Maryland faces a diverse agenda spanning economic development, fiscal challenges, and political positioning ahead of key electoral contests.

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• After this year’s Report Card, state education leaders plan to tweak the way they measure success.
• Current school ratings are not much more than a proxy for family income, said Josh Michael, president of the Maryland State Board of Education. Schools with students from higher-income families have high ratings, and schools with a majority of low-income families have lower ratings.

• Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris appears in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new “Ali G” movie, delivering a warning about a fictitious cartel leader said to have fathered 140,000 children. “Gonzalez has 140,000 children, which means that this one man has a higher birth rate than Iceland,” Harris says in the film.
• The Maryland congressman appears in a sequence built around an invented immigration threat. A character identifying himself as an immigration control official introduces footage of Harris and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich as messages from “patriots I met with in D.C.”

• Prince George's County Council unanimously voted to issue $215 million in bonds for a 6,000-seat Sphere entertainment venue at National Harbor.
• The bond authorization represents a major investment in entertainment infrastructure for the Maryland jurisdiction and its regional economic development.

• Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott blamed some local media and surrounding counties for fueling negative perceptions of the city, even as polling suggests many residents have their own doubts about city government and public safety.
• During a discussion with members of the Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce at Morgan State University, Scott argued that news coverage and criticism from neighboring counties have overshadowed his administration’s public safety gains.

• Baltimore homeowners are receiving unexpected property tax bills for unpaid balances spanning back to 2013.
• Residents are questioning the timing of the notices and seeking ways to verify the accuracy of amounts owed.

• Some Maryland Latino Republican voters express concern that President Trump's immigration policies are too extreme ahead of midterm elections.
• Latino Republicans worry that stricter immigration stances may drive Latino voters toward Democrats or reduce turnout among Trump's 2022 supporters.

• Neither national Republican nor Democratic House campaign committees have directly invested funds in Maryland congressional races this cycle.
• The lack of national investment reflects assessments of competitive positioning in Maryland's House districts.

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