MOORE TO PARDON MORE THAN 175,000 MARIJUANA CONVICTIONS: Gov. Wes Moore will issue a mass pardon of more than 175,000 marijuana convictions this morning, one of the nation’s most sweeping acts of clemency involving a drug now in widespread recreational use. Erin Cox, Katie Shepherd and Katie Mettler/The Washington Post.
- The Democratic governor plans to sign an executive order during a State House ceremony, nullifying guilty verdicts decided when carrying small amounts of the drug or paraphernalia was illegal. Details about the pardons – including how many people will be pardoned and how far back those convictions go — will be outlined today. Brenda Wintrode and Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
BUMPSTOCK RULING WON’T AFFECT MARYLAND BAN: Friday’s Supreme Court ruling striking down the definition of a semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock attachment as a machine gun, won’t affect Maryland’s ban on bumpstocks. Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, who joined other attorneys general last year to file a brief to the Supreme Court in support of the federal bump-stock ban, called Friday’s ruling “a step backwards for common-sense gun laws.” Ariana Figueroa/Maryland Matters.
RIGHT-WING COALITION APPEALS TOSSING OF ELECTION INTEGRITY CASE: A right-wing coalition that tried to prevent the certification of Maryland’s primary election results last month has followed through on its promise to appeal its case, which a federal judge threw out because she said the group lacked standing. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
OPINION: DON’T PUT THE COUNTRY AT RISK: VOTE IN NOVEMBER: About 70% of registered Democrats in Baltimore just sat out the primaries. And that leads to concern about whether they might do the same in November when the presidential race will lead the ballot, followed by the Senate race. That Maryland Senate seat, by the way, carries greater weight this time around: Whoever wins it could be our bulwark against a right-wing agenda focused on curtailing rights or an agent for it becoming the blueprint for our future. E.R. Shipp/The Baltimore Banner.
FERGUSON JOINS RENEWABLE ENERGY FIRM: Over the past several decades, the presiding officers in the Maryland General Assembly have either been lawyers, business owners or longtime local government employees. So it seems significant that Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) has just taken a job as general counsel and senior vice president with a renewable energy company, a move that seems to subtly and indirectly elevate renewable energy as a policy priority in Annapolis. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
B’MORE POLICE DON’T TRACK OFFICER PURSUITS: The Baltimore Police Department, which has seen three deaths linked to people fleeing police since 2022, says it doesn’t keep track of how often its officers pursue vehicles. Three of the 19 fatal police pursuits or crashes statewide since October 2021 involved Baltimore Police, according to the Maryland attorney general’s office, tying the agency with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office and Montgomery County Police for the highest number of such deaths. A recent spate of police pursuits that killed bystanders and passengers has prompted concern from the state attorney general. Cassidy Jensen and Darcy Costello/The Baltimore Sun.
LATINO LEADERS URGE DEMS TO KEEP THEM TOP OF MIND: After a tough primary election ended last month, Maryland Democratic Party leaders vowed unity as they head into the November general election. The Latino community wants to make sure it’s not left out of the party. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
MOORE: MARYLAND FUTURE MUST INCLUDE EASTERN SHORE: Gov. Wes Moore spent Friday afternoon on the Eastern Shore, meeting with local officials as well as nonprofit and agricultural leaders. “It’s great being back here, it’s the 18th time that we’ve been on the Shore since I’ve been the governor,” Moore said. “… I believe deeply that if this is going to be Maryland’s decade, it means that the Shore must also be able to live up to all of its promise.” Konner Metz/The Easton Star-Democrat.
BLACK STUDENTS IN CARROLL HAVE HIGHER MATH PROFICIENCY: Black public school students in Carroll County have higher rates of math proficiency than Black students in any other county in the state, data from the Maryland State Department of Education shows. Ethan Reese/The Carroll County Times.
CARROLL SCHOOL BOARD DELAYS VOTE ON EXPELLING TWO BOOKS: The Carroll Board of Education voted, 3-1, on Wednesday night to delay a final decision on whether to keep two books – “The Family Book” and “The Great Big Book of Families” – in the curriculum until the school board’s July meeting. Lizzy Alspach/The Carroll County Times.
FUGITIVE’s ARREST HIGHLIGHTS WEAK IMMIGRATION POLICY MOORE SAYS: A fugitive from El Salvador, who authorities say had fled to the United States after killing a young woman in his home country, has been charged in the murder and rape of a Maryland woman, law enforcement officials said over the weekend. “We know that we have got to fix a broken immigration policy. And we know that we need Congress to act on this,” Gov. Wes Moore said on CBS News’s “Face the Nation.” Dan Morse/The Washington Post.
CAN MARYLAND EXPECT MORE TORNADOES? As the world reached 12 consecutive months of record global heat, the nine tornadoes that touched down earlier this month in Maryland raised the question of whether the state’s residents can expect to experience the threat more often in the face of climate change. Annie Jennemann/The Baltimore Sun.
PA. SEN. FETTERMAN ‘AT FAULT’ IN MARYLAND CRASH: Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., was speeding and “at fault” for the car accident on I-70 in Washington County that landed him, his wife and another driver in the hospital last Sunday, according to a Maryland State Police report. Riley Beggin and Nick Penzenstadler/USA Today.
FORMER DEL. WENDELL PHILLIPS, 60, DIES: Wendell Phillips, a preacher’s son, Maryland state delegate from 1999 to 2003 and advocate for historically Black colleges and universities, died of cancer May 24 at Duke Raleigh Hospital in North Carolina. He was 60. Dillon Mullan/The Baltimore Sun.
