CAGE-FREE EGGS BEING PREPPED FOR THE LEGISLATIVE MENU: State Sen. Karen Lewis Young (D-Frederick) and Del. Jen Terrasa (D-Howard) are preparing legislation that would make Maryland the 11th state to prevent the sale of eggs from chickens who spend their days in battery cages, which are designed to house up to 10 egg-laying hens and are often arrayed in long rows in a chicken coop. If it becomes law, the bill would cover roughly 2 million chickens raised in Maryland and another 6 million chickens from out of state whose eggs are sold here. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
STATE GETS INPUT ON HIGHWAY WIDENING PROPOSALS IN MO CO, FREDERICK: The proposed widening of sections of I-270 and the Capital Beltway and the American Legion Bridge hold the promise of easing daily commutes. State transportation officials insist that a series of open house meetings in Montgomery and Frederick counties last week is part of an effort to rebuild public trust. The intent is to seek community input on a revamped vision for easing some of the worst traffic congestion in the state. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
STATE TO WORK TO BURY REMAINS OF 15 PEOPLE IN ANCESTRAL COMMUNITIES: Gov. Wes Moore announced a state initiative Monday to locate the ancestral communities and rebury the remains of 15 people of possible African descent currently held at the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory in Calvert County. “In order for us to be able to move forward, we must both remember and value our past,” Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
ULMAN PROPOSES DEMOCRATIC OUTREACH IN RURAL COUNTIES: Though he’s still forming his plan for leading the Maryland Democratic Party, Ken Ulman said Democrats need to have strategies for outreach and success in all 24 jurisdictions, even rural counties that Democrats may have written off in the past. Pamela Wood./The Baltimore Banner.
GOP SENATE HOPEFUL CAMPAIGNS ACROSS STATE: The latest entrant to the Republican field for Maryland’s U.S. Senate seat has no record running for elected office, but when asked what issues he has heard while campaigning across the state, he pointed to four topics with a precision that echoed his background. The issues “are the economy, public safety or crime, education and national security,” said retired U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. John Teichert, who announced his candidacy on Oct. 2. Dwight Weingarten/Hagerstown Herald Mail.
DEL. CHARLES PICKED TO FILL FORMER SEN. GRIFFITH’s SEAT: The Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee selected Del. Nick Charles on Monday to fill a seat in the Maryland Senate left vacant by Melony Griffith, who resigned to become president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association. The committee will forward Charles’ name to Gov. Wes Moore (D), who has up to 15 days to confirm the appointment. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
B’MORE ELECTIONS BOARD SEEKS NEW HOME: The Baltimore City Board of Elections has been trying to relocate to a new, larger space from its current, unsatisfactory location in West Baltimore. Staff members have been meeting with city officials for months and have identified a new site on Caton Avenue in Morrell Park that would offer twice as much room. But despite those plans, the Board of Elections is expected to spend at least part of the 2024 election cycle at its current West Baltimore location. Lia Russell/The Baltimore Sun.
ARUNDEL LIBRARY BOARD REJECTS UNION PROPROSAL: If Anne Arundel County Public Library employees want to form a union, they’ll have to do it the hard way, not the easy way. The library’s board of trustees Thursday night rejected a voluntary recognition proposal from the majority of library workers who wish to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, touching off a they said/they said disagreement over how to interpret Maryland’s complex public labor laws. Rebecca Ritzel/The Capital Gazette.
BA CO TEACHERS UNION SEEKS CONTRACT ACTION TO SLOW RESIGNATIONS: Baltimore County educators rallied Monday night to ask the school district to act fast in order to slow a wave of resignations. Cindy Sexton, president of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County, said Nov. 28 is the final scheduled meeting between union and Baltimore County Public Schools bargaining teams, and that the two sides are not yet actively engaged in over half the union’s demands for a new agreement for next school year. Dillon Mullan/The Baltimore Sun.
FORMER COLLEGE PARK MAYOR GETS 30 YEARS FOR CHILD PORN: Former College Park Mayor Patrick Wojahn was sentenced Monday to 30 years in prison for possession and distribution of child pornography. Wojahn, 48, pleaded guilty in August to 140 child pornography charges, according to online court records. His indictment charged him with possession, possession with intent to distribute and distribution of material that exploits children — a mixture of misdemeanors and felonies with maximum penalties ranging from five to 10 years’ incarceration. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Sun.
- Law enforcement, prosecutors said, knew the names of 52 children who appeared in images on Wojahn’s cellphone. They experienced sexual abuse all over the world. The United States. Canada. Mexico. Spain. Germany. The United Kingdom. But there were hundreds, if not thousands more children that investigators could not identify. The total number was so large, prosecutors said, that it surpassed the enrollment of Wojahn’s local elementary school, Hollywood Elementary. Dylan Segelbaum/The Baltimore Banner.
FRED RASMUSSEN CELEBRATES 50 YEARS AT THE BALTIMORE SUN: Fred Rasmussen recently celebrated 50 years of his dream job writing for The Baltimore Sun with a party in North Baltimore. We at MarylandReporter.com have run plenty of his thoughtful and insightful obituaries over the years, as we have of his colleague Jacques Kelly’s. So we are happy to publish this video of the event. Here’s to 50 more years.
H. MEBANE TURNER, LONG-TIME UM PRESIDENT, DIES AT 92: H. Mebane Turner, the longtime president of the University of Baltimore who later headed Boys’ Latin School, died Sunday at Roland Park Place. He was 92 and formerly resided in Guilford. Jacques Kelly/The Baltimore Sun.
