STATE EMPLOYEE WAGE ERROR: Maryland might have shortchanged as many as 13,000 employees by as much as $30 per pay period for as long as two decades, state officials announced Friday, reports Erin Cox in the Sun.
- Budget and Management Secretary David R. Brinkley said the mistakes could affect up to roughly one-quarter of the state’s public workforce and an unknown number of former workers. The state could owe each of those individuals from $2 to $30 extra for each relevant pay period.
- Brinkley said, “We’re still going to work closely with the unions on a plan to make it right, and we’re fixing the problem. We’ve discovered the problem, and we’re going to get in front of it.” The exact amount owed is not yet known, but Brinkley said officials believe it is “manageable.” Bryan Sears reports the story for the Daily Record.
GUN CONTROL FAIL IN MARYLAND: Maryland is one of at least three states where gun-control advocates recently failed to push through legislation to bar people on terrorism watch lists from purchasing weapons — a safeguard that is drawing new attention in the wake of June 12’s mass shooting in Orlando, Josh Hicks and Elise Schmelzer report in the Post.
MINIMUM WAGE HIKE: Business owners in Maryland have had a year to plan for this upcoming increase in the minimum wage, writes Anamika Roy for the Daily Record. Some are thankful for the time to plan; others have gone above state requirements and already pay their employees well above the minimum wage.
- Donald Fry of the Greater Baltimore Committee argues in an opinion piece in Center Maryland that while Baltimore City hopes to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, now is not the time to do it.
SOLVING DISPUTES: Court-affiliated alternative dispute resolution has grown quickly in Maryland since its inception several decades ago, with more than 70 individual ADR programs currently able to handle family law, civil and criminal cases from the district courts to the Court of Special Appeals, writes Lauren Kirkwood for the Daily Record.
HOGAN’S ‘NO TRUMP’ FALLOUT: piled up on social media sites, either lauding Hogan as an independent thinker or denouncing him for opposing the candidate who handily won his state’s GOP primary, writes Ovetta Wiggins in the Washington Post. J.B, Jennings, who is the Senate minority leader and a Trump delegate at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, said, “It’s his vote to give, and nobody else should have an issue.”
- At best, Gov. Larry Hogan’s refusal to vote for Donald Trump has only lost him some campaign bumper stickers. At worst, it’s eroded faith among the party faithful in the Republican governor’s leadership and cost him votes in his reelection, writes Elise Schmelzer in the Post. And the Trump-supporting Maryland delegates to the Republican National Convention have heard a lot about it.
- No matter how and how much Hogan has tried to distance himself from Trump — first by trying to ignore the questions then by saying he won’t vote for him — he can’t seem to shake the burden of the Donald, writes columnist Barry Rascovar for MarylandReporter.com.
WOMEN IN POT INDUSTRY: The burgeoning sisterhood of Maryland’s marijuana entrepreneurs gathered in the back room of a Columbia chain restaurant recently, swapping business ideas over chicken wings and cheese cubes, writes Erin Cox in the Sun. Maryland’s long-promised medical marijuana industry doesn’t exist yet, and that’s precisely why more than 60 women, mostly dressed like a PTA crowd, banded together there — to rise to the top before anyone gets in their way.
WOMEN IN POLITICS: Under a banner emblazoned with “Standing up for Maryland Women,” U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin met with about two dozen women leaders in Frederick on Friday. Cardin, a Democrat, said he is looking ahead to a possible White House milestone — Hillary Clinton as the nation’s first female president. In the same election, Maryland could end up with an all-male congressional delegation. U.S. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, who has been in Congress since 1977, is not seeking re-election, Danielle Gaines writes in the Frederick News Post.
CARROLL CHARTER GOVERNMENT TALK: The editorial board for the Carroll County Times opines that the discussion concerning switching Carroll County government from a commissioners form of government to a charter government is a welcome one, and a switch could ultimately benefit the county, giving it more local control.
IMPERSONATING STEVE SCHUH: Will the real Steve Schuh please stand up? No, not @realSteveSchuh. And not @steveschuhaaco, either. Amanda Yeager of the Annapolis Capital writes that on Thursday night, an impersonator — or impersonators — created both of those accounts pretending to be the Anne Arundel County executive, whose actual Twitter handle is @ElectSteveSchuh. The first fake account, @steveschuhaaco, started posting a barrage of tweets lampooning the county executive around 8:30 p.m.
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