Catalina Righter
1,580 stories by Catalina Righter
- Local theatre company September Song Musical Theatre celebrates their 45th anniversary with a production of Disney's The Little Mermaid.
- Carroll County Public Schools outranked most other Maryland school systems in PARCC scores, though the state overall saw a drop in math scores.
- Downtown businesses in Westminster and the city's mayor will welcome the incoming class at McDaniel College on Saturday.
- A new program called McDaniel Local hosted students in Westminster for a few days throughout the summer to get acquainted with the community in groups of about 70 at a time.
- The third annual Carroll County Public Schools Culture Expo features performances and "Culture Chats" to encourage diversity and inclusion.
- On Saturday, Aug. 24, the Carroll County Farm Museum will host the first-ever Maryland SummerFest. Venom Core Athletics is the main sponsor behind the event.
- In its last meeting before the start of the school year, the Carroll County Board of Education approved two policy changes and heard presentations about two more.
- Looking ahead for Miss Maryland, Caitlyn Stupi of Westminster, there is the Miss America competition, which will be held Thursday, Dec. 19 in Uncasville, Connecticut.
- Todd Dauses, 50, of Bel Air, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter after assaulting 43-year-old Raymond Banz, of Reisterstown, who who ultimately died from his injuries.
- Members of Westminsterās Common Council voted unanimously on amendments to the cityās water and sewer allocation policy, which was largely masterminded by Bill Mackey, who left his city position Friday.
- The Carroll County school board has named its 20-member Construction Planning Committee for the replacement of East Middle School.
- The executive director of the Mid-Atlantic Gigabit Innovation Collaboratory, or MAGIC, announced she would be leaving to pursue long-held dreams.
- Winters Mill High School was the host Thursday morning as Carroll County Public Schools welcomed in a new guard of teachers for the 2019-20 school year.
- This weekend the Carroll County Arts Center will be hosting a comedic play described by the publisher as āa hilarious tribute to the strength and madness of the human heart.ā
- Westminster council members, who are eligible for health care benefits through the city, voted Monday to add reference of those benefits into the city code ā over the opposition of the mayor, who contended they shouldnāt be eligible for those benefits in the first place.
- McDaniel College was included in The Princeton Review's 385 best colleges in the 2020 edition of the annual college guide.
- In the latest development in an appeals process that has stretched over multiple years, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals sided against Carroll Countyās objections to runoff pollution regulations in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
- The former Opera House at 140 E. Main St. in Westminster, built in 1858, sold at auction Thursday for $305,000.
- A basement fire in the 3200 block of Liberty Road in Winfield on Wednesday night was caused by a lightning strike, according to the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
- Players On Air, Inc., of Mount Airy, will present a night of singing and choreography Broadway-style int heir second āBroadway or Bust!ā revue n Aug. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
- Afternoon storms throughout the region downed trees and wires and caused thousands of households to lose power in Carroll County.
- The campus of McDaniel College will remain closed until Monday, August 12 for updates to the electrical infrastructure, administration says.
- The building known as the Westminster Opera House at 140 E. Main, built in 1858, will be up for auction Thursday with a starting bid of $200,000.
- Police charged a Westminster man with possession of narcotics with the intent to distribute them after police allegedly found heroin capsules and cocaine in serving a search warrant on his residence.
- Joshua I. Lankford, of Manchester, was among three individuals federally indicted on charges of kidnapping and trafficking a woman in Maryland and Delaware.
- A Mount Airy man, Thomas Clark Howes, was arrested Aug. 2 and charged with second-degree assault.
- Brian Wagner has a business idea that seems fishy. Or rather, less fishy. His patented idea, FishED, is one of five finalists for the annual Carroll Biz Challenge.
- William Sullivan, a professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine and 1988 graduate of South Carroll High School, will release his first book Aug. 6 titled "Pleased to Meet Me; Genes, germs, and the curious forces that make us who we are."
- State-level grant funding will allow Carroll to remain an active member in a cross-jurisdictional network for enforcement and prosecution against criminal networks and drug distribution chains.
- Law enforcement and emergency responders plan to host National Night Out activities across Carroll County on Aug. 6.
- Country musician Riley Green headlined the concert at the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair in addition to two opening acts with local connections.
- The cake auction, the largest fundraiser annually for the Carroll County 4-H & FFA Fair, once again broke a record, pulling in $87,300 overall.
- A Baltimore woman was arrested Tuesday after allegedly stealing close to $6,000 in merchandise from an Ulta store in Westminster.
- Carroll's Got Talent was a part of the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair for the first time this year. Ten young acts performed.
- Students in the Vocal Chamber Ensemble of Carroll Community College will present their concert Thursday, Aug. 8.
- The Carroll County Public Library and A Likely Story Bookstore are bringing Sandra Brown, CJ Box, and Karen Abbott to Carroll County during August.
- A science teacher from Manchester Valley High School, Hannah McNett, has been named a finalist for the 2019 Presidential Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics and Science.
- Senior Assistant State's Attorney Courtney Colonese was the 2019 recipient of the Victoria F. Gelfman Legal Excellence Award.
- Camp Accelerate was a science and technology camp that took campers, many of them English learners, from the ocean floor to the carnival to the soccer field.
- The cause of a fire in a trash receptacle behind a Hampstead church Thursday is under investigation by the Office of the State Fire Marshal.
- As they prepare to welcome the public to the Carroll County 4-H and FFA Fair, clubs from around the county delivered their banners and mulched their beautification gardens.
- A Gwynn Oak woman was arrested after allegedly stealing a credit card in a Sykesville gym and racking up more than $2,000 in charges.
- Michael Campanile and Michael Schweinsberg, teachers from Carroll County Career and Technology Center, are among 50 from across the country who were named semifinalists for the 2019 Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence.
- Three rising seniors in the Agricultural Mechanical Technology class at Winters Mill High School created a small pet bed and donated it to the Humane Society of Carroll County.
- Carrollās Got Talent, sponsored by the Carroll Arts Council, will take place July 31 at 6 p.m. on the Finch Stage. The next day, the overall winner of the Carroll County talent competition will be the opening act for a concert that features country musician Riley Green.
- The Westminster Mayor and Common Council were split on an ordinance that will make the health insurance eligibility that has been offered for years to elected officials an official part of the city code.
- For the tax-free shopping week, Liberty Shop owner Lynn Aaron hopes customers will realize they can shop downtown, local establishments and still take advantage of the tax savings. The initiative applies to apparel and footwear costing $100 or less and the first $40 of backpack purchases. They will be exempt from Maryland sales tax.
- The records room update is the third in a series of modernization projects the Westminster Police Department has taken on in recent years for efficiency and space-saving.
- For the first time, Carroll County Public Schools and the State's Attorney's Office of Carroll County partnered for Camp Thrive, a camp for children whose lives and homes have been impacted by addiction-related loss or trauma.
- A 30-year-old Sykesville man could not be resuscitated after a single-vehicle crash Friday, July 19. The Carroll County Sheriff's Office CRASH Team is investigating the cause of the fatal crash.