Maryland has joined 21 states, the District of Columbia and the Northern Mariana Islands urging the Supreme Court to uphold federal restrictions on “ghost guns,” unregistered and untraceable weapons that can be assembled at home from kits. The brief, filed Wednesday by attorneys general from the 24 jurisdictions, argues that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives did not exceed its authority when it passed a rule requiring that gun manufacturers and dealers treat ghost gun kits like firearms: adding serial numbers, keeping records on their sale and conducting background checks on buyers.

The Maryland Department of Health has announced a partnership designed to establish a road map for improving the state’s youth behavioral health. The department’s partnership with the Maryland Coalition of Families and Manatt Health will make new school-based initiatives and investments in youth crisis services, Maryland Health Secretary Laura Herrera Scott said in a news release Wednesday.

The container ship Dali is gone. So, too, is the bulk of the 50,000 tons of wreckage that tumbled into the Patapsco River when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed on March 26. Some of the last vestiges of the Key Bridge and its demise are the two existing ramps — which led to the bridge’s main span — still standing in the water. They, too, will be gone soon as authorities make way for a rebuilt Key Bridge by October 2028.

 

The Anne Arundel County Council voted unanimously Monday to maintain existing yacht club district zoning at Safe Harbor Podickory Point following an outcry from residents, preventing more commercial maritime activities at the marina tucked into a small residential community on the Chesapeake Bay. Located in the Podickory Point neighborhood between Sandy Point State Park and the Corcoran Environmental Study Area in Annapolis, the Safe Harbor-owned marina primarily offers boat slips, a clubhouse and other amenities.

Dozens of workers at state government hospitals will be paid a total of nearly $600,000 after Maryland acknowledged that it had circumvented overtime pay laws. A union for state workers discovered the pay discrepancy in 2022, alleging that hospital employees were not paid overtime for working extra hours. Instead, the Maryland Department of Health had them pick up extra shifts and hours as independent contractors, paying them a lower rate than if they has been compensated as state employees.

Not every high school student is suited for an advanced placement or AP class. They are more rigorous, more demanding courses with a hefty dose of college curriculum. Now it appears not all school boards are prepared for them either. Last month’s vote by a majority of the Harford County Board of Education to cancel an AP African American Studies course on the grounds that the year-long elective class is “politically oriented” and “divisive” suggests a level of ignorance and close-mindedness ill-suited for educators.

With summer freshly underway, Julia Ortiz and Yanni Marneris, cherub-faced, reclined in rocking chairs on the pretend village green by the pretend Main Street USA in front of a real but dry fountain, talking and watching the sunny afternoon unfold. They were in violation of a policy becoming standard issue at the malls of suburban Baltimore that requires anyone 17 years old or younger to be accompanied by an adult at least 21 years old.

Nine Democrats have applied for the chance to replace newly appointed state Sen. Sara Love (D-Montgomery) in the House of Delegates, and on Tuesday evening they made their cases at a public forum sponsored by a local political club. Gov. Wes Moore (D) will have the final say on filling the District 16 House vacancy, but the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee is scheduled to make its recommendation for the appointment to the governor on July 11.

Since the 1970s, civic activists have clamored to expand Baltimore County’s council, which has remained at seven members since the legislative body began under a charter in 1956. They couldn’t do it even as the county quadruped in size, to more than 840,000 residents; even as it became one of the most diverse jurisdictions in Maryland, with Black residents making up more than 30% of the population and with a growing Latino and Arab immigrant base; and even as other counties made the move to expand.

 

It’s right there near the top of the Declaration of Independence. “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” are the unalienable rights bestowed on us by our creator. As we approach Independence Day, let’s not think too hard on whether Thomas Jefferson should have written “inalienable” instead of “unalienable.” Instead, what the heck did America’s most famously flawed founder mean by the pursuit of happiness?