MARYLAND LAWMAKERS QUESTION ICE ‘s HARSH ENFORCEMENT TACTICS: Maryland politicians and advocates publicly confronted the interim director of Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Baltimore field office last week at the state’s premier gathering for policymakers, questioning her agents’ tactics for targeting and detaining immigrants and imploring her to resist what they called the harsher edicts of the Trump administration’s enforcement crackdown. Katie Shepherd and Katie Mettler/The Washington Post.
LAID OFF FEDERAL WORKERS FROZEN OUT BY STATE FINANCES: As the Trump administration’s mass layoffs struck Maryland’s large federal workforce earlier this year, Gov. Wes Moore publicly pressed state agencies to recruit displaced civil servants and fast-track their hiring. The federal government’s loss would be Maryland’s gain. But Moore’s aggressive hiring efforts soon collided with the state’s harsh budget realities. Sapna Bansil and Brenda Wintrode/The Baltimore Banner.
MOORE CHIEF OF STAFF TO HEAD ABELL FOUNDATION: In a generational shift for one of Baltimore’s most influential organizations, the Abell Foundation has selected Fagan Harris, Gov. Wes Moore’s chief of staff, as its new president. At 38, Harris has been alive as long as the man he succeeds, Bob Embry, has been president of the Baltimore-based foundation, which has more than $300 million in assets and spends about $15 million every year. Jean Marbella and Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
- Harris will become just the second head of the Abell Foundation, succeeding Embry who joined the nonprofit in 1987 and announced his plan to leave the foundation earlier this year. Harris said it was Moore, who has been a mentor, who encouraged him to consider the job at one of Baltimore’s premier nonprofit foundations. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
- His departure comes as the governor is entering the last year of his term with a 2026 reelection campaign rapidly approaching. Harris has not only led Moore’s staff, but served as a key advisor and confidante to the governor on high-profile issues. Lee O. Sanderlin and Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
CITING THREATS, POWERLINE FIRMS SEEKS MARSHALS PROTECTION: The developers of a controversial power line project are asking U.S. Marshals to accompany survey crews in Maryland, citing threats of violence from property owners. In a motion filed Aug. 15 in U.S. District Court in Maryland, PSEG Renewable Transmission requested federal protection after crews were allegedly threatened while attempting to access private land in Carroll County. Christian Olaniran/WJZ-TV News.
***Join Maryland Reporter’s Len Lazarick at Howard Community College for a four-week noncredit seminar on China Today 2025 beginning Sept. 4 and a three-week seminar on Vietnam: 50 years after the War beginning Oct. 2. For more info, see the catalog. He will again be teaching East Asian Civilization for credit for the fall semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 12:30. Tuition is waived (but not fees) at HCC and most Maryland public colleges and universities for residents over 60.***
MARYLAND JOINS TWO MORE LAWSUITS AGAINST TRUMP: Attorney General Anthony Brown has joined two more multistate lawsuits against the Trump administration, one over proposed caps on administrative costs for renewable energy projects and another on restrictions for federal grants for victims of crime. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
HARRIS, OTHER REPUBS NOW THINK COMMUNITY EARMARKS AREN’T SO BAD: Republicans, including Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, are looking to include community project funding in the next government spending bill, a return to past years when members of Congress could funnel money directly to their districts. The potential move could bring over $300 million to local developments across Maryland. Ben Mause/The Baltimore Sun.
- Freedom Caucus chair Andy Harris and his allies are suggesting that allowing earmarks to ride alongside a flat-funded, short-term spending bill — known as a continuing resolution — would help avoid a more dreaded scenario: passage of a larger, full-year package — called an omnibus — at higher funding levels. Meredith Hill Lee/Politico.
WATER CREMATION GETS A FOOTHOLD IN MARYLAND: Inside a white brick building in West Baltimore, a long silver chamber full of water seesawed back and forth over a platform. Within it, a body dissolved. Skin, flesh and organs turned into amino acids and sugars with each tip of the chamber. In a matter of hours, all that remained were bones and the leftover watery solution. More than half the states in the U.S. have legalized water cremation, according to the association. Maryland joined the list last spring. Dana Munro/The Washington Post.
JULES WITCOVER, VENERATED POLITICAL REPORTER, DIES AT 98: Jules Witcover, a journalist whose vast connections — ranging from top party leaders to local precinct bosses — made him one of the best-sourced political reporters of his generation, and who was known for the long-running syndicated column he wrote with his Baltimore Sun colleague Jack Germond, died Aug. 16 at his home in Washington. He was 98. Bart Barnes/The Washington Post.
- Witcover wrote more than a dozen books on politics and politicians, and five on other subjects. With “Marathon: The Pursuit of the Presidency 1972-1976” (1977), his definitive chronicle of the 1976 presidential campaign, he assumed the mantle of Theodore H. White, whose “Making of the President” books turned the elections of 1960, 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1980 into thrillers with full-blooded characters and suspense. Robert McFadden/The New York Times.
