To all our readers: We wish you a happy and healthy Thanksgiving.
SAFETY FEATURES ADD TO SKYROCKETING COST OF KEY BRIDGE REPLACEMENT: Maryland Transportation Authority officials explained that the rise in cost estimates for the replacement Francis Scott Key Bridge is due in part to larger pylons and safety fenders required to protect them. The MDTA’s board got a thorough briefing on the state of the project on Tuesday. Mike Hellgren/WJZ-TV News.
- In the spring, attorneys, engineers and state officials will enter a negotiating room. They will likely exit with the actual, sort-of-final cost of replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Despite Gov. Wes Moore‘s repeated commitments to keep the high-profile rebuild on time and on budget, the project’s image took a hit last week as officials revealed that initial estimates were off by two years and billions of dollars. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Banner.
- They’re gonna need a bigger bridge. That, partially, is what prompted the Francis Scott Key Bridge’s budget to more than double and its schedule to slow. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Banner.
FAMILIES SCRAMBLE FOR THANKSGIVING MEAL HELP AT FOOD BANKS: The longest federal government shutdown in U.S. history halted the benefits that more than 680,000 Marylanders receive through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. To ease the impact, Gov. Wes Moore pledged millions in state money to cover half of the benefits and support food banks. But ongoing uncertainty with the program just ahead of the nation’s biggest food holiday has left families scrambling and seeking help from food banks. Sapna Bansil/The Baltimore Banner.
HUD FUNDING CUTS COULD DISPLACE UP TO 4,000 MARYLANDERS: HUD funding cuts threaten to displace up to 1,000 Baltimore residents from permanent housing. Millions of dollars in federal housing funding are being cut from Baltimore City, potentially forcing 700 to 1,000 people onto the streets as early as the beginning of next year. Jeff Morgen/WMAR-TV News.
- Maryland joined a group of 20 states suing the Trump administration over cuts to federal housing aid that state officials say could increase homelessness by 25% statewide. “These unlawful policies will force more than 4,000 Marylanders out of their homes,” said Attorney General Anthony G. Brown. Mathew Schumer/The Baltimore Sun.
UNLICENSED ELDER CARE FACILITIES PERSIST LONG AFTER LAWMAKERS SEEK FIX: Two and a half years after Maryland leaders pushed for a sweeping crackdown on the state’s booming unlicensed assisted-living industry, numerous elder-care homes without licenses continue to operate largely unchecked, raising urgent questions about who is protecting the state’s most vulnerable seniors. Gary Collins/The Baltimore Sun.
SOMERSET FARMER TO FILL LATE DEL. OTTO’s 38A SEAT: Gov. Wes Moore on Tuesday appointed Howard Kevin Anderson to fill the District 38A seat in the Maryland House of Delegates, selecting a third-generation Somerset County farmer to succeed the late Del. Charles J. Otto. Brian Carlton/The Baltimore Sun.
DEL. HARRIS TAPPED BY PG PANEL FOR SENATE SEAT; CALVERT ACTION MOOT: It’s a done deal. The Prince George’s County Democratic Central Committee chose Del. Kevin Harris on Tuesday night to fill the District 47 Senate seat vacated this month by Michael Jackson, who is now the State Police superintendent. Tbe DCC in Charles County also selected Harris last Saturday. The Calvert County committee is set to meet Saturday for the seat, which includes parts of all three counties, but with two counties already in Harris’ corner, Calvert cannot change the outcome. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
HUNTING LANDOWNERS DEFEND RIGHT AGAINST POWER LINE COMPANY: The company behind a controversial 67-mile long power line project that cuts through three counties, the Public Service Enterprise Group, has petitioned a federal judge to issue a blanket ban on hunting with the season just days away. Blair Sabol/WMAR-TV News.
- As he argued in Baltimore’s federal courthouse Tuesday, attorney Harris Eisenstein pulled a bright orange hunting vest from his bag and hoisted it into the air. “This is all that it takes,” he said. If power line surveyors simply don the fluorescent orange and pink that hunters are well accustomed to, they won’t face any real danger completing environmental inspections in rural Maryland during hunting season, Eisenstein said. Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
MORGAN STATE LEANS INTO USING AI: Grading assignments. Advising students. Sorting through important files. These tasks, and countless more, might not have to be done by employees at Morgan State University anymore. That’s thanks to Obsidian, a new secure artificial intelligence system created by leaders at the Northeast Baltimore university. Ellie Wolfe/The Baltimore Banner.
B’MORE MAYOR DENIES TRYING TO INFLUENCE AFSCME ELECTIONS: Holding a press conference with a candidate for union office 12 days before a hotly contested election does not constitute favoritism or interference in union affairs, Mayor Brandon Scott says. “It has nothing to do with the elections,” Scott said, after he was joined by Trevor Taylor, candidate for president of AFSCME Local 44, and about 20 other union members. Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew.
- Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott signed wage increases for unionized municipal employees into law Tuesday, but not without some drama surrounding a contested election for a union whose leader was notably absent from the ceremony. Carson Swick/The Baltimore Sun.
B’MORE JUDICIAL TRAILBLAZER HONORED WITH COURTHOUSE NAMING: Baltimore City’s newest courthouse honors a Maryland trailblazer. The Department of General Services cut the ribbon on the Mabel Hubbard Courthouse on Calvert Street on Tuesday. Hubbard was the first African American woman appointed to the bench in the state of Maryland. She later served on Baltimore City’s circuit court. Hannah Hoffman/WBAL-TV News.
- “She wanted everybody to have a fair chance and to really feel like they were heard,” said her son John Hubbard. “I think people really remembered her and she stuck with people because of the way she made them feel … I can understand why people really, really appreciated her.” Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
