FRANCHOT HAS NO REGRETS ON RUNNING MATE PICK: Comptroller and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Peter Franchot said he has no regrets about selecting Prince George’s County Councilwoman Monique Anderson-Walker as his running mate. Moreover, Franchot said he was well aware of financial difficulties Anderson-Walker had faced related to tax liens and a foreclosure, as well as a vote the councilwoman had cast that raised questions about a possible ethics violation, reports Bryan Renbaum for MarylandReporter.
HOGAN DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY DUE TO FLOODS: Gov. Larry Hogan on Friday declared a state of emergency for areas of Maryland along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay, the Potomac River, and the Atlantic Coast in anticipation of severe tidal and coastal flooding, Kevin Kinnally of Conduit Street reports.
- Flooding in Annapolis Friday night and into the weekend could reach the third-highest level ever recorded, according to the National Weather Service. Areas along the Chesapeake Bay, including Baltimore City and Annapolis, were expecting coastal flooding, high winds, and heavy rains, according to the Capital News Service in MarylandReporter.
- The unusual storm front birthed whitecaps in the bay that battered coastal communities Friday before the tide slowly began to recede Saturday, leaving in its wake flood-damaged homes, businesses and infrastructure. As residents and crews cleaned up, Democratic state lawmakers warned the events of the past two days foreshadowed the future under a changing climate, Alex Mann and Donovan Conaway reports in the Sun.
NEW HEALTH INSURANCE PROGRAM TARGETS YOUNG ADULTS: Beginning Monday, young adults in Maryland can enroll in a health insurance program through the state’s public health benefits exchange platform for as little as $1 a month, Hannah Gaskill of Maryland Matters reports. “It will cost you less than three fancy coffee drinks for the entire year,” Michele Eberle, executive director of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange, said at a news conference announcing the launch of the State-Based Young Adult Health Insurance Subsidies Pilot Program on Thursday.
- The subsidy program, an allocation of $20 million, was created by the General Assembly this year. Low-income adults ages 18 to 34 could pay as little as $1 a month for coverage, Sarah Kim of WYPR-FM reports. Vincent DeMarco, the president of the Maryland Health Care For All Coalition, said the bill — co-sponsored by Sen. Brian Feldman and Del. Ken Kerr — was not easy to pass.
- Bryan Renbaum of Maryland Reporter had the story Thursday.
FAYE MARTIN HOWELL TAPPED TO FILL DEL. BARRON’s SEAT: The Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee overwhelmingly chose Faye Martin Howell on Thursday to fill the vacancy of former Del. Erek Barron, who left to become Maryland’s first Black U.S. Attorney, William Ford reports for the Washington Informer. The committee’s 16-2 vote means Howell’s name will be sent to Gov. Larry Hogan to appoint her and complete Barron’s term that expires next year.
STUDENT ED BOARD MEMBERS SEEK MORE AUTHORITY: A group of civic-minded teenagers who serve on Maryland’s boards of education are calling to expand voting rights for students, even as some adults seek to limit their influence. As high-profile decisions come before their boards, the students seek to weigh in more, Lillian Reed of the Sun reports.
COMPTROLLER’s RACE: TIMOTHY ADAMS: Democratic comptroller candidate and Bowie Mayor Timothy J. Adams is making procurement reform and closing Maryland’s racial wealth divide a central part of his campaign, and said making state contracts more competitive will help businesses owned by women and people of color, Bennett Leckrone of Maryland Matters reports.
COMPTROLLER’s RACE: BROOKE LIERMAN: Comptroller candidate and state Del. Brooke E. Lierman (D-Baltimore City) thinks being the state’s top fiscal watchdog should also mean preparing for climate change and combating racial inequality, Bennett Leckrone of Maryland Matters reports. Lierman wants to create an equity officer position within the comptroller’s office.
ANTI-GERRYMANDERING ACTIVISTS HIT ANNAPOLIS: Gerry’s Partisan Pizza, a traveling food truck from the anti-corruption nonprofit group RepresentUs, was doling out free district-shaped pizza slices outside of the Maryland State House in Annapolis Friday, Bennett Leckrone of Maryland Matters writes. RepresentUs listed Maryland and 26 other states as having an “extreme” risk for partisan gerrymandering in its Gerrymandering Threat Index earlier this year for giving “politicians complete control over an often-secretive, poorly-protected redistricting process.”
LAWMAKERS: JOBLESS SYSTEM NEEDS IMPROVEMENT: The state’s mobile application for unemployment assistance needs better functionality and accessibility, state legislators told Maryland’s Labor Secretary Tiffany Robinson on Thursday. Trisha Ahmed of Capital News Service reports in Maryland Reporter that since 2020, Robinson and her office — the Maryland Department of Labor — have come under fire for having an overloaded system that for months frustrated thousands of Marylanders trying to get their unemployment claims processed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
NASA AWARDS UMBC, MORGAN STATE MILLIONS FOR RESEARCHERS: NASA has jointly awarded $72 million to University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Morgan State University for a partnership that will support 120 affiliated researchers in Earth sciences, reports Lillian Reed in the Sun.
POLICE OFFICER ‘CREDIBILITY LISTS’ RELEASED: The state’s attorneys for Baltimore city and Prince George’s County have jointly released lists of current and former police officers they’ve identified as having serious credibility problems that make their testimony in court unreliable, Madeleine O’Neill reports for the Daily Record.
MO CO TO REINSTATE MASK MANDATE: Montgomery County’s indoor mask mandate will be reinstated Wednesday — unless the County Council, acting as the Board of Health, votes to change it Tuesday, according to the county’s acting health officer, Steve Bohnel of Bethesda Beat reports.
BA CO COUNCIL TO SEEK NEW REDISTRICTING MAP: Following a blistering public hearing in which several dozen people spoke out against a proposed redistricting plan for council districts, the Baltimore County Council now gets about the business of settling on a map on which at least five of them can agree, reports John Lee of WYPR-FM.
TRONE POLICE BILL AWAITS BIDEN’s SIGNATURE: A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep David Trone requiring confidential peer support counseling programs for law enforcement officers passed Congress this month and is headed to President Biden’s desk, Dan Schere reports for Bethesda Beat.
FREDERICK SCHOOL BOARD JUGGLES RELIEF FUNDS: As the Frederick County Board of Education prepares to assemble a new budget for the upcoming fiscal year, it’s also working to manage the distribution of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid. Since the pandemic began, FCPS has received more than $58 million through the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund, Jillian Atelsek reports for the Frederick News-Post.
OPINION: JOSEPH CASSILLY DEFENDS HIMSELF: Joseph Cassilly, who was recently disbarred, writes an op-ed for the Aegis defending his reputation as a prosecutor in Harford County, and writes an account of the “1981 case from my perspective for those citizens who elected me to serve as their state’s attorney.”
