Just after 1:30 Friday morning troopers from the Hagerstown Barrack responded to the area of N/B I-81 at the 4 Mile Marker for a tractor trailer collision.  Upon arrival troopers determined a tractor trailer traveled off the roadway and overturned.  The driver, Nonamegiven Simrat of Queens, NY was pronounced deceased on scene. The driver of the tractor was unrestrained and was ejected from the vehicle. No other vehicles or passengers were involved.  TFC Socks, advanced collision investigator, is the investigating trooper. The interstate was shut down for a short period of time during the investigation. One lane of I-81 N/B was…

A bridge collapsed in Pittsburgh on Friday morning, hours before President Joe Biden was set to travel to the city to promote his legislative agenda — including the landmark infrastructure law he signed last year. Pittsburgh Public Safety confirmed the collapse on Twitter before 7 a.m. ET, urging people to avoid the area around Forbes and Braddock Avenues near Frick Park. Three people have been hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, while authorities have been deployed to “ensure there are no victims under the collapsed bridge,” the city tweeted in an update later Friday morning.

As COVID-19 hospitalizations drop below 2,000, Governor Larry Hogan today announced that the State of Maryland has surpassed yet another significant milestone with 11 million COVID-19 vaccines administered. “We continue to see very encouraging trends in our key health metrics, including rapid declines in our hospitalizations, case rate, and positivity rate,” said Governor Hogan. “To continue our recovery, it is critical that all eligible Marylanders get their booster shot as soon as possible. No one should think of a booster as just a bonus or an extra dose—it is the best way to protect yourself from severe illness from this…

Over a dozen crews responded when an industrial fire at Bedford Valley Petroleum. broke out late Thursday afternoon. More than 150 firefighters from four different counties were called to battle the blaze. The call came in around 3 p.m, and officials said that fire and smoke were both visible from the location. Bedford County EMA Director Dave Cubbison said that no damage was done to the environment as the fire did not strike the propane tanks. The state fire marshal will undergo an investigation into the exact cause of the fire. The Bedford Valley Petroleum and Propane have not made any statements…

On January 26th, 2022 officers of the Cumberland Police Department responded to the alley behind the 700 block of Glenmore Street for a reported suspicious vehicle complaint. Upon their arrival officers observed a vehicle to be blocking the entire alley, and observed the vehicle to begin to leave. Officers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and contacted the occupants, Christine Shanholtz and Christopher Clanagan. The officers observed criminal indicators and a K-9 scan was conducted on the vehicle, indicating a positive alert. The officer’s advised Clanagan and Shanholtz of the positive alert, and ordered them to exit the vehicle….

Battling the violent crime crisis in the state remains a top legislative priority for Maryland Republicans- hoping to push through some of the governor’s proposals that failed to get approval in previous years. Those include: the Judicial Transparency Act and the Violent Firearms Offender Act. The judicial transparency plan focuses on the sentences imposed by judges; while the firearm bill introduced in 2020 and again in 2021, calls for at least minimum sentences and fines for crimes involving guns.  House Minority Leader Delegate Jason Buckel said that although Allegany County has yet to see the levels of violent crime that…

The pandemic has led to a drop in the number of kids enrolled in Maryland schools, and of those enrolled, more kids are skipping out on classes. Officials presented the numbers during the January meeting of the Maryland State Board of Education. WTOP reports two years ago, the state had 909,414 students enrolled in public schools, and over 132,620 students enrolled in private schools. Those numbers plummeted last year, with the number of home-schooled kids shooting up. This year, public school enrollment fell by about another thousand kids, to just under 881,500 students. It’s unclear how many students are enrolled in private…

President Joe Biden committed to nominating the nation's first Black female Supreme Court justice, as he honored retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer at the White House on Thursday- and while no specific candidates have been announced-  Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen says he has every confident in the president making the right call. Speaking to reporters in Baltimore, Van Hollen praised Justice Breyer of a man of great character and integrity.  As far as the replacement process goes, Van Hollen said although there is plenty of time, the sooner the better…

The Allegany County Commissioners Thursday approved two million dollars to enable significant development for businesses in the downtown core of Cumberland, Frostburg, as well as Main Streets in other municipalities across Allegany County. “Invest Allegany” is a one-time project funded by Allegany County Government with the goal being to create long term value in the community. The program relies on a loan to grant model that will offer forgiveness of loans after 12 months pending the completion of benchmarks. No repayment is required during the first year of the program while construction and upgrades are taking place. The program will…

Today, U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin (both D-Md.) urged President Joe Biden to take immediate action to finalize regulations addressing the threat of unserialized firearms – commonly referred to as “ghost guns” – to prevent violence and save lives in Maryland and across the nation. Following an incident last week at Magruder High School in Montgomery County, Maryland, in which a student allegedly shot and critically injured a classmate with a ghost gun and with the number of ghost guns used in crimes across Maryland increasing dramatically since 2019, Senators Van Hollen and Cardin reiterated the need…