MARYLAND DEMS, MOST REPUBLICANS SPLIT OVER TRUMP VERDICT: A day after former President Donald Trump’s historic convictions, Maryland Democrats were calling for trust in the system Friday while most Republicans were calling the case a travesty. Elijah Pittman/Maryland Matters.
- U.S. Rep. Andy Harris cites what has become the talking points of many in the Republican Party: That it is a travesty of justice perpetrated by the Biden administration. Meanwhile, U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen, and even Republican nominee for Senate Larry Hogan offer varying points on the respect for rule of law, trial by impartial juries and that no one is above the law. Keith Demko/The Salisbury Daily Times.
RNC CO-CHAIR SLAMS HOGAN OVER ‘RESPECT’ THE VERDICT COMMENT: Lara Trump, the co-chair of the Republican National Committee and daughter-in-law of Donald Trump, slammed Maryland’s Republican Senate candidate Larry Hogan on State of the Union on CNN on Sunday after he’d urged Americans to “respect” the verdict in the former president’s hush money trial. Mariana Alfaro/The Washington Post.
- Trump side-stepped a question from about whether the RNC would financially support Hogan’s campaign, saying: “I’ll get back to you on all the specifics monetarily.” Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
- You can view the State of the Union segment with Kasie Hunt here. State of the Union/CNN.
STATE SEEKS PRIVATE INDUSTRY INPUT INTO BRIDGE REBUILD: Maryland officials made a broad appeal to private industry Friday to help it design and build a replacement for the fallen Key Bridge — and open it no later than Oct. 15, 2028. Michael Laris/The Washington Post.
- Proposals are due June 24 and the prospective builder — which will likely be a team composed of several companies — will be selected “mid-to-late summer,” the transportation authority said in a news release. Authorities hope construction will begin in 2025 and that in fall 2028, the new bridge will be complete. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Sun.
CREWS CLEAR 700-FOOT CHANNEL IN PORT: Crews in the Patapsco River are still cutting and lifting large chunks of what remains of the Francis Scott Key Bridge as they clear the way to restore the full 700-foot-wide channel into the Port of Baltimore. While larger vessels have recently been able to transit cargo into and out of the port through a limited-access channel, heavier lifts are needed to restore traffic back to normal. Dan Belson and Matt Hubbard/The Baltimore Sun.
SCHOOL OFFICIALS STILL PLUG AWAY AT BLUEPRINT REFORM: Maryland public school students are approaching their summer vacations, but some school officials won’t get the same break, as they continue plugging away on the state’s huge education reform plan. School officials from the state’s 24 districts filed updated documents last month detailing their progress on, and problems with, the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
FINES DOUBLE FOR SPEEDING IN ROAD WORK ZONE: Fines for speeding in a work zone in Maryland have doubled. The new law, which went into effect Saturday, increases the $40 fine to $80 temporarily until the official cost increases in 2025 to a possible $1,000. The increase in zone speeding ticket costs comes in response to a crash on Interstate 695 that killed six construction workers in March 2023. Tony Roberts/The Baltimore Sun.
AG NOW CAN SUE GUNMAKERS, SELLERS UNDER NEW LAW: Maryland’s attorney general and local prosecutors will be able to sue gunmakers and sellers who “knowingly” harm the public or create a public nuisance under a new state law, one of the more than 130 that took effect Saturday. But don’t expect Attorney General Anthony Brown (D) to immediately appear at a courthouse. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
B’MORE OVERDOSE EPIDEMIC HITTING SENIOR CITIZENS: Over the past six years, as Baltimore has endured one of America’s deadliest drug epidemics, overdoses have fallen surprisingly hard on one group: Black men currently in their mid-50s to early 70s. While just 7 percent of the city’s population, they account for nearly 30 percent of drug fatalities — a death rate 20 times that of the rest of the country. Nick Thieme, Alissa Zhu and Jessica Gallagher/The Baltimore Banner.
- More than 4,000 have been killed since 1993 amid waves of drugs: first heroin and crack cocaine, then prescription opioids and now fentanyl — the deadliest drug threat America has ever seen. Though startling numbers of older white men and Black women died as well, this group’s fatal overdoses have elevated Baltimore’s rate far above other cities’. Nick Thieme, Alissa Zhu and Jessica Gallagher/The Baltimore Banner.
