Ornery bees

Has anyone noticed an increase in bee stings this year? After 30+ years of not being stung, I have been stung twice this year. It seems like the bees are becoming aggressive with little or no provocation needed. Is it more common in certain regions of the country? Here's a scary story out of Maryland where yellow jackets attacked a school. A co-worker was telling me a story the other day about noticing a weird stain on her son's closet ceiling and it turned out to be a huge hive inside of the walls. You don't want to find out you need one of these anytime soon, yet I am hearing of people in mid to late adulthood having reactions for the first time in their lives. What's going on ?