ECONOMY COULD TAKE MAJOR HIT WITH YOUNG, INFECTED WORKERS: Bryan Renbaum of MarylandReporter reports that state business leaders say that if the coronavirus positivity rate continues to sharply increase among Marylanders under age 35 it could have serious consequences for the state’s economy.
642 NEW CASES, 9 DEATHS: On Sunday, writes Philip Jackson for the Sun, Maryland health officials reported 642 new COVID-19 cases and nine deaths related to the virus. Sunday’s increase in cases brings the state total to 73,109 people infected by COVID-19. Officials say 3,188 people have died as a result of illness from the virus.
- Here are Sun graphics tracking the coronavirus in Maryland.
9 UM ATHLETES, STAFF TEST POSITIVE: Nine Maryland athletes and staff members tested positive for the novel coronavirus during on-campus screening this week, the school’s athletic department said Saturday. Maryland has temporarily suspended football workouts, Emily Giambalvo of the Post reports.
- The individuals have been notified and are in self-isolation. Contact tracing is ongoing through the Prince George’s County Health Department and all individuals must follow a 14-day self-observation period, Daniel Oyefusi of the Sun reports.
STATE METRICS FLAT, TREND DOWN: While many states across the country have had to tighten coronavirus restrictions again due to outbreaks after early efforts to reopen, Maryland has continued to see its metrics stay flat or trend downward. Sanya Kamidi and Colin Campbell of the Sun write about five takeaways from this weekend’s news on the coronavirus.
HOGAN ADVISOR TAKES AIM AT OTHER STATES’ REOPENING: A top adviser to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Hopkins Dr. Tom INglesby, took aim at the reopening approach of several states during a live television appearance Sunday, saying the country lacks a unified message and has unnecessarily jeopardized thousands of American lives, Hallie Miller of the Sun reports.
SCHOOL REOPENING ‘WON’T BE RUSHED:’ Gov. Larry Hogan joined Chuck Todd on Meet the Press on Sunday and touched on a number of topics including when schools will reopen and the future of the GOP.
- Maryland won’t “be rushed into” reopening schools full-time this fall, Hogan told Todd, writes Rachel Baye for WYPR-FM. “I think everybody would like to get our kids back to school as quickly as we can, but we also want to do it and make sure that our kids are going to be as safe as possible.”
- Mark Oliver of the Guardian gathered quotes from politicians around the country in relationship to the future of the Republican Party after President Trump commuted Roger Stone’s sentence. Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday Hogan, rumored to be eyeing a run for the White House in 2024, said that the GOP needs to be a “bigger tent party” in the future.
MO CO SCHOOLS TO PHASE IN OPENING: Montgomery County students will begin the next academic year online, with a phased approach to bring them back to school buildings part-time by the end of November, according to the school district’s draft plan released Saturday, writes Caitlynn Peetz for Bethesda Beat.
OPINION: FIX STATE’s TECHNOLOGY SYSTEM: Now is the time to address our state’s technical deficit, write Sen. Katie Fry Hester and Del. Michael Jackson in an op-ed in Maryland Matters. Having seen what has happened with unemployment and knowing the importance of technology in the age of COVID-19, we can’t afford not to.
WA CO USES CONTACT TRACING: The fight against COVID-19 involves doctors, nurses, medical technicians and people who make phone calls. Lots of phone calls, reports Mike Lewis for the Hagerstown Herald-Mail. Those calls are for contact tracing. “As Washington County has continued to reopen and move through the stages of recovery, the effective use of contact tracing is a critical step in decreasing the number of COVID-19 cases and breaking the chain of transmission,” Danielle R. Stahl of the Washington County Health Department wrote in an email last week.
ADVOCATES: CRITICAL CARE INMATES LEFT WANTING: Advocates are saying that critical care patients incarcerated in the state’s prison system are lacking the medical care they need during the pandemic, writes Hannah Gaskill for Maryland Matters.
COVID OUTBREAK PAUSES CLASS AT YOUTH JAIL: A COVID-19 outbreak at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center has caused the state to pause classes at the youth detention center and send educational staff home indefinitely, Rachel Baye reports for WYPR-FM. At least six staff at the facility have confirmed cases of COVID-19, officials said Friday.
