WITH 2025 PREAKNESS OVER, PIMLICO REBUILDING TO START: An aging facility long in a state of disrepair is now barely even functional — its broken-down elevators, cracked windows, balky plumbing and long-ago condemned section of grandstands turning Pimlico, where a crowd of some 60,000 was expected Saturday, into an eyesore at best, a danger zone at worst. Next year’s Preakness will be relocated to Laurel Park, with the race slated to return to a rebuilt Pimlico in 2027. Dave Sheinin/The Washington Post.
- The teardown is expected to begin in a few weeks after the Board of Public Works approved a $14.3 million demolition contract earlier this month. The next time racing returns to the site — the hope is for the 2027 Preakness — everything around it will be different. Childs Walker/The Baltimore Banner.
- From 1986 to 2007, the De Francis family were owners (either wholly or with partners) of Pimlico. Even when they bought it, the track was a dilapidated headquarters for a state horse racing industry in desperate need of saving. In the years since the Stronach family took over stewardship, Pimlico’s degradation has only become more dire — leading to Maryland’s state takeover of the track and a grandly ambitious plan to tear down its structures and rebuild it with $500 million of bond money. Kyle Goon/The Baltimore Banner.
36 DEATHS IN POLICE CUSTODY SHOULD HAVE BEEN RULED HOMICIDES, AUDIT FINDS: An unprecedented independent audit found that 36 deaths in police custody over a two-decade span in Maryland should have been ruled homicides by the state’s top medical examiner, a stinging rebuke of Maryland‘s past efforts to investigate the deaths of those once held by law enforcement. Justin Fenton, Ben Conarck and Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
TRUMP TARIFFS’ IMPACT ON PORT OF BALTIMORE EXPECTED TO HIT IN JUNE: It is still too early to gauge the impacts of President Donald Trump’s widespread tariffs on imported goods on the Port of Baltimore, despite other ports experiencing changes. “We expect to see impacts with our container business, especially from China,” Richard Scher, director of communications for the Port of Baltimore, said in a statement to Capital News Service. “But those impacts will likely not show until June.” Daranee Balachandar of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
LAND ACCESS CASE FOR ELECTRIC GRID PROJECT BEGINS: A federal court case that would allow the company hired to build the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project to survey properties on the project path will begin Monday morning, with opening arguments from attorneys representing both sides. Thomas Goodwin Smith/The Carroll County Times.
130,000 MARYLANDERS NEARER TO LOSING SOME FEDERAL FOOD BENEFITS: The U.S. House Agriculture Committee approved last Wednesday its portion of Republicans’ major legislative package that includes a provision that would shift to states some of the responsibility to pay for a major nutrition assistance program. Close to 130,000 Marylanders could lose some amount of Supplementary Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamp, benefits under the plan, according to one estimate, with 71,000 at risk of losing benefits entirely. Jacob Fischler/Maryland Matters.
MOORE VETOES REPARATIONS STUDY BILL: Gov. Wes Moore on Friday vetoed a bill that would have required the state to define the economic harms to Black descendants of enslaved people and recommend remedies, dealing a blow to reparations supporters who counted on the only Black governor of a U.S. state to be an ally. Erin Cox/The Washington Post.
2025 BROUGHT NEW CHALLENGES TO GOV. MOORE: In speeches and statements, in television appearances and campaign fundraising pitches, Gov. Wes Moore has spent the first four months of his third year in office with a new turn of phrase: “Confront crisis with courage.”And the crises keep on coming. Start with a $3-billion state budget shortfall; the loss of the Washington Commanders back to D.C. and the potential loss of a planned new FBI headquarters in Prince George’s County. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
COLLEGES LAY OFF WORKERS, FREEZE HIRING AFTER $155M STATE CUT: At the University of Maryland at Baltimore, administrators are laying off about 30 people and eliminating about 30 vacant positions. Towson University is implementing a hiring pause. And Morgan State University is consolidating some programs in addition to cutting jobs and vacancies. Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff/The Washington Post.
PRINCE GEORGE’S HAS HIGHEST NUMBER OF ROAD FATALITIES: Prince George’s County has had the highest number of road fatalities of any Maryland county this year and in recent years. As of Thursday, there had been 34 traffic fatalities this year in Prince George’s County. Baltimore County, which has the next highest total, reported 12. And Montgomery County reported only 10 crash fatalities this year. The number of fatal crashes in Prince George’s rose nearly every year between 2019 to 2023. Randy Chow of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
CUTS THREATEN PRINCE GEORGE’S PUBLIC ACCESS STATION: In mid-March, Prince George’s County’s Community Television was threatened with a $693,400 cut proposed in the county’s budget. That funds the lion’s share of the station’s $1.4 million annual costs and could force the long-standing news operation to shut down. It’s an award winning organization that offers news programming to county residents. Michael Brice-Saddler and Lateshia Beachum/The Washington Post.
CALVERT’s CANNABIS USE ALMOST DOUBLE STATE AVERAGE: A brief overview of Calvert County’s health data last week raised questions regarding county residents’ use of cannabis. Statistics presented to the Calvert Commissioners by Dr. Nimfa Teneza-Mora, the county health officer, show that the percentage of local adults reporting the use of cannabis — 28.8% — is almost double the state average. Teneza-Mora said the data, provided by the Maryland Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, is from 2023. Marty Madden/Southern Maryland News.
STATE’s LARGEST ACTIVE UNDERGROUND COAL MINE SOLD: Maryland’s largest active underground coal mine changed hands last month after its previous operator, Canadian firm Corsa Coal, filed for bankruptcy and auctioned its assets to pay creditors. The new operator, Pennsylvania-based Rosebud Mining Co., will not inherit the dozens of delinquent fines levied by the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration for safety violations at the Casselman mine in Garrett County. Paul Kiefer of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
DID A SINGLE CHILDREN’s BOOK LEAD TO CARLA HAYDEN’s FIRING? In 1946, an award-winning author wrote one of the first children’s books about racism. The main character was a young African American girl, a Girl Scout Brownie with pigtails. Carla Hayden, a Baltimorean and former librarian of Congress fired by President Donald Trump last week, could relate. She was a Brownie when she read “Bright April” as an 8-year-old, repeatedly checking it out from her local library. She had pigtails, too. Could her very public embrace of a 79-year-old children’s story book have contributed to her dismissal? Jeff Barker/The Baltimore Sun.
