‘MESS WITH TEXAS:’ SOME MARYLAND DEMS EAGER FOR REDISTRICTING FIGHT: With the balance of power at stake in Congress, some Maryland Democrats are eager to jump into a growing national fight that could lead to an unusual and heavily partisan redrawing of congressional districts across the country. In Maryland, House Majority Leader David Moon is leading the charge, with draft legislation that would automatically begin the congressional redistricting process if Texas or any other state approves new districts. The target is the state’s only Republican House seat, held by U.S. Rep. Andy Harris. Sam Janesch/The Baltimore Sun.
- “What’s happening is ruinous, really, to there being any sort of state parity or ground rules,” said Del. David Moon of the proposed Texas redistricting. “Ultimately, it just helps take accountability away from elected officials.” Lauren Lifken/Maryland Matters.
OUTRAGE OVER ‘SHOCKING’ REPORT ON JUVENILE SERVICES: “It’s very outraging,” said Aubrey Edwards-Luce, tof the Sayra and Neil Meyerhoff Center for Families, Children, and the Courts at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Del. J. Sandy Bartlett (D-Anne Arundel) called it “shocking and extremely disappointing.” What it is is a 49-page report by the Juvenile Justice Monitoring Unit on the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services that found allegations of sexual abuse between youths in state custody, complaints of roaches and mice crawling on students’ beds, and reports of expired and undercooked food. Danielle J. Brown and William J. Ford/Maryland Matters.
FARMERS FEEL PRESSURE FROM SOLAR INDUSTRY, STATE LAWS: “Lease for Solar, Harvest Profits,” one company writes. “You can help power the future of our country,” writes another. These letters to Maryland farmers and rural landowners offer $4,500 per acre, $5,000 or even $7,000, sometimes with lucrative sign-on bonuses, too. Some farmers worry it’s a pressure that Maryland’s agricultural communities cannot withstand, and will turn farmland into solar farms. And they think that the law passed by the General Assembly this year — setting uniform standards for solar facilities and limiting counties’ ability to set solar zoning rules — will only make matters worse. Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
ARUNDEL OPENS NEW NONPROFIT CENTER AT OLD CROWNSVILLE CAMPUS: Anne Arundel County marked a milestone Monday in its redevelopment of the Crownsville Hospital campus, where Maryland once warehoused Black people with mental illness. Officials unveiled the county’s new Nonprofit Center, a renovated hospital building that will be home to various organizations determined to benefit the greater good, part of a comprehensive overhaul of the 500-acre campus that the state sold to the the county for $1 in 2022. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Banner.
BA CO COUNCIL REJECTS KLAUSMEIER NOMINEE; MADIGAN REMAINS IG: The Baltimore County Council Monday voted against Kathy Klausmeier’s nominee for inspector general. In a stunning rebuke to a county executive they appointed seven months ago, the Council failed to confirm Khadija Walker as a replacement for Kelly Madigan, the county’s popular “fraud, waste and abuse” watchdog. Mark Reutter/Baltimore Brew.
- The decision represented the first time in 11 years that the council has not confirmed a county executive’s nominee. With Klausmeier’s nomination of Walker not advancing, the county’s first inspector general, Kelly Madigan, will remain in the role. Rona Kobell/The Baltimore Banner.
- County Executive Kathy Klausmeier said in a statement that she intends to “leave any future appointment — or reappointment — of an inspector general to the next county executive or until an independent appointment board is established by the county council and voters.” Natalie Jones/The Baltimore Sun.
- Republican David Marks, who voted against Walker’s nomination, said that while the county council almost always supports a county executive’s nominee, Madigan deserved a second term. “She’s basically being recommended to be removed, yet this council has never been told why,” Marks said. John Lee/WYPR-FM.
BA CO COUNCILMAN JONES BACKED KLAUSMEIER NOMINEE: Ahead of a controversial vote, Julian Jones stands out as the only Baltimore County council member outwardly backing the new Inspector General nominee. Notably, he’s also the only one to be investigated by the current Inspector General, Kelly Madigan. Baltimore County’s first government watchdog, Madigan, previously released two reports involving Jones. Rebecca Pryor/WBBF-TV News.
RASKIN AND BOEBERT, AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP: In the spring of 2023, a most unlikely friendship took root after a House Oversight Committee hearing ended and members chatted before hurrying off for a two-week congressional recess. That friendship is between Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, a conservative firebrand and one of President Donald Trump’s top supporters, and Montgomery County Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, a liberal darling who is Boebert’s political opposite. Jeff Barker/The Baltimore Sun.
DALI OWNERS SUE VESSEL’s DESIGNER: The owners of the Dali, the ship that hit the Francis Scott Key Bridge in March 2024, are suing the builders of the vessel for defective design. Scott Maucione/WYPR-FM.
- Dali owners Grace Ocean Private and Synergy Marine PTE Ltd. filed the lawsuit last week against Hyundai Heavy Industries in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “As a result of the defectively designed Switchboard, the Vessel suffered a power outage that led to the allision with the Key Bridge,” Grace Ocean Private alleges in the lawsuit. Brian Witte/The Associated Press.
ONLY PARTS OF PIMLICO’s HISTORIC STALL 40 TO BE SALVAGED: The demolition of Pimlico’s aging, historic barns has begun and even the most revered of them all, Stall 40, home of the Kentucky Derby champion during Preakness week over the past half-century, won’t be fully preserved despite pleas from racing fans. The Maryland Stadium Authority, in a memorandum of agreement with the Maryland Historical Trust, said it would identify elements “anticipated for salvage.” Upon closer analysis of the site, the authority will only save Stall 40’s facade and some other wooden pieces. The rest, as they say, is history. Hayes Gardner/The Baltimore Banner.
FORMER SUN WASHINGTON REPORT MURIEL DOBBIN DIES AT 94: Muriel Dobbin, a retired Baltimore Sun Washington Bureau reporter who covered President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Watergate hearings and trial, died July 18 at her Washington home. She was 94. She delighted in covering the Senate’s Watergate hearings and the subsequent trial of the Watergate burglars, where she became quite friendly with Judge John Sirica. Jacques Kelly/The Baltimore Sun.