YOUTH RETURN TO SUMMER JOBS: More than 4,500 teens in Baltimore’s YouthWorks program will report for work today. But this year, they will navigate the unpredictable terrain of work life in the coronavirus era, Yvonne Wenger of the Sun reports.
OPINION: HOGAN FAILS ON QUARANTINE: David Plymyer opines in a column for Baltimore Brew that Gov. Hogan’s counterparts in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have issued orders advising against travel to specified states where the pandemic is surging out of control. Most importantly, citizens who travel to those states have been told to quarantine themselves upon return. Hogan’s failure to take similar action threatens to reverse the progress made by Maryland against the spread of the virus.
OPINION: MASK ENFORCEMENT: The editorial board for the Carroll County Times is urging stronger mask-wearing rule, opining: Without enforcement, a percentage of people simply won’t abide by rules or laws. Why, then, is anyone surprised to find customers and even employees inside businesses not wearing masks — even with COVID-19 cases spiking across the country, even with the medical consensus that facial coverings mitigate the spread, even with an executive order requiring them to be worn by all customers and workers in retail establishments — given that Carroll County is not enforcing their use?
FROSH BLASTS HOGAN OVER ELECTION DECISION: Attorney General Brian Frosh said Friday that Gov. Larry Hogan’s plan to hold a traditional election in November without automatically mailing ballots to all voters will have “devastating consequences,” reports Emily Opilo of the Sun. Frosh, a Democrat, issued a statement saying the state remains in the middle of a pandemic that is “burning out of control.”
- He said Hogan was folding to partisan pressure in his decision to require voters to fill out an application if they want vote-by-mail ballots, writes Bennett Leckrone of Maryland Matters. “Bowing to Donald Trump’s reckless demands for in-person voting puts at risk the lives of Maryland citizens and risks disenfranchising many thousands of eligible voters,” Frosh wrote.
OPINION: HOGAN’s ELECTION DECISION: The editorial board for the Washington Post opines that Gov. Larry Hogan (R) decided on Wednesday to reverse course and treat the November vote like a more routine election. His reaction may cause more problems than it solves.
OPINION: REPEAL OFFICERS’ BILL OF RIGHTS: In an op-ed for the Frederick News-Post, Walter Olson opines that the “protests of recent weeks have brought to the top of the public agenda the need to quickly remove police officers who commit serious misconduct. When the Maryland General Assembly next convenes, its first priority should be to repeal the 1974 law that has long worked to insulate police misbehavior from consequences in our state, the so-called Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights.”
EDUCATION, JOCKEY CLUB SPENT MOST ON LOBBYISTS: Two groups advocating for education and the Maryland Jockey Club were among the organizations that spent the most on lobbyists in Maryland in the most recent reporting period, when major legislation affecting them was before state lawmakers, Brian Witte reports for the AP.
- Josh Kurtz of Maryland Matters lists all the lobbyists who grossed over $250,000 during the past legislative session. Gerry Evans and Bruce Bereano are at the top of the list.
D.C. BELTWAY NEEDS AT LEAST $482M: Katherine Shaver of the Post writes that, according to a study of a proposal released Friday, adding toll lanes to I-270 and most of the Capital Beltway in Maryland could require a government subsidy of $482 million to $1 billion even as state officials have said the highway expansion would come at “no net cost” to taxpayers.
MTA MAY MISS OUT ON ROUND 2 OF FED FUNDS: Facing $550 million in lost revenue attributed to the coronavirus in the fiscal year that ended last month, and a shortfall just as large looming for the year ahead, the MTA received about $392 million in funding from the federal CARES Act, enough to last the agency about six months. But, reports Colin Campbell in the Sun, the MTA could miss out on a second round of federal emergency funding in a bill put forward in the House of Representatives, which would provide a combined $15.75 billion to transit agencies across the U.S.
DOROTHY PARKER’s ASHES: With the NAACP headquarters moving from Mt. Hope Drive in Baltimore to Washington, D.C., so talks are under way that it may be moving the ashes of Dorothy Parker, the irreverent writer and supporter of Civil Rights, Tim Prudente reports in the Sun.
