JONES TO STEP DOWN, ENDING HISTORIC ERA AS HOUSE SPEAKER: Maryland House of Delegates Speaker Adrienne Jones (D-Baltimore County), the first woman and the first Black legislator to hold the post, is stepping down after more than six years in the job. The surprise announcement drew bipartisan praise and set off a scramble among Jones’ lieutenants to fill her position. Bryan P. Sears and Josh Kurtz/Maryland Matters.
- “When elected Speaker, I never intended this to be forever,” Jones said in a statement. “I wanted to help build the next generation of House leaders.” Katie Shepherd and Katie Mettler/The Washington Post.
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Jones, 71, has been a member of the legislature since 1997 and ascended to the top role in 2019 following the death of longtime House Speaker Michael E. Busch. Lee O. Sanderlin, Pamela Wood and Brenda Wintrode/The Baltimore Banner
ADVOCATES RENEW CALL FOR BEER, WINE SALES IN GROCERY STORES: A group of advocates in Maryland is renewing calls for the “long-overdue” legalization of beer and wine sales in grocery stores. T Moodee Lockman, Ashley Paul/CBS News.
- A retail business group is renewing efforts to repeal a ban on selling beer and wine in Maryland grocery stores. Lorraine Mirabella/The Baltimore Sun.
MOORE VOWS TO SPEND ANOTHER $10M ON SECURITY FOR RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND NONPROFITS: Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Wednesday vowed to maintain increased security funding next year for nonprofits and religious institutions at risk of hate crimes – a key topic at the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Greater Washington’s “Lox & Legislators” event in Rockville. Ceoli Jacoby/Bethesda Today.
GOV. MOORE HITS MEDIA BLITZ ON KEY BRIDGE COLLAPSE AND REDISTRICTING REFORM: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore hit the podcast circuit this week, using two long-form interviews to amplify his thoughts on everything from the Key Bridge collapse and redistricting reform to his efforts to support young men and boys. Mennatalla Ibrahim/The Baltimore Sun.
RESIDENTS, ENVIRONMENTALISTS SKEPTICAL OF POTENTIAL WOODLAWN DATA CENTER PLANS: Though plans for a 150-megawatt data center in Woodlawn are not finalized, some residents worry that such a project could have adverse environmental and economic impacts on the community. Natalie Jones/The Baltimore Sun.
WHO IS JARED LITTMAN, THE NEW MAYOR OF ANNAPOLIS? Littmann has worn many hats: engineer, lawyer and hardware store proprietor. He also served on the City Council for a term, from 2013-17, before announcing a bid for mayor and campaigning for 22 months. Cody Boteler/The Baltimore Banner.
BILL INTRODUCED TO STIFLE ICE IN MO CO: County officials and immigrant advocacy groups on Thursday touted a bill they hope will prevent federal immigration personnel from so easily detaining and deporting county residents, while also making the community safer. Antonio Planas/The Baltimore Banner.
FREDERICK CO. SCHOOLS WORRY BLUEPRINT WILL IMPACT BUDGET: Frederick County Public Schools officials raised concerns that the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future may need to be updated amidst possible impacts to next year’s budget at a meeting Wednesday. Nathanael Miller/WYPR FM.
CALLS FOR ELECTION INTEGRITY GROW: Critics in Maryland estimate that up to 23% of voters may be wrongly registered, with some having died or moved away. Jeff Abell/Fox 45 News.
I applaud Del. Adrienne for stepping down and letting the younger generation take over. Our politicians stay too long and in a day and age of exponential changes in society the old guard is holding us back with their old ways of thinking and misunderstanding of technology. Of course with the Dems constant control of our state little will change with the next speaker.
Study after study shows that voting irregularities are minimal. The GOP Trumpies are just gaslighting. As so often.
Oh yeah they’re minimal, so we obviously should just ignore it and not care. Nope, no big deal that that illegal immigrant that somehow got a job in Iowa and was registered in MD to vote still, yeah of course no big deal. We should just never audit the voter roles to make it more accurate? Afterall its just minimal. We should just keep dead people on the roles? Never purge people whom have moved? You know murder is minimal, barely ever happens statistically, I guess we should never care about that either. Perhaps it is brought up more than it should in media, but it wouldn’t be brought up at all if we actually took the voter roles seriously in keeping them as accurate as possible.