STATE HEALTH OFFICIALS ISSUE VACCINE RECOMMENDATIONS: The Maryland Department of Health released its own vaccination recommendations in lieu of the federal standards set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging all adults to get their Covid-19 vaccination this fall. Additionally, all children between 6 months and 2 years old should get their shot, as should children 2 years to 18 years old who are at risk. Scott Maucione/WYPR-FM.
STATE-MANDATED REFUND COMING IN YOUR UTILITY BILLS: Maryland lawmakers want you to read your utility bill particularly closely this month. A roughly $40 rebate on electricity bills, approved by the General Assembly in April, is finally heading out to customers, with a second round expected in early 2026. Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
LAWMAKERS PUSH TO KEEP BELTSVILLE AG CENTER OPEN: Leaders from Maryland have launched a campaign to stop a proposal that would close the 115-year-old Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and move personnel to other states across the U.S. On Monday, lawmakers, including U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, Reps. Steny Hoyer, Jamie Raskin and Glenn Ivey, Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy and others, gathered to highlight the importance of the facility and why it should stay in Maryland. Alan Etter/WTOP-FM.
- “There’s been a multimillion-dollar investment in this space, and if you just pick it up and move it, you’re squandering that money,” Ivey said. “It’s expensive to move, and you’d have to build new facilities wherever you go. And you’re going to lose the human capital.” Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
STATE’s TOP PROSECUTOR, A TRUMP APPOINTEE, UNDER PRESSURE FROM TRUMP: Maryland’s top federal prosecutor could be in President Donald Trump’s crosshairs as he steps up calls to prosecute political opponents. Kelly O. Hayes, a career prosecutor named by Trump in March to run the state’s U.S. attorney’s office, is overseeing investigations of at least two Trump critics: U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, and former national security adviser John Bolton, who served under Trump and later turned into a fierce critic of the president. So far, her office has not lodged any charges. Justin Fenton/The Baltimore Banner.
COMMENTARY: COULD LANGUAGE BARRIER BE A CAUSE OF MEDICAL MISTAKES? Medical mistakes in Maryland hospitals rose by 5% in fiscal 2023, the state health department reported Sept. 12 in its annual report on the Hospital Patient Safety Program, though it doesn’t explain why it takes more than two years to assemble the data. Of the 808 most serious level 1 incidents in the report, 49 resulted in the death of the patient. One issue may be that perhaps the staff do not always understand what is being asked of them when it comes to patient care, something I personally experienced. Marc King/Maryland Reporter.
COLUMN: TO SELL THE SHUTDOWN, STATE DEMS FOCUS ON AFFORDABILITY: It’s the economy, stupid. That golden rule, coined 33 years ago to get a flawed Arkansas governor elected president, is on the minds of Maryland Democrats today. When the federal government shuts down — and it will — Maryland Democrats in Congress will have to explain why. Rick Hutzell/The Baltimore Banner.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HOLDS OUTSIZED INFLUENCE IN MARYLAND: The data showing Maryland’s loss of more than 15,000 federal jobs since the start of the Trump administration indicates that the administration’s large-scale reduction in federal spending has had an outsize impact on the Washington region, where federal employees are heavily concentrated. Maryland houses several federal offices, including the headquarters for the Food and Drug Administration, the National Security Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Dana Munro and Lateshia Beachum/The Washington Post.
GREEN PARTY HAS GOALS OTHER THAN WINNING ELECTIONS: Andy Ellis has been a volunteer leader of Maryland’s on-again, off-again Green Party for a decade, and is seeking the party’s nomination for governor next year. He and his running mate, Owen Silverman Andrews, acknowledge they’ve got little shot at unseating incumbent Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have other important goals. Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
STATE SEEKS TO RESTORE ‘SECRET CEMETERY’ FOR BLACK BOYS: The founder of Maryland’s legislative Black Caucus had heard whispers of a “secret cemetery” holding children’s graves, so in 1972 he walked into the woods to see for himself. Then-state Del. Troy Brailey found cracked gravestones marking the burial plots of Black boys who died during the late 19th and early 20th centuries at a state juvenile detention facility in Prince George’s County. Then, state leaders authorized a veterans cemetery just yards away from the boys’ burial site. The veterans cemetery has been meticulously maintained. But not the boys’ graveyard. A fledgling effort to acknowledge the burial site is underway. Katie Mettler and Michael Brice-Saddler/The Washington Post.
MONTGOMERY CONTINUES CELEBRATION OF AFRICAN HERITAGE MONTH: When Gov. Wes Moore proclaimed September African Heritage Month in 2024, he said it was a time to mark the “significant contributions of African immigrants to the state’s cultural, social and economic landscape.” In Montgomery County, which has commemorated African Heritage Month for more than a decade, County Council President Kate Stewart said, “Over 16% of the overall immigrant population in our county is from Africa,” and celebrating that is part of the county’s drive to “work toward being an inclusive and welcoming community.” Kate Ryan/WTOP-FM.
HIGHWAY MARKER HONORS SLAIN CAPITAL GAZETTE STAFF: Motorists traveling one of Annapolis’ busiest thoroughfares now will be reminded of one of America’s most precious tenets and how fragile it can be: The truth, and the right to tell it. The truth in Annapolis is that seven years ago a man who didn’t like something the local paper had written about him years before armed himself with a shotgun and blasted his way into the Capital Gazette newsroom. Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters died on June 28, 2018. Alex Mann/The Baltimore Banner.
- “I want them [motorists] to think about the environment where it’s still dangerous to be a journalist,” said John McNamara’s widow, Andrea Chamblee. “It’s dangerous to tell the truth. These people told the truth with transparency and kindness. I hope this sign reminds people to not take that for granted.” William Ford/Maryland Matters.
