TRUMP ADMIN BALKS AT COMMITTING TO BUILD GREENBELT FBI HQ: The Trump administration still won’t say whether it intends to build the new FBI headquarters in Greenbelt after a judge struck down its plans to move it to the Ronald Reagan Building in DC. The General Services Administration, which oversees federal land development projects, and the FBI declined Tuesday to commit to moving forward with the Prince George’s County project. Mennatalla Ibrahim and Tinashe Chingarande/The Baltimore Sun.
FBI HQ COULD ‘REINVENT’ PRINCE GEORGE’S: Local officials say the federal government has for years shortchanged Prince George’s County compared to its regional peers. The Pentagon reshaped Northern Virginia. The National Institutes of Health anchors the life science industry in Montgomery County. “It would have reinvented the Prince George’s County economy in a way that people just can’t imagine right now,” said David Iannucci, an attorney who helped lead negotiations under former County Executive Rushern Baker. Jack Hogan/The Baltimore Banner.
MARYLAND READY TO OK $109.4M FOR NEW VOTING MACHINES: Maryland is preparing to spend up to $109.4 million on a new statewide voting system, setting up a costly election overhaul that uses similar machines as the state continues to confront large structural budget gaps for the rest of the decade. Gary Collins/The Baltimore Sun.
PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERTS OFFER TIPS AFTER RABID RACCOON ATTACKS: Despite headline-grabbing stories of rabid animal attacks – including three attacks by beavers, at least two of which were confirmed rabid – public health officials and zoonotic disease experts say there is not any greater risk to public safety this summer compared to previous years. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
GROWING NUMBER OF BGE CUSTOMERS IN ARREARS AS IT SEEKS RATE HIKE: A total of 300,000 BGE customers were behind on their utility bills in June, an increase of 10,000 in just three months as the company seeks approval to raise electric rates next year. The number of delinquent customers has climbed from 290,000 since March, according to data reported to the Maryland Public Service Commission. The June figure is equivalent to about 19% of BGE’s roughly 1.6 million residential and commercial customer accounts — almost one in five. Chevall Pryce/The Baltimore Sun.
COLUMN: WHEN WILL BEER AND WINE BE SOLD IN GROCERY STORES? Every legislative cycle, mainstream news outlets run the predictable story: This is finally the year beer and wine enter Maryland grocery stores. To the casual observer, the argument seems logical. The old guard that built and fortified Maryland’s strict three-tier alcohol distribution network for half a century has faded. The legislators who propped it up are gone. But those who measure power in State House committee rooms know better. The fortress hasn’t fallen; its command structure has simply evolved. Barry O’Connell/The Maryland Wire.
CALVERT OKs 6-MONTH MORATORIUM ON DATA CENTERS: Calvert County commissioners have passed a six-month moratorium on data centers, a move that comes shortly after Amazon scrapped plans to build one amid a public uproar, officials announced Tuesday. Darreonna Davis/The Baltimore Banner.
APPEALS COURT TOSSES GUN CONVICTION BECAUSE OF FAULTY SEARCH: A federal appeals court threw out the 2019 gun possession conviction of a Calvert County man, agreeing with his argument that the warrant that allowed the search of his home was based on flimsy information. A divided three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a ruling handed down Friday, said the affidavit from police seeking a warrant to search a home in the Kent Bottom area of the county described Kent Bottom in great detail as an “open-air drug market.” But the 21-page affidavit did not tie any of that activity directly to the one home searched from several in the area. Staff/Maryland Matters.
2nd ACTING POLICE CHIEF IN HOWARD NAMED AS PER CHARTER: Howard County Executive Calvin Ball named acting Col. Antonio Thomas as the new acting chief of police Monday. The appointment comes less than three months after Maj. Terrence Benn assumed the role of acting chief. The Howard County Charter allows the county executive to designate an acting head of any department until a successor is appointed, but the acting head cannot serve for longer than 60 days. The County Council can extend any acting head’s appointment for an additional four months. Brendan Nordstrom/The Baltimore Sun.
DOJ SEEKS TO REVIVE CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA: The Justice Department is pushing to revive criminal charges against Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia, telling a federal appeals court late Monday that a judge erred in his scathing ruling that called the case against the man mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison an “abuse of prosecuting power.” The government is appealing the May ruling by U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw that threw out charges of human smuggling against the Salvadoran national. Travis Loller/The Associated Press.
- U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw dismissed human smuggling charges against Abrego in May, calling the administration’s prosecution “vindictive and selective.” Crenshaw ruled that the executive branch reopened a years-old investigation into a Tennessee traffic stop and charged Abrego with two counts of human smuggling only after Abrego successfully challenged his deportation to El Salvador and the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return. Cassandra Stephenson/Maryland Matters.
UMB PHARMACY INSTRUCTOR TO REMAIN IN ICE CUSTODY: A judge ordered a University of Maryland, Baltimore, pharmacy instructor to remain in custody after federal immigration agents arrested him at a Texas airport last month, the university confirmed Tuesday. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has held Berhanu Kibret in an Oklahoma detention center for nearly a month, accusing him of overstaying his visa. Luke Parker/The Baltimore Sun.
APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS ICE BAN FROM 1,400+ HOUSES OF WORSHIP: A federal appeals court Tuesday upheld an injunction that bars Department of Homeland Security agents from conducting immigration enforcement “at or near” more than 1,400 houses of worship sprawling across 33 states and the District of Columbia. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a February 2025 ruling in favor of a coalition of Quaker, Sikh and Baptist congregations that sued to block the Trump administration’s reversal of a Biden-era policy discouraging immigration actions at “sensitive places.” William Ford/Maryland Matters.
13-YEAR-OLD RAPIST BACK IN JAIL AFTER THREATENING TO KILL: The 13-year-old rapist in Calvert County, who is now back behind bars, violated his probation by threatening to kill another child, according to the state’s attorney. State’s Attorney Bob Harvey said the boy made the threat within days of being given probation following his conviction in the rape of two 6-year-old girls. “What I’m saying to the community is fairly apparent — that this young man was a danger to the community,” Harvey said Tuesday. Thomas Mates and Brad Bell/WJLA-TV News.
