Local government

Comptroller Bill Henry has endorsed Zeke Cohen in his bid for City Council president, marking the first major endorsement of a challenger in Baltimore’s 2024 election season.

Black residents of the Deal Island peninsula endure hardships to cling to the land where their enslaved ancestors once lived, says Rona Kobell, a Banner contributor and co-founder of the Environmental Justice Journalism Initiative, which produced the film “Eroding History.”

James and Doherty will fill roles that opened Monday, when the mayor asked Chezia Cager and Cirilo Manego to resign from their positions.

Polls are a snapshot of Maryland’s political opinions, but analyzing three statewide polls in the past year provides the start of a moving image of how opinions in the state are changing.

Sixteen percent of respondents to the poll said they will be more likely to use cannabis recreationally after Maryland’s long-awaited legalization.

The Scott administration attempted to quell concerns that City Hall has a turnover problem, just one day after the Democrat asked both his chief of staff and communications director to step down.

Almost no one thinks about me until it’s time. Taxes and Death: always an afterthought. But it’s budget season in Maryland and beyond, when cities, counties and even those doofuses in Washington are fighting over me and my sister, Spend. So it’s a good time to catch up. You mortals have to deal with me sooner or later. I am eternal.

The bills, which follow the expiration of a city moratorium on facial recognition technology, would grant City Council authority to approve agency purchases of surveillance tech and impose strict regulations on their use by both the government and the private sector.

Mayor Brandon Scott has asked chief of staff Chezia Cager and communications director Cirilo Manego to step down, according to multiple officials speaking on background who are not authorized to speak on personnel manners publicly.

You may be surprised to learn that there seems to be little rhyme or reason why government officials and agencies that were previously verified on Twitter lost or retained their checkmarks following the social media site's update in the past week.

The White House so far has announced funding for 25,000 projects across the country, the president said.

Harborplace has a new developer, but noticeable progress could be years away.

A meeting of the city’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday offered the first public forum for other elected officials to weigh in on the mayor’s spending plan for the budget year beginning July 1.

Baltimoreans on Wednesday night will have the first of two chances to voice their feelings about Mayor Brandon Scott’s 2024 budget directly to City Hall, kicking off a historic budget season marking expanded budget authority for council members.

The Baltimore County Council holds its annual public hearing on the budget Tuesday night. But in reality, the seven council members have little power over Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski’s nearly $5 billion spending plan.

New governance models for Baltimore’s water run the risk of further harming Black and low-income neighborhoods, say David Wheaton, an economic justice policy fellow at the Legal Defense Fund, and Mary Grant, campaign director at Public Water for All.

Assessments shared with agencies and nonprofits give a glimpse at the risk Baltimore could run into problems or miss deadlines for spending pandemic relief, but also the ambition of the city's plans for the money.

Baltimore County Department of Corrections Director Walt Pesterfield said the county is working with potential partners to identify alternative housing options for juvenile detainees charged as adults and will share more in the coming weeks.

Let’s take a walk to the water for Earth Day.