RESISTANCE GROWS TO BILLS BANNING FOREVER CHEMICALS: Strong resistance is building to oppose bills that would ban so-called forever chemicals in Maryland. There’s a renewed push to outlaw more than 1,000 pesticides that contain perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances as an active ingredient. The effort is drawing advocates who are concerned about health effects and opponents who are calling the idea misguided. A central theme from the opposition was that the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal and state bodies permit the pesticides, and so should Maryland. Tolly Taylor/WBAL-TV News.
DELEGATES DISCUSS BILL ON AGE-APPROPRIATE SEX EDUCATION: Delegates on both sides of the aisle on Friday shared personal stories as the House debated House Bill 161, which would require that state health and education officials create an age-appropriate health education framework that includes sexual orientation and gender identity, family, nutrition, and safe social media use. The bill also covers mental health, substance abuse prevention, and safety and violence prevention. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
BILL TO ALLOW AGENCIES TO DENY MORE PUBLIC INFORMATION REQUESTS BLASTED: A bill to give government agencies greater power to deny public information requests – allowing agencies, for example, to ignore for an unspecified period of time all of the requests of individuals or groups deemed troublesome – ran into a buzzsaw of opposition at an Annapolis hearing this week. Fern Shen/Baltimore Brew.
PAID FAMILY LEAVE FOR MARYLAND WORKERS MAY HAVE TO WAIT: A long-awaited state program to provide paid family leave for Maryland workers might have to wait a little longer, according to Labor officials. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
STATE GRAPPLES WITH TRANS PRISONER LAWSUITS AMID CIVIL RIGHTS UNCERTAINTY: Trans prisoners make up a fraction of the people incarcerated in state-run correctional facilities, but accounted for more than a third of Maryland’s civil lawsuit settlement payouts by the corrections department last year, according to a recent budget analysis. As Maryland grapples with housing trans prisoners, the legal landscape around their civil rights protections has faced new uncertainty in recent weeks. Ben Conarck/The Baltimore Banner.
BILL WOULD RAISE PENALTIES FOR RECKLESS DRIVING: Montgomery County police Sgt. Patrick Kepp and other officers knew of Frederick’s Raphael Mayorga long before Mayorga allegedly drove a car into Kepp in October 2023, causing Kepp to lose his legs. Mayorga had been cited multiple times for reckless driving in the area. Why was he still on the road on that night in October? “There were no appropriate charges that applied,” Kepp told members of the Environment and Transportation Committee of the House of Delegates during a hearing Thursday on legislation to increase penalties for reckless driving. Ginny Bixby/Bethesda Today.
STATE LAUNCHES WEBSITE TO AID FEDERAL WORKERS, CONTRACTORS: A new website launched Friday to offer resources to federal workers and contractors in Maryland that have been impacted by President Donald Trump’s recent orders. The Maryland Public Servants Resource website went online Friday, and will offer programs and resources to workers that may have been impacted by federal workforce layoffs firings, changes to federal funding or other changes to employment. Cale Ahearn/WBFF-TV News.
CITING TRUMP ORDER, MD GUARD WON’T TAKE PART IN DOUGLASS PARADE: The Maryland National Guard has declined to participate in a parade to honor the life and legacy of abolitionist and Maryland native Frederick Douglass in his birthplace, citing recent Trump administration guidance. The guard sent organizers a memo saying that it is unable to provide a flyover, band, military vehicles or troop presence, prompting organizers to cancel the parade part of the celebraton . Jenna Portnoy/The Washington Post.
HB 1322 WOULD PUT CARBON MONOXIDE WARNING LABELS ON GAS VESSELS: The pain of the November night that removed Matthew from the Ball family, after an overexposure to carbon monoxide while winterizing a shrink-wrapped boat, resurfaced recently when the family received a call. State Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk was in the process of drafting House Bill 1322, which if passed would require gasoline-powered vessels on state waters to have carbon monoxide warning labels affixed in “conspicuous locations in certain areas of the vessel.” James Mattheson/The Baltimore Sun.
ELECTED OFFICIALS COMMEMORATE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: Maryland’s elected officials, along with residents and historians, gathered in Windsor Mill on a commemorative walk to honor Black History Month, retracing the path enslaved people once took toward freedom. The march started at what is now an auto parts store and culminated at Emmarts United Methodist Church, a historic landmark that served as a safehouse for those escaping slavery in the 1700s. Wambui Kamau/WYPR-FM.
SOME MARYLANDERS LEADERS STILL TOUT DEI POLICIES DESPITE TRUMP: Some Marylanders are leaning into diversity, equity and inclusion even as the term itself has been used as a weapon by critics, including the Trump administration. These leaders in business, culture, education and politics in the state say that DEI efforts are still valuable, address inequities based on race and help move toward great equality for all. John-John Williams IV and Bria Overs/The Baltimore Banner.
SEVEN PRINCE GEORGE’S EXEC CANDIDATES ATTEND CIVIL DEBATE: A few hundred voters turned out Saturday to hear pitches from seven of the 11 candidates running for Prince George’s County executive, in a largely civil debate a little more than two weeks before the special primary election. Not all were there to be educated: Many in the crowd wore T-shirts emblazoned with the names of two Democratic front-runners for the seat. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
ARUNDEL SCHOOL CONSIDER 21 AMENDMENTS TO BUDGET: The Anne Arundel County Board of Education will consider 21 amendments to Superintendent Mark Bedell’s proposed fiscal 2026 operating budget this week before voting on them Wednesday. Bridget Byrne/The Baltimore Sun.
DEBATE REIGNITED IN FREDERICK SCHOOLS, CONTINUES OVER GENDER IDENTITY POLICY: Debate over the Frederick County school district’s gender identity policy continued on Wednesday as students and community members gave public comment at a school board meeting.Frederick County Public Schools Policy 443 was created to “prevent discrimination, stigmatization, harassment, and bullying of students who are transgender or gender nonconforming” and to “create school cultures that are safe, welcoming, and affirming for all students.” Esther Frances/The Frederick News Post.
TALBOT SCHOOL BOARD ADDRESSES DRESS CODE, POSSIBILITY OF SCHOOL UNIFORMS: The Talbot County Board of Education held a discussion during its virtual meeting Wednesday, touching on dress code updates and the possibility of implementing school uniforms. District Superintendent Sharon Pepukayi shared a revision to the district’s administrative regulations for dress code. Administrative regulations do not require board approval. Konner Metz/The Easton Star Democrat.
Former Del. Frank Turner, left, and Howard County Executive Calvin Ball. Howard County Government photo.
FORMER HOWARD DEL. FRANK TURNER DIES AT 77: Frank Turner, who represented Howard County in the legislature for 24 years and was a business professor at Morgan State University for 41 years, died Friday in Columbia at 77. In 1994, Turner was the first African American elected to the General Assembly from Howard County. Since his retirement from the legislature in 2019, Turner was a trustee at Howard Community College. Len Lazarick/Maryland Reporter.
