PERENNIAL EFFORT TO PUT WINE, BEER IN GROCERIES STALLS: Consumers looking to buy beer and wine in grocery and other retail stores may have to wait a little longer. What is practically a perennial effort to let other retailers sell some alcoholic beverages appears destined to stall again, with two key Senate Democrats saying a Senate bill is not poised to move forward, and a House version hitting a brick wall of concerns about small business owners Wednesday. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
SENATE LIKELY TO PASS BILL LIMITING AUTO CHARGING OF YOUTH AS ADULTS: After over a decade of attempts, an effort to reduce the amount of crimes eligible for the automatic charging of youths as adults is on track to pass in the Maryland Senate. Sen. Will Smith (D-Montgomery County), chair of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, is spearheading SB0323 — known as the Youth Charging Reform Act —, but the senator had to make some compromises to get the proposal out of committee. Sarah Petrowich/WYPR-FM.
DRIVERLESS CARS GET A HEARING: Waymo executives see an opportunity. Teamsters see a threat. Ronza Othman just sees a chance to get a ride without being discriminated against. “Just yesterday, I was late to work because a rideshare driver refused to take me,” said Othman, of the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland. “He said, quote, ‘It’s not worth the money,’ since he could get more rides in the time it would take for him to help me.” Othman’s comments came during a Senate committee hearing Wednesday on Senate Bill 909, Sen. Sara Love’s bill to allow driverless cars to operate in Maryland. Rhiannon Evans/Maryland Matters.
EASTERN SHORE ADVOCATES RALLY FOR STATE TO RESTORE FUNDING FOR DDA: Eastern Shore lawmakers and advocates rallied Saturday in Salisbury to ask state leaders to restore funding for Maryland’s Developmental Disabilities Administration – and to rethink how services are delivered for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Josh Davis/The Baltimore Sun.
- Moore is proposing to cut $150 million from the DDA, which doubles to $300 million when factoring in the loss of matching federal Medicaid funding. The proposal comes as the state faces a $1.5 billion budget deficit. Brooke Conrad/The Baltimore Sun.
ADVOCATES SEEK PROVIDER PAYMENT BOOST AMID TIGHT BUDGET: Advocates know Maryland lawmakers are working with a tight budget this year but worry that another year without rate increases for behavioral health professionals will worsen a 34,000-person workforce shortage and threaten the services that struggling Marylanders need. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
AG DEPT PLAN TO REDUCE EV INSPECTION FEE WORRIES INDUSTRY: The Maryland Department of Agriculture plans to reduce a controversial inspection fee for electric vehicle chargers, after charging companies and EV drivers expressed concerns that the proposed fee would kneecap the industry. Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
ICE FACILITIES DRAW ATTENTION TO PROCESSES, POTENTIONAL PROBLEMS: Work to retrofit an Elkridge office building as a U.S. ICE facility, complete with detention cells, was nearly done when word got out about the project. Amid the furious reaction — from residents who rallied in subfreezing weather to Howard County leaders who took steps to block its opening — many wondered how such a consequential project came out of nowhere. It didn’t. Lillian Reed/The Baltimore Banner.
- In December, Washington County residents learned that the Department of Homeland Security planned to convert an enormous empty warehouse into a detention center that would house as many as 1,500 people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Though the president still had his supporters, the news didn’t land well with everyone. Joe Heim and Jasmine Golden/The Washington Post.
MD SHERIFFS HEAD TO DC TO PUSH FOR COOPERATION WITH ICE: Maryland sheriffs are taking their fight over immigration enforcement to Washington, D.C., as a dispute with state lawmakers continues over how much local law enforcement should cooperate with federal authorities. A measure aims to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act “to improve public safety, through the enforcement of federal immigration law,” and would require sanctuary jurisdictions to cooperate with U.S. ICE. Vincent Hill/WBFF-TV News.
BILL WOULD PUT CAMERAS IN SPECIAL ED CLASSROOMS IN FREDERICK: A bill before the General Assembly would require cameras to be placed in dedicated special education classrooms throughout Frederick County Public Schools. Del. April Miller (R-Frederick) says her bill would give a voice to those students who cannot advocate for themselves. Nathanael Miller/WYPR-FM.
DATA CENTER GROWTH WORRIES CONSUMERS: A few blocks away from Lexington Market in Baltimore, inside a six-story building adorned with intricate detailing, there’s a data center that uses enough electricity to power a city roughly the size of Dundalk. The company announced in 2024 it would triple the data center’s capacity over the next few years to meet the needs of the booming AI industry. It’s just one of dozens of data centers in Maryland. Opponents say these facilities put more pressure on the state’s already fragile energy grid and contribute to rising electricity costs. Olivia Borgula of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
COMMENTARY: COLLEGE GOP REDUCED TO HOSTING A WHITE SUPREMACIST: The Maryland College Republicans have invited an unrepentant white supremacist to speak at an upcoming event. The Republican relationship with Jared Taylor is the part that should embarrass people more than it does. Taylor’s ideas didn’t stay quarantined on the fringes — they trickled up. Brian Griffiths/The Duckpin.
VAN HOLLEN TO PROPOSE ENDING INCOME TAX FOR MANY: Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, viewed as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, will unveil a plan that he says would ensure roughly half of all U.S. workers pay no federal income taxes. Under Van Hollen’s proposal, workers making at or below a “living wage” — $46,000 for taxpayers filing individually, or $92,000 for married couples filing jointly — would be exempt from federal income taxes. Jeff Stein/The Washington Post.
Van Hollen is dead on arrival if he goes for the presidency. He is not in the conversation. Though I do agree with his tax plan. Especially as things become harder and harder for us on the bottom to get ahead, let alone pay our bills. I’m also equally concerned with the federal debt and increase in fed spending. This is ambitious but without some kind of guarantee from congress that we will balance our budget, could spending become even more out of control? How much will revenues drop? Probably about $1 trillion ish. Which means we would need to increase the upper brackets to recoup that money.
I am not saying I’m against it. But I think a law that ties compensation for the top earners of a company to the lower wrung employees to encourage higher wages of the lower wrung employees would be more affective. This would result in higher fed tax revenue as well as more money in the pockets of us grunt workers. We have a lack of support for employees and raising wages in this country. Often getting band aided by higher minimum wages that create wage compression, giving little incentive to increase skills through costly education, often times only for a filler or 2 more an hour than the lowest wages employees of a company.