Like many team sports, baseball has a lot of unwritten rules, such as don’t steal bases or swing at 3-0 pitches or otherwise try to run up the score when your team is ahead by a large margin. The idea is that you should show respect for your opponent. Frederick County Council has unwritten rules, too. One of those is don’t send drafts of proposed bills that have not been formally introduced to potential opponents of the bill.
Boonsboro, Funkstown and Smithsburg will benefit from the county’s remaining, unallocated, American Rescue Plan funds. The Washington County Commissioners agreed Tuesday to divide $648,592 of the money the county received as a result of the American Rescue Plan Act between capital projects in these municipalities, except for $11,592 the county will retain to maintain its ARPA grant manager until final reporting is complete.
As a key deadline nears, a half dozen Baltimore County Democratic lawmakers have thrown their weight behind a proposal to expand the Baltimore County Council by four seats. If successful, the grassroots effort could place a second charter amendment related to the size of the council on the Nov. 5 ballot. On July 1, the county council passed a bill asking voters to approve expanding the council by two seats in the next election.
When Fortune magazine announced Tuesday that Silver Spring ranked No. 1 on its list of the 50 best places to live for families in the United States, it just confirmed what longtime resident Fig Ruggieri, 64, already knew. “My favorite part is probably that I’m so close to so much–Baltimore, D.C., being able to walk to the Metro and library and downtown Silver Spring.
Maryland transportation officials on Tuesday received federal environmental approvals necessary for rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The Federal Highway Administration determined that the new Key Bridge, like the vast majority of federal-aid projects, isn’t expected to have a major impact on its surrounding environment.
Mortgage interest rates eased very slightly last week, but not enough to get today’s potential homebuyers off the fence. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($766,550 or less) decreased to 6.82% from 6.87%, with points increasing to 0.59 from 0.57 (including the origination fee) for loans with a 20% down payment, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The Maryland Department of Health released a new online drug overdose dashboard Tuesday that will allow visitors to delve more deeply into demographic and geographic data. The dashboard is a new iteration of the state’s previous site, which was maintained by Maryland’s Office of Overdose Response. The new dashboard will be updated monthly, rather than every 90 days, and has new features like the ability to search data by ZIP code, age, race and gender.
With every passing year, status quo spending on natural gas pipelines does nothing to fight sky-high gas bills for Marylanders and openly contradicts the state’s climate goals. Collectively, the state’s largest gas utilities, Baltimore Gas & Electric, Washington Gas Light and Columbia Gas of Maryland, are planning $20 billion of fossil fuel infrastructure investments between 2024 and 2045.
This summer, GGWash has been fortunate to host four interns in college and high school, all of whom have worked closely with our policy team. Working with them has been a full-circle moment for me as this Monday, July 22, is exactly twenty years since I first testified at a public hearing. (Another entry for the ongoing series on what a dork I was.)
The Baltimore City Council advanced a bill aimed at ensuring the city is fully compensated for economic losses stemming from the Key Bridge collapse. The bill was introduced at Monday’s meeting. If approved, it would give the city solicitor the power to identify any losses and establish the rules and regulations when it comes to securing reimbursements from responsible parties.