FEDERAL JUDGE’s RULING PUTS MARYLAND FBI HQ BACK INTO PLAY: A federal district judge in Maryland Monday overturned Trump administration plans to build the next FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., restoring Greenbelt as the likely next home for the agency. The 47-page ruling and two-page order by U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang said the abrupt decision last year by the FBI and the General Services Administration to say they would move the headquarters into the Ronald Reagan Building in downtown Washington exceeded their authority and was “unlawful.” Steve Crane/Maryland Matters.
- Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown said the legal victory is “about more than a building.” “It is about ensuring that when Congress makes a decision, the Federal Government cannot simply ignore it because they do not like the outcome,” Brown said. “Congress made a promise. The Trump Administration tried to break it. Now, the jobs, investment, and opportunity Marylanders deserve are within reach.” Katie Mettler and Jasmine Golden/The Washington Post.
- Judge Chuang wrote that Congress had already approved the Biden administration plan for the FBI to move to Maryland. Congress had not signed off on the Trump administration’s decision to end that plan. “The Court therefore does not find that Congress has ratified either the Reagan Building Selection Decision or the F.B.I. Reprogramming Decision, or that it has impliedly repealed” the previous plan to move the FBI headquarters to Maryland. Chris Cameron/The New York Times.
NEW LAWSUIT FILED TO BLOCK REDISTRICTING AMENDMENT: A national law firm that advised Louisiana lawmakers on a redistricting effort that later resulted in the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upending the landmark Voting Rights Act is representing a group of Maryland Republicans seeking to block a proposed amendment to the state constitution. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
WHAT DOES MARYLAND DIGITAL TAX RULING MEAN FOR TAXPAYERS? The recent Maryland Tax Court ruling striking down Maryland’s first-in-the-nation digital advertising tax eliminated a source of revenue intended to help pay for the state’s sweeping K-12 education reforms. But the ruling does not appear to leave an immediate $536 million hole in Maryland’s budget since it has been unable to spend that tax revenue while legal challenges played out.But how much will losing the tax matter to Maryland’s finances going forward? Tinashe Chingarande/The Baltimore Sun.
ALL MARYLAND SCHOOL START DATES ARE PRE-LABOR DAY: Maryland school start dates — perhaps the least-expected places for politics to creep in — for the past seven years have often fallen along party lines. But this year’s unusually late Labor Day shook things up. Each of the state’s 24 school districts starts the academic year before the Sept. 7 holiday for the first time since 2016, when former Gov. Larry Hogan directed all schools to start after Labor Day. Kristen Griffith/The Baltimore Banner.
FORMER HICKEY SCHOOL EMPLOYEE PLEADS GUILTY TO SEX ABUSE: A former Maryland juvenile detention center employee pleaded guilty Monday to sexually abusing 11 boys between 1968 and 1991. As part of a plea agreement, Ronald Neverdon, who held various positions at the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School from 1973 until his retirement in 2013, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Dylan Segelbaum/The Baltimore Banner.
MO CO BUDGET CONTROL GROUP SHORT ON REFERENDUM SIGNATURES: The Montgomery County Board of Elections announced Monday that a proposed budget-limiting referendum is 302 valid signatures short of the minimum of 10,000 required to get on the November ballot. The group behind the initiative, the Committee to Control Montgomery County Spending, submitted signatures in two tranches. The first contained 11,408 signatures, of which 7,999 were deemed valid; the second contained 2,524 signatures of which 1,699 were valid. Ceoli Jacoby/Bethesda Today.
B’MORE COUNCILMAN HOPES TO FIX PUBLIC FINANCE ‘THIRUPHOLE:’ Thiru Vignarajah used public money when he ran for Baltimore mayor in 2024. When he dropped out and endorsed another candidate, it seemed that he’d have to give it all back. Thanks to a quirk in the law, he didn’t. Call it a workaround, a loophole — a Thiruphole, even. Vignarajah outsmarted the system. City Council member Zac Blanchard is determined not to let it happen again. Emily Opilo/The Baltimore Banner.
SEARCHING FOR RABID BEAVERS: The first rabid beaver attack sent a screaming 13-year-old to the hospital in a helicopter. The second prompted the lake’s closure. There would not be a third, if local officials had anything to say about it. A small boat crept through the secluded quiet of Tuesday night at Cunningham Falls State Park. Two wildlife staffers trained their eyes on the water’s surface and the shore, scanning for rabid beavers they hoped they wouldn’t find. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Banner.
MANGIONE’s MURDER TRIAL POSTPONED: Luigi Mangione’s state murder trial in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which was slated to begin Sept. 8, has been postponed indefinitely as his lawyers seek to have the case thrown out on double jeopardy grounds following his guilty plea last week to federal charges. Michael R. Sisak/Associated Press.
