The Joint Communications Center of Allegany County tells WCBC that the Parkersburg Road/Morantown Bridge has been closed for the time being due to a motor vehicle collision.

The Arc Maryland filed a lawsuit Monday alleging Garrett County, the city of Baltimore and four other Maryland counties have engaged in discrimination against people with intellectual and developmental disabilities by denying them opportunities for access to COVID-19 vaccines. The suit claims the websites the locales use to spread information about COVID-19 vaccines do not include intellectually and developmentally disabled people as eligible for the vaccines under Phase 1B of Maryland’s vaccine plan.  

Maryland  Lt. Governor Boyd Rutherford will join WCBC's "Dave Norman Show" Wednesday morning at 8:55 to discuss the vaccine rollout and other issues impacting Allegany County.

Governor Larry Hogan has announced that Maryland will lift all capacity limits for outdoor and indoor dining, as well as other establishments starting March 12 at 5 p.m.  For dining, only seated and distanced service will be allowed. Crowding in bars will not be permitted. Capacity limits for retail, religious facilities, fitness centers, casinos, personal services, indoor recreational establishments will also lift Friday. Large outdoor and indoor venues may expand to 50% capacity. This includes conferences and wedding venues, concert venues, conventions, theaters, racing facilities and other outdoor entertainment and sporting venues- including Camden Yards and Pimlico. The governor said masking, physical…

Regarding the COVID-19 relief bills, Senator Ben Cardin told WBAL Radio that most economists agree that the economy is not close to where it was pre-COVID, and that “going big” with the President’s $1.9 trillion Rescue Plan is what is needed to make sure things don’t get worse. There are, however, no shortage of critics of the plan with questions concerning just how much of the money will actually be targeted for COVID relief. Cardin, a Maryland Democrat, says that the money will be used to not only deal with the direct cost related to COVID-19 but to deal with the…

With members of the public in attendance at a meeting for the first time in a year, the Allegany County Board of Education heard from a number of parents Tuesday night, many upset that the board is not yet allowing for all students to return to school on a full-time basis. The board voted 3-2 during last night’s session at the Career Center to approve a new schedule that will see full days in place for four days a week beginning March 22nd- and five days a week starting on April 12th-  albeit continuing with the split A/B configuration. Parents…

On March 9, 2021, at approximately 3:30 p.m., Garrett County Sheriff’s Deputies and Detectives with the Criminal Investigation Division responded to the 400 block of Garrett Highway for a report of a person wounded by a suspected gunshot.   Responding deputies found 54-year old Brenda Sue Sines, Eglon, West Virginia, in a vehicle that had crashed into the embankment. Deputies located Sines in the vehicle, deceased, and learned that she had succumbed from an apparent gunshot wound. Further investigation led to the development of Steven Douglas Reall, 69, Oakland, as the suspect for the shooting. Reall’s vehicle was located at…

Delegate Wendell R. Beitzel (R – District 1A) had a hearing on Tuesday for HB 1127, the “Garrett County – Memorial Hospital – Board Membership and Meetings,” a bill requested by the Garrett Memorial Hospital Board. This bill would make small structural changes to the Memorial Hospital Board, reducing the number of members from fifteen to nine. This bill would also reduce the number of required meetings the board has from at least ten annually to at least six annually. This bill was requested by the Garrett Memorial Hospital and is supported by the Garrett County House Delegation, of which Delegate Beitzel is the sole member. The Delegate…

According to a new Goucher College poll, two-thirds of Marylanders support legalizing marijuana.  As Democrats in the General Assembly look to pot as a potential revenue source, support is the strongest it's been since the Goucher poll started asking the question in October 2013. Two years ago, 57% of Marylanders supported the legalization of recreational marijuana. Support is stronger among Democrats, with 77% in favor, but 50% of Republicans and 60% of independents support legalizing marijuana. Pollster Mileah Kromer notes that recreational use is now legal in 13 states, including neighboring Virginia and the District of Columbia…

The Board of Revenue Estimates voted today to slightly decrease the revenue projections for Fiscal Year 2021 by 0.004 percent to $18.8 billion, representing a $779,000 decrease from the December estimates. Additionally, the Board revised the projection for Fiscal Year 2022 to $20.1 billion, representing a 1.5 percent increase, or $299 million change, from the previous estimates.  Due to emergency legislation and veto overrides, today’s revenue estimates actually represent a 2.3 percent increase for FY21 and a 2.4 percent increase for FY22, or $424.0 million and $473.3 million, respectively. The largest share of the difference is directly attributable to the extraordinary…