AMID TRADE WAR, MOORE COURTS JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA: Gov. Wes Moore (D) on Saturday launched a week-long mission to sell the state of Maryland as a destination to do business to executives in Japan and South Korea, even amid economic turmoil in the state and an increasingly tense international trade war. Katie Shepherd/The Washington Post.
- The miles passed like seconds as the train rocketed through the Japanese countryside, whirring by the cherry blossoms. The roughly 27-mile ride, about the distance from BWI Airport to Washington, took nine minutes. Saturday morning’s demonstration topped out at 311 mph, though railway officials assured everyone it could go even faster — it literally levitated. Moore needed one word to summarize the experience: “Wow.” Lee O. Sanderlin/The Baltimore Banner.
EDUCATION BLUEPRINT SURVIVED ROLLBACKS: WHAT’s NEXT: Maryland lawmakers passed a bill last Monday revising the state’s expensive education reform plan, making marginal cuts instead of the more dramatic rollbacks Gov. Wes Moore proposed. Sasha Allen of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
MARYLAND SCHOOLS TO COMPLY WITH TRUMP ANTI-DEI ORDER: Deciding not to pick a fight with the Trump administration, Maryland school leaders plan to sign a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that says their school districts are complying with all civil rights laws. Liz Bowie/The Baltimore Banner.
MOORE TOUTS MIDDLE-CLASS TAX CUT; REPUBLICANS CALL IT GASLIGHTING: Gov. Wes Moore recently signed the largest budget in state history, which includes more than a dozen new taxes and fees. But he continues to tout a tax cut for the middle class. The Democratic governor’s Republican critics have quickly pounced on what they see as gaslighting. Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready, who represents Carroll and Frederick counties, describes the budget as “the largest tax increase in Maryland history.” Candy Woodall/The Baltimore Sun.
WITH SESSION OVER, WHAT HAPPENS TO MIDDLE-CLASS MARYLANDERS? To the relief of most state officials, the Maryland General Assembly ended its tense budget cycle and passed a balanced spending plan for the coming year. Now the question is whether that relief will extend beyond the halls of power to working families and middle-class residents of the state. The Democratic administration of Gov. Wes Moore and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller argues that it will. Emma Tufo of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
WHO WON, WHO LOST, WHO BROKE EVEN IN ANNAPOLIS: The 2025 legislative session was a slog. Perhaps the most important, fatiguing and demoralizing 90 days in a generation. But there was one last thing to do: The Maryland Matters staff fanned out to talk to lawmakers, advocates, lobbyists and others who say they know what’s going on about who won, who lost and who more or less broke even. In many cases, the answer to our question was another question: Did anyone really win this year? Staff/Maryland Matters.
GRADING GOV. MOORE’s PERFORMANCE: Grading Gov. Wes Moore is a popular pastime right now. His third General Assembly session just ended, and that’s always the point in Maryland’s four-year cycle of politics when the toughest issues can’t be ignored anymore. Staff/The Baltimore Banner.
COMMENTARY: WHAT THE MARYLAND VALUES ACT MEANS: On April 7, Maryland made a bold decision: to refuse to become complicit in a broken immigration system that targets vulnerable communities. The General Assembly passed the Maryland Values Act, a House bill prohibiting any agent of the state or local government from entering into immigration enforcement agreements with federal agencies. If Gov. Moore signs this act into law, Maryland will join 10 other states in prohibiting the formation of 287(g) program agreements within the state. Kevin Pacheco-Barajas and Olivia Zepeda/Maryland Reporter.com.
COMMENTARY: MARYLAND TURNED HUGE DEFICIT INTO A SURPLUS: This has been a historic legislative session. Our state was up against more than the standard hurdles of policy negotiations and bill amendments. We faced an all-out and escalating assault from our own federal government. What we have endured since Jan. 20 are not glancing blows; they are direct shots. When confronted with this new, harsh reality, our state didn’t flinch. The story of this session can be summed up in a simple phrase: Maryland answered crisis with courage. Wes Moore/The Baltimore Sun.
MOVE OVER DELAWARE: MARYLAND’s COCKTAIL IS ORANGE CRUSH TOO: Enter the iconic orange crush, a summery cocktail invented in Maryland that neighboring Delaware took credit for last year. Now, the orange crush is Maryland’s official cocktail, too, after an 11th-hour vote on the last day of the General Assembly’s session last week that, fittingly for the year, was packed with last-minute drama. Katie Shepherd/The Washington Post.
TRUMP ADMIN CONFIRMS ABREGO GARCIA IS ALIVE IN EL SALVADOR: The Trump administration confirmed to a federal judge Saturday that a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported last month remains confined in a notorious prison in El Salvador. But the government’s filing did not address the judge’s demands that the administration detail what steps it was taking to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. The government only said Garcia is under the authority of the El Salvador government. Bill Barrow/The Associated Press.
- The Trump administration on Sunday evening doubled down on its assertion that a federal judge cannot force it to bring back to the United States the Maryland man who was unlawfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador last month. Allen Feuer/The New York Times.
TRUMP FIRINGS ROIL THE TWO RICHEST BLACK COUNTIES: Charles and Prince George’s counties, Maryland neighbors with intertwined histories, are the nation’s richest majority-Black counties, with median household incomes that exceed $100,000. Nowhere else comes close. Now President Donald Trump’s mass firings of federal workers are shaking the foundation of these suburban D.C. counties’ success: reliable, good-paying government jobs. Greg Morton and Sapna Bansil/The Baltimore Banner.
HARRIS, A HOLDOUT ON TRUMP BUDGET, FINDS WAY TO SUPPORT IT: U.S. Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland, an early holdout on a budget plan critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda, says he came around after the White House promised to back deep new spending cuts, including targeting Medicaid waste. Jeff Barker/The Baltimore Sun.
NEW HOME VILLAGE GIVES UNHOUSED A CHANCE AT HOMEOWNERSHIP: A group of formerly unhoused people were fortunate enough to move into new construction homes with only their personal belongings, thanks to the efforts of Chris and Pam Wilson, a retired couple who came up with the concept. In East Baltimore, a groundbreaking project is transforming their lives. It is called Hope Village, a tiny home community where families are now homeowners, some earning as little as $18 an hour. Wambui Kamau/WYPR-FM.
STEEL MANUFACTURER HOSTS TRUMP OFFICIAL AS TARIFFS ROIL MARKETS: One of Baltimore’s biggest tariff lovers hosted a top Trump administration official at his steel fabrication plant Friday morning. Drew Greenblatt gave a tour of Marlin Steel in South Baltimore to Kelly Loeffler, the new head of the Small Business Administration. Giacomo Bologna/The Baltimore Banner.
REMOVED CONFEDERATE STATUES WON’T BE RESTORED, SKIRTING LIMITS TO TRUMP ORDER: The statue of Captain John O’Donnell, an 18th century merchant who enslaved dozens of Black people on his Maryland plantation, won’t be returning to its former perch in Baltimore’s Canton Square, despite an executive order last month from President Donald Trump. Neither will other statues and plaques. The executive order is limited only to monuments taken down after Jan. 1, 2020, and only to those under the control of the federal government. Mary Carole McCauley/The Baltimore Sun.
