County to pay $1.1M to settle church’s religious bias claims

By The Associated Press
April 30, 2021 | 12:07 PM

BALTIMORE — Baltimore County has agreed to pay $1.1 million to resolve a religious discrimination lawsuit over a county board’s denial of a church’s expansion plan.

The Baltimore Sun reports that the county and Hunt Valley Baptist Church reached the March 31 settlement after a federal judge in Baltimore upheld a ruling that the county violated a federal law that protects religious institutions from discrimination in zoning.

The church sued in 2017 after a county board denied its $5 million plan to build a 1,000-seat sanctuary with classrooms, a kitchen, gym, offices and parking for 240 cars on a 17-acre farm.

Maryland Zoo’s lone female elephant moving as facility transitions to all-male herd

By Catherine Chen
August 23, 2026 | 5:48 PM

The Maryland Zoo is preparing to say goodbye to its only female African elephant as it changes to an all-male herd. Felix, a 43-year-old elephant who has lived at the Baltimore zoo for 19 years, will move to another facility later this week. Zoo officials said the move is in Felix’s best interest because it will give her opportunities to socialize with other female elephants. Her interaction with other females have been limited since the zoo’s other female elephant died in 2024. “We will all miss her but having social companionship in a female herd is the best thing for Felix’s overall well-being,” Mammal Curator Erin Cantwell Grimm said.

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