Maryland motorists will have to dig a little deeper after July 1 when they renew their vehicle registrations. The cost of registering a passenger vehicle will increase 60-75% under new rates that take effect on July 1. The new fees, passed as part of a budget compromise between the House and Senate, include changes to weight classes of vehicles.

In the 2000 election cycle, less than $500 million was spent on campaign advertising for the presidential, Senate and House races combined. Fast forward 24 years, and the expected expenditure for these same races is now a staggering $6.5 billion, a 1,200% increase. Yet, what some candidates are discovering is that “money can’t buy me love.” The biggest spenders do not always win.

Conditions were calm and clear Monday morning, when several tugboats finally pulled the Dali container ship from where it struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, destroying the span March 26, and moved it back to the Port of Baltimore. The weather was a stroke of good luck, after rainy and stormy conditions twice delayed the coordinated explosions that largely freed the ship from the bridge piece pinning it in the Patapsco River.

Despite another month of spring technically still ahead, travelers often view Memorial Day weekend as an unofficial kickoff to the summer season — and traffic notoriously reflects that. Based on current forecasts, travel around the upcoming 2024 holiday next Monday, May 27, is not expected to relieve Memorial Day of its bad reputation for drivers and airline passengers. They may actually find themselves on some of the busiest highways and flights they’ve seen in decades.

Fewer people showed up to speak at this year’s county budget hearing, but overall, their comments echoed sentiments from last year: They sought more money for schools and the elderly. About a dozen residents spoke during the hearing on the county’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal during the hearing Wednesday at the Washington County Public Safety Training Center on Sharpsburg Pike.

The Blue Angels are returning to Annapolis for their annual demonstration as part of Commissioning Week festivities culminating Friday with the U.S. Naval Academy graduation. The Tuesday rehearsal and Wednesday performance are slated for a 2 p.m. start, depending on the weather. On Tuesday, the Naval Academy, or Route 450, bridge will be closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic from 10:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., and again from 1:45 p.m. through the completion of the rehearsal at approximately 4 p.m.

When James Rouse died at 81 in 1996, The Baltimore Sun’s obituary described him as “the developer and social architect who turned idealism into bricks, mortar and profit with projects as diverse as Harborplace, Charles Center and Columbia.” Twenty-eight years later, that probably holds up, in the public mind, as the Rouse legacy. (Photo: Baltimore Sun)

Our words matter. This adage has never been truer to me as I increasingly hear contentious rhetoric about immigration buzzing around the dinner table and in the media during this election year. Using natural disaster or criminal language terms such as “surge,” “influx,” or “illegals” to describe increases in immigration tends to stir fear and replace truth with political diatribes.

If there’s one thing we’ve come to count on from Lawrence Joseph Hogan Jr., the state’s 62nd governor, it’s that he won’t commit to protecting abortion access for Marylanders, let alone the rest of the country. So you’ll forgive our shock when, after securing the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Ben Cardin, he suddenly said he supports codifying abortion access into federal law.

Gov. Wes Moore faced a television camera on Saturday ahead of the 149th Preakness Stakes and promised not only a bright future for Pimlico Race Course but that the blighted Park Heights neighborhood next to it would no longer be ignored. Moore, attending his second Preakness as governor, assured WBAL-TV’s Deborah Weiner and Gerry Sandusky that the “Pimlico Plus” plan he OK’d this month would enable the state to spend millions to take ownership of the track, redevelop it and revive both Park Heights and the sagging horse racing industry in Maryland.