100% FUNDING FOR NEW KEY BRIDGE MAKES CONGRESSIONAL SPENDING BILL: Washington, D.C., will gain greater control of the waterfront swath of property around the rusting RFK Stadium as the city seeks to bring the Washington Commanders, who want to consider building a new stadium at the site. At the same time, Maryland will gain all of D.C.’s F-16 fighter jets in its National Guard air division and secure full funding to rebuild the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. Meagan Flynn, Erin Cox and Sam Fortier/The Washington Post.
- This is all in the catch-all, end-of-session congressional spending bill, according to Maryland’s U.S. senators. The measure, which is needed to continue to operate the government after Friday, includes a commitment to fund the new bridge at 100%, the senators said. Jeff Barker/The Baltimore Sun.
- This catch-all, year-end package also would provide more than $100 billion in disaster aid and give lawmakers more time to wrap up overdue work on government funding, the farm bill and a handful of other issues they decided not to finish. Jennifer Shutt/Maryland Matters.
- It wasn’t immediately clear when the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, and then the U.S. Senate, would vote on the bill in light of Friday’s deadline to avert a partial government shutdown. Pamela Wood and Daniel Zawodny/The Baltimore Banner.
BUDGET DEFICIT LIKELY A BIG INFLUENCE ON 2025 LEGISLATION: Much of the legislating the Maryland General Assembly does in 2025 will likely be influenced by the state’s growing budget deficit as well as policies set by President-elect Donald Trump’s next administration, according to state leaders. Hannah Gaskill/The Baltimore Sun.
STATE MOVES CLOSER TO DIVESTING FROM FOSSIL FUELS: Maryland officials have taken a step closer to divesting from fossil fuels and considering climate risks when evaluating proposals for how the state retirement and pension system should invest and earn money. The Maryland State Retirement and Pension System Board of Trustees voted unanimously Tuesday to establish a Climate Advisory Panel, which will advise the board and staffers in the SRPS Investment Division on ways to address and mitigate climate risk when considering investments. Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
IN ‘BITTERSWEET’ ACT, MARYLAND ELECTORS CAST BALLOTS FOR HARRIS-WALZ: The mood was light, even if the end result was bittersweet for those involved. The 10 members of Maryland’s Electoral College met in the State House on Tuesday to officially cast the state’s votes for Democratic nominees Kamala Harris for president and Tim Walz for vice president — winners by an overwhelming margin in the blue state of Maryland but losers nationally of both the popular vote and the Electoral College vote to President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio). Steve Crane/Maryland Matters.
VP HARRIS URGES PRINCE GEORGE’S YOUTH TO ‘STAY IN THE FIGHT:’ Vice President Kamala Harris, with her future in public life up in the air and President-elect Donald Trump promising to soon dismantle much of the work she and President Joe Biden accomplished, pleaded with a crowd of mostly young people Tuesday in Prince George’s County to “stay in the fight.” Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
- The vice president was addressing young adults in the Maryland Corps and Service Year Option program who were gathered at the Prince George’s Community College Performing Arts Center. She was joined by Gov. Wes Moore, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller and Sen.-elect Angela Alsobrooks, the former Prince George’s County Executive who will be sworn in Jan. 3 to represent Maryland as the state’s first Black senator and fourth ever elected to that chamber. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
FRED HOMAN, A SINGULAR WATCHDOG OF BALTIMORE COUNTY GOVERNMENT: Fred Homan, Baltimore County’s former administrator and a man once so powerful that the county nerve center he commanded was known as “the office of Fred,” waited to be the last public speaker in the County Council chamber he once oversaw. He adjusted his hooded sweatshirt, his shoulder-length gray hair straggling out from under a baseball cap. He walked past the table where he once held court in tailored suits with the very leaders he was about to accuse of misconduct and fraud. Rona Kobell/The Baltimore Banner.
B’MORE CIVILIAN POLICE OVERSIGHT BOARD DISSOLVES: A city board that investigates certain complaints against Baltimore law enforcement officers is set to dissolve, members of the decades-old committee said, expressing concern over the city losing independent civilian oversight of police misconduct investigations. Dan Belson/The Baltimore Sun.
HAGERSTOWN’s FIRST BLACK MAYOR A ROLE MODEL, AND A TARGET: It was February 2023. Moments before she became the first Black mayor of Hagerstown, Tekesha Martinez took a deep breath to steady her emotions. Her grandmother had cleaned the house of a former mayor. Martinez never thought she’d become one herself. Sapna Bansil/The Baltimore Banner.
MARYLAND TRIBE’S 1st FEMALE CHIEF FIGHTS FOR IDENTITY, EQUALITY, PRESERVATION: The Nause-Waiwash tribe is one of the seven Native American tribes represented on the Maryland Commission of Indian Affairs, although the tribe is not state-recognized. The tribe, whose origins and traditions were once nearly lost but now are being revitalized, does statewide educational outreach to, as their chief says, “tell their story in their own words.” Chief Donna Wolf Mother Abbott is the first woman chief of a Maryland tribe in known recorded history. Andrea Durán of Capital News Service/MarylandReporter.com.
HAVRE DE GRACE MAYOR HIT WITH ETHICS COMPLAINT: The Havre de Grace planning director has filed an ethics complaint against Mayor Bill Martin, alleging that the mayor has asked city officials for favors to help his sister and a local business “to get around our laws.” Matt Hubbard/The Aegis.
FORMER DEL. JIMMY MALONE JR. DIES AT 67: James “Jimmy” Malone Jr., a former Maryland state delegate who represented Baltimore and Howard counties for nearly two decades, died Monday of brain cancer. He was 67. Cayla Harris/The Baltimore Banner.
- Over the course of two decades, Malone earned a reputation as a staunch advocate for highway safety and the state’s emergency medical system. “Our roads are safer because of him and if — God forbid — you’re in an accident, there will be a helicopter that shows up because of him,” said Maggie McIntosh, a Baltimore City Democrat who served in the House alongside Malone. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
