Politics

Organizers asked me to moderate a panel on racial and social justice because I’ve been reporting on these ideas for much of my career as a journalist. But listening to people who focus on this issue daily provided some revelations worth sharing.

More than halfway into his first term, Mayor Brandon Scott pitched Baltimoreans a renaissance of expanded city services, including longer recreation center hours and the return of weekly curbside recycling at Monday night’s State of the City address.

The Beloved Community Services Corporation will receive $1.75 million in federal funds to renovate Juanita Jackson Mitchell’s old law office in the Marble Hill historic district.

Many advocates believe the restrictions on gay men giving blood, put in place when HIV emerged in the 1980s, are outdated and need to better reflect medical advances.

Investors, residents and business owners say crime concerns and a lack of vision are hurting the Central Business District in the wake of the pandemic.

Inspectors found the private operator of Charlotte Hall Veterans Home failed to report abuse allegations and failed to maintain a rodent-free environment.

Legislation that would have overhauled the processes for releasing chronically ill and elderly prisoners did not pass again in the Maryland General Assembly in 2023, despite support from those including the chairman of the parole commission.

Moore touts his newly-established Department of Service and Civic Innovation at a gathering of “social innovators” in Oxford.

Angela Crenshaw, named acting superintendent of the Maryland Park Service April 14, is the first Black person to hold the role.

The volume of twigs, leaves and weeds collected has dropped since the county required them to be in paper bags. But the move away from plastic bags had other benefits, officials say.

The governor’s office is working with the University of Maryland Medical System to acquire more doses

Will Annapolis disappear in a cloud bank of pot smoke on July 1? Will it reek of the devil’s cabbage? And most importantly to me, should I get high? As we approach the end of pot prohibition in Maryland, I’ve got questions.

Thieves are targeting food assistance and other benefits programs fed by billions in federal funding with minimal security measures in place.

Johnny Olszewski Jr.’s proposed budget would give Baltimore County schools most, but not all, the funds the system requested.

Gov. Wes Moore’s office said such a plan is coming “as soon as possible” and the administration is “exploring options” such as stockpiling the drug mifepristone.

In Maryland, where state government is controlled entirely by Democrats for the first time in eight years, lawmakers have strengthened access to reproductive health care, tightened rewritten rules for carrying guns and more.

Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater said in a statement that the federal conspiracy charges against Sheriff Charles “Chuck” Jenkins are “serious and disturbing.”

The controversial tool has been on Baltimore’s books for more than 20 years, but has been enforced only sporadically.

Baltimore needs to establish a Land Bank Authority to bring more investment to underserved neighborhoods, says Krystle Okafor, director of policy and planning at SHARE Baltimore.

Moore devoted the majority of his remarks to two laws that aim to alleviate poverty by expanding the state’s earned income tax credit and raising the minimum wage.