Laurel Leader

The Maryland Jockey Club has canceled three planned racing cards for this weekend and will shift the remainder of its spring meet to Pimlico Race Course as officials continue to assess problems with the main track surface at Laurel Park.

On April 24, the Montpelier Festival of Herbs, Tea and the Arts will be held virtually amid the coronavirus pandemic, with video events scheduled throughout the day.

Serving the about 23,000 residents of his lifelong home of Greenbelt is something that Colin Byrd is grateful for and humbled by.

Artist Andrei Trach will have eight new drawings featured in the upcoming Resident Visual Artists Exhibit , opening April 24 and running through May 29, at the Howard County Arts Council in Ellicott City.

After the coronavirus pandemic caused the shuttering of Laurel Manor House Bed and Breakfast, the Everetts will be welcoming guests — one party at a time — to their lovingly restored and charming historic property beginning April 26.

The track at Laurel Park will be open only to gallopers and joggers Thursday because it has “not responded sufficiently” to winter maintenance, the Maryland Jockey Club said.

The city of Laurel has been awarded a $50,000 Community Legacy Grant from Maryland’s Department of Housing and Community Development for improvements to the site of the former farmers market on Main Street.

Pretrial proceedings in the Capital Gazette mass murder case are slated to resume Tuesday following a five-month hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing the final portion of the trial into this summer.

A sampling of Howard County police reports from April 2 to 9.

Dive Bar & Grille, a Pittsburgh-based restaurant group, will open a location in June at the former Rams Head Tavern in Historic Savage Mill.

Howard County police have charged eight adults and three teenagers with possession of child pornography over the past nine months, the department announced Friday.

County Executive Calvin Ball named Jama Acuff the new director of the Howard County Department of Corrections on Friday.

A combination of being outside and experiencing history, not just reading about it or seeing it in a video, can make walking tours in historic Ellicott City and Laurel attractive to many people, especially during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

High school sports have returned and parents have been lucky enough to be allowed to enter the stadiums and cheer on their sons and daughters. Seasons have been shortened, but athletes are excited to play. Spring sports are set to begin on April 17 with limited fans in attendance.

A sampling of Howard County police reports from March 26 to April 2.

Joe Murchison was executive director of the Laurel-based nonprofit Side by Side for nearly a dozen years. After retiring in December, there was a drive-thru retirement party for him on March 13.

The virtual Holocaust Remembrance Day on April 8 will feature the theme of “Keeping the Promise of ‘Never Again’: What It Means in 2021” with Steven Luckert from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum as the keynote speaker and Rabbi Josh Jacobs-Velde from Oseh Shalom synagogue in Laurel hosting.

While the coronavirus pandemic prevented many faith communities from gathering last year, many parishes in Laurel and Howard County are approaching Easter in new ways this year in order to keep everyone safe while recognizing traditions.

During the month of April, the city of Laurel’s Department of Public Works will hold numerous events and specials to help residents clean up their homes and gardens.

Howard County police on Wednesday identified the 19-year-old who was killed in a shooting in Laurel on Tuesday afternoon.

Desks are in place, pencils are sharpened, and on April 8, Prince George’s County Public Schools will open their doors for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic closed them in March 2020.

A sampling of Howard County police reports from March 19 to 26.

The Maryland Jockey Club canceled racing cards at Laurel Park for this weekend and next after a state veterinarian revealed Thursday evening that a horse at Pimlico Race Course had tested positive for equine herpesvirus.

Howard County is ending its 26-year contract with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that allowed immigration detainees to be housed at the detention center in Jessup, according to documents acquired Monday from the Howard County Office of Law.

After obtaining approval from both the city of Laurel’s Planning and Zoning Commission and the city’s Board of Appeals, St. Vincent Pallotti High School’s plans to build a 36,000-square-foot, multiuse athletic facility and to install a 24,000-square-foot turf field received a major setback when the city’s Historic District Commission tabled the proposals.

A sampling of Howard County police reports from March 12 to 19.

An audience from around the country — and on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean — gathered via Zoom recently to hear a young musician from Laurel perform a range of wonderful pieces on two different instruments.

Gov. Larry Hogan and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks toured the new Maryland Vaccine Equity Task Force Clinic at First Baptist Church of Glenarden on Tuesday.