The Baltimore Community Foundation partnered with national nonprofit Community Solutions and Thursday announced a $1 million investment in the Mayflower Apartments, helping provide more housing resources for individuals exiting homelessness or in need of affordable housing. The Mayflower Apartments, at 4004-4012 Biddison Lane in the Pen Lucy neighborhood of east Baltimore, is one several multifamily complexes nationwide under Community Solutions’ Large Cities Housing Fund, a social-impact private equity fund addressing the country’s housing gap challenge.

A coalition of groups demonstrated Thursday in downtown Baltimore over gas. The coalition, including members of CASA, the Climate Action Network and the Maryland PIRG Foundation, called on Maryland’s utilities to stop investing in gas infrastructure. A report from the Office of the People’s Counsel found gas utility spending increased the rates for Baltimore Gas and Electric and Columbia gas customers.

Gov. Wes Moore’s administration hailed the news this week that Maryland had won $130 million in federal funding for various climate initiatives. As the state scrambles for the billions of dollars it will need to meet its ambitious climate mandates, state officials and environmental groups cast the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency grants as good news — and a momentum-builder as the state seeks to develop a clean energy economy.

 

Amtrak and MARC officials told a community forum Wednesday that a proposed new tunnel planned to run under at least 10 majority-Black neighborhoods in West Baltimore will be deep enough to minimize harm to area homes. Sandtown-Winchester resident Gary English has his doubts. “They said because it’s going to be approximately 96 feet under my house … it will not disturb my house,” he said during the presentation.

Construction on the Maryland State House is reaching the final stages as work on the main building wraps up and focus shifts to the Old Treasury Building and other projects. Crews are working on areas of the building below the dome, making improvements to the grounds and restoring the Old Treasury Building. The restoration of the dome, including waterproofing and other repairs, was completed shortly before Gov. Wes Moore’s inauguration last year.

Central Maryland residents in growing numbers are vowing to stop a proposed upgrade to the region’s energy grid involving a 500,000-volt overhead transmission line that would cut across farms, parks, neighborhoods, wetlands and forests in three counties. The Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project would carve a 70-mile path through largely rural areas of Baltimore, Carroll and Frederick counties, in areas, opponents believe, where government land preservation programs have spent hundreds of millions of dollars over decades to purchase development rights placing land in perpetual easements.

The bridge is gone, but the highway signs lead there. Follow them. Take the beltway south past I-95 and Rt. 40 to the split for Essex. A sign for the Key Bridge leads right. The traffic lightens. The speed limit’s 55. Cross above the marshy Back River. The inner loop bends around this elbow of land. Pass under Cove and Beachwood roads.

Former President Barack Obama officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to be the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee. Obama was one of the only high-profile Democrats who had yet to endorse Harris, who quickly secured enough delegate support to clinch the nomination so long as the delegates do not change their mind before the Democratic National Convention’s virtual roll next month.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to make a long-awaited White House visit Thursday to meet with President Joe Biden and likely Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris at an important moment for all three politicians. Netanyahu’s White House visit, his first since before President Donald Trump left office in 2020, comes at a time of growing pressure on all three to find an endgame to the nine-month war that’s left more than 39,000 dead in Gaza. (Photo: AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

 

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin stood in the House chamber on Wednesday afternoon, waiting for Benjamin Netanyahu. When the Israeli prime minister entered to minutes of thunderous applause, there were dozens of seats left empty in protest. Perhaps none was more noticeable for Maryland than that of Cardin’s ally and fellow U.S. senator, Chris Van Hollen.