SUIT CLAIMS STATE HIDES NUMBERS ON HORSESHOE CRAB HARM: Maryland is hiding the number of horseshoe crabs that are killed or bled annually, according to the nonprofit conservation group Center for Biological Diversity. It has sued the state’s Department of Natural Resources under Maryland’s Public Information Act for “failing to release information detailing exactly how thousands of horseshoe crabs are killed, bled or injured by pharmaceutical companies and fishermen annually.” The lawsuit was filed May 22 in Anne Arundel County. Cody Boteler/The Baltimore Banner.
ESSENTIAL COVID WORKERS NOW NEED HELP: As the COVID-19 pandemic was dominating life in the region, Linda Flores began reaching out to Spanish-speaking families to talk to them about a new vaccine. She sometimes worked as many as six days a week for the Latino Health Initiative, getting multiple part-time gigs that helped her support her child and share the bills with her husband. Now that the public health emergency is over, she works only one day with the initiative. “There are months that are good, there are months that are not,” she said in Spanish. Meredith Cohn and Clara Longo de Freitas/The Baltimore Banner.
MURAL TO KEY BRIDGE VICTIMS VANDALIZED: A mural being created to honor the victims of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse was vandalized overnight Friday. Between 7 and 8 a.m. Saturday, Roberto Marquez, a Texas-based artist and guardian of the mural that he intended to complete based on input and reference photos from victims’ families and loved ones, found it with large holes cut in multiple canvases and broken support braces. Tony Roberts and Abigail Gruskin/The Baltimore Sun.
- The work honored the six construction workers — Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, Dorlian Castillo Cabrera, Maynor Suazo-Sandoval, Miguel Luna, José Mynor López, and Carlos Hernandez — who died after the cargo ship Dali crashed into the bridge, causing it to collapse on March 26. Marquez said the work on this second mural took him about three days, and now, he won’t be able to finish. Adam Thompson and Caroline Foreback/WJZ-TV News.
HOGAN MARCHES IN ANNAPOLIS PRIDE PARADE: With a rainbow sticker affixed to his campaign ballcap and another on his black polo shirt, Senate Republican candidate Larry Hogan zig-zagged from one side of the street to the other, shaking hands and posing for selfies at the Annapolis Pride Parade on Saturday afternoon. Democratic nominee Angela Alsobrooks, didn’t make the parade. But a throng of Democratic officials and activists wore her bright green T-shirts and waved her signs as they made their way down the parade route. Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
STATE RETAINS TRIPLE-A BOND RATING: Maryland has retained its coveted AAA bond rating, even as one major agency said it had enough concerns to issue a warning about the state’s fiscal stability. All three major credit rating agencies — Fitch, Moody’s, and S&P Global Ratings — reaffirmed the highest credit rating for the state this week. Moody’s, however, downgraded the state’s outlook from stable to “negative,” citing concerns about looming structural deficits driven by programs including the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reforms. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
MARYLAND FLAGS FLY AT HALF-STAFF FOR DEL. NIEMANN: Maryland flags flew at half-staff Saturday in honor of former Del. Doyle L. Niemann, who died earlier this month. Niemann served for more than a decade in the House of Delegates representing Prince George’s County as a Democrat. He also held a number of other position in Prince George’s County, including on the school board and in the state’s attorney’s office. Niemann, 77, died on May 1. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
HARFORD MOMS FOR LIBERTY DEEMS COMMITTEE ‘STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION:’ After two years of raising concerns over what they referred to as explicit content in school libraries, the Harford County chapter of Moms for Liberty says the school system’s new Library Materials Reconsideration Committee is a “step in the right direction.” Matt Hubbard/The Aegis.
WOODBINE FARMER NAMED MID-ATLANTIC MASTER FARMER: Woodbine grain farmer Donald Maring has been named Mid-Atlantic Master Farmer this year for demonstrating exemplary land stewardship and community leadership. The lifetime achievement award is among the most prestigious honors a farmer can receive and has been dubbed the “Oscars of farming,” according to award co-sponsor American Agriculturist magazine. Thomas Goodwin Smith/The Carroll County Times.
SSA WOODLAWN WORKERS TO GET DISCRIMINATION SETTLEMENT: Thousands of current and former employees at the Social Security Administration headquarters in Woodlawn are about to get a $22.7 million payday after a nearly 20-year battle. Maceo Nesmith Jr. thought he deserved a promotion while working for the Social Security Administration. But when he looked around him at headquarters in the late 2000s, he noticed a lack of Black men in supervisory roles, a factor he saw as leading some of those men to retire or leave the office entirely. So he filed a complaint against his employer with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Maya Lora/The Baltimore Sun.
