State Roundup: ERA resolution pushed by Cardin fails U.S. Senate vote, Moore and Miller mark 100 days in office

State Roundup: ERA resolution pushed by Cardin fails U.S. Senate vote, Moore and Miller mark 100 days in office

Valerie Sheares Ashby was installed Thursday as the president of the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Governor's Office photo by Joe Andrucyk

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ERA RESOLUTION FAILS TO PASS IN U.S. SENATE: A resolution to recognize the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) as the 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution failed to clear a procedural vote in the Senate Thursday. The Senate voted 51-47 in favor of the bipartisan resolution introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), but fell nine votes shy of the 60-vote threshold needed to clear a filibuster. After the vote, an optimistic Cardin emphasized its historic nature, noting that he had only 17 co-sponsors for the ERA a decade ago. Hunter Savery/Capital News Service in Baltimore Post-Examiner

MOORE AND MILLER MARK 100 DAYS IN OFFICE: On their 100th day in office on Friday, barrier-breaking Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller (D) will be where they have been a lot so far in their terms — on the road. Between the two of them, the Moore-Miller team has been to every county in the state at least once since their inauguration on Jan. 18. In brief comments about his first 100 days in office, Moore said he was proud to have “changed the tenor” in Annapolis, focusing on working with legislators during his first General Assembly session. Danielle E. Gaines, Josh Kurtz & William J. Ford/Maryland Matters

GOVERNOR DISCUSSES MONTGOMERY CO. TIES: Wes Moore cares less about being remembered as the first Black governor of Maryland and more about being remembered for doing something that made your life better. That’s why, he says, people voted for him. The Takoma Park native said he still feels strong ties to Montgomery County, but noted that some of his “earliest and most traumatic memories” happened here. Ginny Bixby/MoCo360

IS STATE HIDING FAILING SCHOOLS’ TEST SCORES?: Republican state legislators are criticizing a recent change in how the state reports school test score data, saying that obscuring a small number of student results is masking failures at low-performing schools. State education officials say their actions are intended to comply with a federal student privacy law and have vigorously disputed a news station’s allegations that they were intentionally hiding data about failing schools from the public. Liz Bowie & Nick Thieme/The Baltimore Banner

‘ALL TEST SCORES ARE LOW IN MD.,’ SCHOOLS CEO TELLS BALTIMORE CITY COUNCIL: After 23 schools in Baltimore City reported having zero students test proficient in math, of those who took the state-regulated test, City Schools CEO Dr. Sonja Santelises faced questions from some councilmembers Thursday night. However, few pointed questions were asked about how the problem became an issue. Mikenzie Frost/WBFF (Fox)

CONTRACT TALKS WITH APPLE ARE ‘VERY, VERY SLOW,’ UNION LEADER SAYS: Apple may not be negotiating its contract with unionized employees in Towson in good faith, a union representative said. Jay Wadleigh, who is leading contract negotiations on behalf of the International Association of Machinists union, said contract talks with Apple have been “very, very slow.”  The Towson store became the first in the nation to organize, with workers voting last June to form a union. Cody Boteler/The Baltimore Banner

UMBC’S NEW PRESIDENT OFFICIALLY TAKES OVER: Emphasizing her commitment to an inclusive environment for all learners, Valerie Sheares Ashby was inducted Thursday afternoon as the first woman to serve as the president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Ashby began serving as UMBC’s president last summer upon the retirement of Freeman A. Hrabowski III, who held the position for 30 years. Hannah Gaskill & Dillon Mullan/The Baltimore Sun

RAIN COULD JEOPARDIZE RACING AT LAUREL PARK AMID TRACK CONCERNS: Horse training resumed Thursday at Laurel Park Raceway after preliminary findings by a track consultant determined the surface is safe. But projected rain in the forecast canceled training on Friday, and that could be a problem for a possible live racing start on Saturday. The canceling of training, possibly postponing the racing restart, is a new wrinkle in ongoing concern about track safety. David Collins/WBAL TV

FIRST INDIAN AMERICAN STATE LAWMAKER IN U.S. IS RESIGNING: Longtime Maryland Del. Kumar P. Barve (D-Montgomery), who broke barriers to become the nation’s first Indian American state lawmaker 32 years ago, is ending his stint as one of Annapolis’s most influential lawmakers to join the Maryland Public Service Commission. The agency will oversee the state’s transition to green energy. Erin Cox/The Washington Post

REP. JAMIE RASKIN SAYS CANCER IS IN REMISSION: Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) has been told by doctors that his cancer is in remission, he announced in an open letter on Thursday. The top Democrat on the high-profile House Oversight Committee had been undergoing chemotherapy since he was diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma last December. Meagan Flynn/The Washington Post

INCINERATOR POLLUTION LIKELY TO CONTINUE FOR YEARS, REPORT SAYS: While Mayor Brandon Scott pledges to end municipal trash burning at the polluting BRESCO incinerator, his administration is telling state officials why Baltimore’s biggest source of industrial pollution will stay in business for the next decade. BRESCO will “likely continue to operate at or near its current throughput” beyond 2033 because it will still burn trash from the surrounding counties and from private contracts. That is the concluding sentence of the 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan, a 192-page report that was previewed at a public meeting this week. Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew

MORE ANNE ARUNDEL RESIDENTS CONCERNED ABOUT HOUSING COSTS: A survey released this week found an increase in Anne Arundel residents concerned about housing costs, which local leaders say they’ve been working to combat. The latest survey by Anne Arundel Community College’s Center for the Study of Local Issues found that about 20% of residents rated housing costs the county’s most dire issue, as opposed to 13% in the fall survey. Population growth, transportation and illegal drug usage were lesser concern, the new survey found. Dana Munro/ The Baltimore Sun

***SUPREME COURT IN CRISIS: The League of Women Voters and the Francis King Carey School of Law at the University of Maryland Baltimore are hosting a presentation on Supreme Court: Crisis of Legitimacy and the Path to Reform next Wednesday, May 3, 1 p.m. Westminster Hall, 519 W. Fayette St. in Baltimore. Speakers are Mark Graber, University of Maryland Regents Professor and Constitutional Scholar; Leslie Proll, Senior Director of Voting Rights, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Jon Sherman, Litigation Director, Fair Elections Center. For more information and to register for the event, click here.***

About The Author

Regina Holmes

ReginaHolmes@hotmail.com

Contributing editor Regina Holmes has worked as a journalist for over 30 years. She was an assistant business editor at the Miami Herald and an assistant city editor at Newsday in New York City, where she helped supervise coverage of 9/11, anthrax attacks and the August 2003 Northeast Blackout. As an assistant managing editor of the Baltimore Examiner, she helped launch the free tabloid in 2006. Before joining Maryland Reporter, she was the managing editor for Washington, D.C.-based Talk Media News, where she supervised digital, radio and video production of news reports for over 400 radio stations. The Baltimore native is a graduate of Vassar College and Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

1 Comment

  1. GREN WHITMAN

    Possible error: I do not think either Gov. Moore or Lt. Gov. Miller has visited Kent County since they took office in January.

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