AGENCIES TOLD TO TIGHTEN 2028 BUDGETS WITH 3% TO 10% CUTS: State agencies are being asked to tighten their belts as they finalize budget requests for the coming difficult fiscal year. Emails to every executive branch agency, as well as state universities, told them to prepare fiscal 2028 budget requests that include reductions of roughly 3%, with two dozen Cabinet-level agencies told to prepare budgets with up to 10% reductions. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
STATE SEEKS FUNDS TO CUSHION AGAINST FEDERAL MEDICAID CUTS: State officials are scrambling to find funding to cushion the blow on Marylanders’ pocketbooks of skyrocketing healthcare costs and federal changes to the Medicaid program, in hopes that people can still afford coverage. The search comes as the state faces an anticipated budget shortfall of $2.8 billion or more in the coming fiscal year — but the cost of inaction would be even greater down the road, advocates say. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
WHICH LAW FIRMS GAVE THE MOST IN CAMPAIGN DONATIONS – AND TO WHOM: Maryland campaign accounts have reported over $1.8 million in contributions from law firms during the current election cycle — and some of those donations were above the state’s $6,000 maximum. The review of state campaign finance data for 2023 to 2026 identified the law firms – excluding lobbying firms — that spent the most on elections. The biggest recipient of law firm contributions thus far isn’t a candidate. It’s the Democratic State Central Committee of Maryland, which got more than $222,000. Most of that came from the top-spending law firm, Venable LLP. Dan Belson/The Daily Record.
JAWANDO, OUT OF HOSPITAL, THANKS ALL FOR GOOD WISHES: Montgomery County Councilmember Will Jawando, the Democratic candidate for county executive, was discharged from George Washington Memorial Hospital on Wednesdayafter suffering a heart attack on Saturday. In a video recorded at his Ashton home and posted to social media on Thursday, Jawando thanked his colleagues and supporters for their well wishes over the past week, saying “the prayers, the cards, the flowers [and] the texts” have “meant the world to me and the family.” Ceoli Jacoby/Bethesda Today.
LAM WANTS STATE TO RECONSIDER GUN STORAGE LAWS: State Sen. Clarence Lam, a Democrat whose district includes Freetown Elementary School in Glen Burnie, is calling for the state to reconsider its gun storage laws after a 7-year-old took a man’s handgun to the school and fired it. The gun’s owner was sentenced last week to six months of unsupervised probation, and a chance to wipe his record clean afterward. Sofia Montoya-Deck/The Baltimore Sun.
AFTER FITS AND STARTS, REPARATIONS COMMISSION TO BEGIN WORK: To Del. Aletheia McCaskill, “in some ways, this moment still doesn’t feel real.” This moment is the pending launch of a Reparations Commission, years after it was first proposed and 17 months after it was passed by lawmakers, vetoed by the governor as unnecessary and then overridden by the General Assembly. Her optimism comes as the majority of the 23 members of the commission have been selected. William Ford/Maryland Matters.
COLUMN: WE NEED MORE AMERICANS LIKE DAVID GARCIA:I don’t know what David Garcia will do now that ICE has deported his mother to Mexico. If this Naval Academy plebe were to say “to hell with defending America” and withdraw from Annapolis, I think some would understand. I hope he decides to stay. This nation will need Garcia and others like him — members of families torn apart by President Donald Trump’s cruel immigration purge — once this madness ends. Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner.
HOW WILL FREDERICK MOVE ON FROM VIOLENT CLASH WITH ICE? A nearly two-day stakeout by federal agents in the quiet Frederick neighborhood of Taskers Chance attracted dozens of ICE observers, who slept in the area to keep a watchful eye until a violent clash erupted the evening of Sept. 4. “We certainly would love to not be dealing with it in Frederick,” Mayor Michael O’Connor said. “But, if it comes to our doorstep, then we’re going to …stand in support of our community.” Sara Ruberg and Justin Fenton/The Baltimore Banner.
MARYLAND RANKS HIGH AS GOOD PLACE FOR TEACHERS: Maryland was listed at No. 7 on a new WalletHub study that ranked the best and worst states for teachers. WalletHub identified the best states to teach through 24 key measures, including income growth potential and pupil-teacher ratios.Maryland placed No. 7 with a score of 54.80. The state placed No. 25 in opportunity and competition rank, but placed No. 3 in academic and work environment. Christopher Scarglato/The Baltimore Sun.
DID B’MORE AGENCY GREEN-LIGHT NEW HARBORPLACE TAX BREAKS IN SECRET? On Aug. 28, the Baltimore Development Corp. board met and gave preliminary approvals for tax breaks for three major planned development projects, including Harborplace. Public acknowledgment of the meeting came from a press release the development corporation sent the following week. Details about what was discussed at the meeting, the valuation of the tax breaks and other key information have been scant since. Now, local news organizations are accusing the city’s development arm of meeting in secret and violating the state’s open-meetings law. Lee O. Sanderlin/The Baltimore Banner.
SUN CULTIVATES AI SLOP IN PLACE OF EDITORIAL CARTOONS: When the Baltimore Sun fired its celebrated political cartoonist Kevin “KAL” Kallaugher last year with an unceremonious “Sunday’s going to be your last day” phone call, it felt to him and his fans like the ultimate indignity. But in an even more mortifying development, The Sun has begun publishing cartoons produced not by professionals like Kallaugher. Or by human beings at all. Welcome to the brave new world of A.I. Journalism. Fern Shen and Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew.
FORMER SUN COLUMNIST ROGER SIMON DIES AT 78: Roger Mitchell Simon, an award-winning journalist and onetime columnist for The Chicago Sun-Times and The Baltimore Sun, died Thursday of pneumonia at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in the nation’s capital. The Chicago native was 78. Mike Klingaman/The Baltimore Sun.
- There was no one like Roger Simon. That’s said about a lot of people, but in Roger’s case, it happened to be true. He was an original, a rare talent and a journalist who has left behind a rich legacy of reporting and writing. Dan Baltz/The Washington Post.
