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The Howard County Public School System opened doors for limited in-person learning Monday, March 1.

Vi Ripken was the mother of Cal and Bill Ripken.

As Maryland residents commemorate Black History Month, what’s being called the racial reckoning of 2020 is barely in the rearview mirror. The Baltimore Sun asked residents to respond in short essays: What will it take to move the region ahead in 2021 and beyond?

The Woodland Sanctuary at Catonsville Presbyterian Church. Ron Gunderson is one of the congregants at the church who helped build the sanctuary.

A lasting memory: Catonsville resident David McShea keeps late grandfather in mind as head of Alzheimer’s Association’s Greater Maryland Chapter

Monday morning snow came through the area that turned to sleet and then rain as temperatures are expected to reach forty February 22, 2021.

Sleet, freezing rain, and snow blanketed Carroll County Thursday morning. The winter storm is expected to be a mixed bag, turning to snow as the day progresses through Friday. (February 18, 2021)

Sleet, freezing rain, and snow blanketed Harford County Thursday morning. The winter storm is expected to be a mixed bag, turning to snow as the day progresses through Friday. (February 18, 2021)

Sleet and freezing rain blanketed the region this morning. The winter storm is expected to be a mixed bag, turning to snow as the day progresses into Friday morning. (Thursday, February 18, 2021)

Snow and ice cover much of the Baltimore area as several inches of snow and ice are expected.

The artist Juliet Ames has always loved salt boxes because she has always loved snow. She says she looks forward to the day every fall when the boxes appear on street corners because she thinks “it means that a snow day could be around the corner.”

She’d always wanted to decorate one, especially the boxes that lacked even the stenciled words “salt box.”

“They looked sad,” she said. “A naked salt box needs a dress.”

Fearful of getting into trouble for damaging city property, she restrained herself — until the day in mid-December when she found herself contemplating a criminally unadorned salt box in Hampden. Snow was in the forecast.

“I knew it had to be this box,” she said. “That night, I Tweeted the picture of the decorated box out ... and said, ‘Somebody vandalized the salt box.”

The next day, she received an email from the city’s Department of Transportation.

“We told her that we loved the salt boxes and that we looked forward to seeing more as long as they have a salt theme or highlight something special in the surrounding neighborhood," said German Vigil, communications manager for the DOT. Ames didn’t need more encouragement.

“That was the best possible outcome,” she said. “At that point, I figured it was ‘Game on.’

In the past two months, more than 100 of the decorated salt boxes have appeared around Baltimore, including more than 25 adorned by Ames herself. The boxes celebrate such iconic Baltimore figures as the filmmaker John Waters, the Natty Boh logo and the googly-eyed Mr. Trash Wheel.

Below is a guide to a dozen salt boxes that are making city residents smile.

Laurel Elementary School staff distributed over 500 boxes of food to residents who drive up.

Chinquapin Park borders the Stonewood-Pentwood-Winston community on the north.

Stewart Bainum Jr. has formed a nonprofit that would operate The Baltimore Sun and its affiliates for the benefit of the community.

In its 24th year, Stop, Swap and Save, the mid-Atlantic’s biggest bicycle swap and consumer expo was at the Carroll County Agriculture Center Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021