INMATES WITH SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS LANGUISH IN JAIL: People with severe mental illness, accused of crimes in Maryland but deemed too sick by the courts to participate in their cases and who are considered dangerous, are languishing behind bars long beyond the 10-day deadline prescribed by state law for the health department to admit them to one of its five psychiatric facilities following a judge’s order. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Sun.
STATE’s CHILD-CARE SCHOLARSHIP FUND QUICKLY DEPLETED: Maryland’s budget was prepared to give scholarships to 40,000 kids to help their families afford child care. But less than a month into the fiscal year, the state has already blown past that number. Maryland’s Child Care Scholarship Program, which subsidizes the rising cost of day care to help parents rejoin the workforce, has added 18,000 kids — a 75% increase in just over a year and a half. Maya Lora/The Baltimore Banner.
HIGHER ED WORKERS NEAR CONTRACT: Maryland higher education employees are on the cusp of finalizing one statewide union contract for nine public universities across the state, a “historic” agreement that took years of bargaining and changes to state law. The contract would be the second-largest collective bargaining agreement in Maryland, according to union officials. Nearly 6,000 employees voted Friday to ratify the deal, which covers both hourly and salaried workers. Lilly Price/The Baltimore Sun.
OPINION: NETANYAHU DIVIDES TWO MARYLAND ALLIES: U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin stood in the House chamber on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for Benjamin Netanyahu. When the Israeli prime minister entered to minutes of thunderous applause, there were dozens of seats left empty in protest. Perhaps none was more noticeable for Maryland than that of Cardin’s ally and fellow U.S. senator, Chris Van Hollen. Few things divide these two Democratic lawmakers. Their offices often put out joint news releases touting their accomplishments together. Then came Netanyahu. Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner.
ALSOBROOKS LAUNCHES FIRST TV AD: Democratic U.S. Senate hopeful Angela Alsobrooks will launch her first television ad of the general election Thursday with a message her campaign intends to continue pushing until November: Control of the Senate could come down to her matchup with Republican Larry Hogan. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
MTA OUTLINES PLANS TO PROTECT BAY BRIDGE: The Maryland Transportation Authority, which owns the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Annapolis, said in the months after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26 that it was exploring options to protect the two spans of the Bay Bridge. Those preliminary plans are likely to include “physical” pier protection improvements by the end of the year, Executive Director Bruce Gartner said Tuesday. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Sun.
HISTORICAL MARKER TELLS STORY OF NAUSE-WAIWASH INDIANS: For Chief Donna Abbott, 73 words on a new historical marker erected near Cambridge have been a long time coming. The marker, unveiled Wednesday by state transportation officials, Abbott and members of the Nause-Waiwash Band of Indians Inc., is the next step in telling the story of a people that predate the first European settlers in what is now Dorchester County. It is a story Abbott said few know correctly, if at all. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
TRANSIT OFFICIALS LAY OUT MARC STATION, TUNNEL PLANS: Amtrak and Maryland Transportation Administration officials hosted an open house Wednesday night to share renderings and plans for a new West Baltimore MARC station that meets Americans with Disabilities Act standards. The new station, which is also set to eventually be a stop on the Red Line, has potential to connect West Baltimore to the city and state across multiple modes of transportation. Dillon Mullan/The Baltimore Sun.
- Amtrak and MARC officials told those gathered that a proposed new tunnel planned to run under at least 10 majority-Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore will be deep enough to minimize harm to area homes. Sandtown-Winchester resident Gary English has his doubts. Elijah Pittman/Maryland Matters.
PG SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER WHO TOOK JOB IN MISSOURI RESIGNS: A recently departed Prince George’s County school board member who frequently missed board meetings held since the beginning of the year had started a job in January as a high-level official in a Missouri school district. David Murray, who was first elected to the board in 2016 to represent District 1, resigned from his Prince George’s post last week, five months before the end of his second term. Nicole Asbury/The Washington Post.
B’MORE IG FINDS DPW HAS WIDESPREAD POOR WORKING CONDITIONS: In a continued investigation, the most recent report from the Baltimore City Office of the Inspector General found that poor working conditions are widespread across solid waste facilities in the Department of Public Works. “This involves people’s lives, people’s safety, people’s working conditions,” said Inspector General Isabel Cumming. Emily Hofstaedter/WYPR-FM.
- “It’s a sad statement,” said DPW Worker Stancil McNair. “I’m getting ready to say, prisoners get treated better than we do, as far as, they get everything they’re supposed to have.” Jessica Albert/WJZ-TV News.
- Stancil McNair says he’s worked on the back of a DPW trash truck for over a decade. Every summer, he claims the agency fails to provide the legally required refreshments, equipment, and training needed to conduct manual labor in dangerously hot temperatures safely. Rebecca Pryor/WBFF-TV News.
- Cumming’s report detailed sanitation workers made to use locker rooms without air conditioning or working water fountains during periods of extreme heat; bathrooms with sink fixtures that had been broken for months; and garbage trucks with no working air conditioning or dashboard lights. At one facility, workers had to ask a supervisor for toilet paper every time they wished to use the bathroom — the supervisor there kept it locked in a supply closet. Lee O. Sanderlin/The Baltimore Banner.
