients from using the ATM.  Lepley was told to stop creating a disturbance.  He refused to cooperate with the officer.  As a result, Lepley was placed under arrest and transported to police headquarters.  Lepley was issued two criminal citations…

The Allegany County Health Department reports that the COVID-19 numbers are improving across the board. CDC COVID-19 Community Level: Low • Percent of County Population Who Have Received a Complete Primary COVID Vaccine Series: 57.5% • Cumulative Allegany County COVID Cases: 21,479 • Cumulative Allegany County Deaths: 385 • Cases Per 100,000 People: 9.74 (Maryland: 10.45) • Positivity Rate: 5.44% (Maryland: 9.8%)   Daily statistics can be found at https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/. Counts are updated by 11 a.m. each day. The Allegany County Health Department continues to offer free drive-thru COVID testing at the Allegany County Fairgrounds on Mondays from 2-7 p.m….

 Politico reports that Senator Ben Cardin is still assessing whether to run for another six-year term in 2024. In the meantime, ambitious fellow Democrats are preparing campaigns that can strike ASAP if the genial Marylander retires. At least three politicians are looking at potential runs to succeed the 79-year-old Cardin. Angela Alsobrooks, the Prince George’s County executive, is staffing up for a potential bid, according to four people familiar with her planning. And two House Democrats with very different profiles could take the leap: Rep. Jamie Raskin, a progressive leader on the Jan. 6 investigation, and moderate Rep. David Trone, a wealthy wine…

With an arctic blast slamming Maryland on Friday, temperatures are expected to drop well below freezing. Area residents are advised to take some steps to keep your pipes from freezing and potentially bursting. The National Weather Service forecast called for temperatures in the single digits overnight Friday and only hitting 35 on Saturday. Wind chills below zero at times. It's important to know how to prevent your home's water pipes from freezing. Frozen water pipes in unheated basements and crawl spaces can be messy and expensive to fix. But if you have a frozen faucet, there are steps you can…

WBAL reports that changes may be coming to active-shooter drills at Maryland schools. State law currently requires the drills, but it doesn't mandate that school systems notify parents, students or school staff ahead of time. Montgomery County Delegate Jared Solomon, D-District 18, considers the legislation he's sponsoring, House Bill 515, a reasonable way to keep youth safe without further creating anxiety or harming their mental health. "You see something on social media … from a student, saying, 'There's a shooter in the building,' when it just may be a drill. Or, having a child come home and getting off the bus, saying,…

Maryland is working toward creating a recreational marijuana industry with greater social equity, lawmakers said Friday, with more licenses for minority-owned businesses and proceeds directed to areas adversely impacted by the war on drugs. The measure before the General Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, will enable the state's existing medical marijuana businesses to sell recreational cannabis as well — if they pay a new fee based on the size of the business. Those businesses could begin selling recreational marijuana as soon as July 1, the soonest recreational cannabis can legally be sold in the state. Supporters stressed that the…

Allegany County Emergency Services reports that County fire units have responded to fires near Old Cumberland Road in Flintstone and fires in Morgan County West Virginia and Fulton County PA

Running bamboo grows so fast and is so invasive that it’s rooting up headstones in cemeteries, crossing neighborhood property lines and becoming a "major issue" in Maryland parks. Bamboo overgrowth was so bad for one Maryland resident that the constituent contacted Del. Linda Foley, D-Montgomery, for help with a neighbor’s bamboo crossing the property boundary. Now Foley, a member of the Environment and Transportation Committee, has introduced a bill to regulate the invasive species. Foley said she hopes the bill will educate people about the invasive nature of bamboo and encourage gardeners to take appropriate measures before they decide to plant it. The…

West Virginia’s Republican supermajority House of Delegates passed a bill Friday banning gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for minors, a day after crowds descended on the state Capitol to decry the proposal. The legislation passed 84-10, with all ‘no’ votes coming from the body’s shrinking delegation of Democrats, who accused GOP lawmakers of putting children’s lives at risk to score political points with the national conservative movement.