Phew, that was fast! Tuesday night’s primary election results rolled in a lot quicker than anticipated, ending some races outright and teeing up what few competitive general elections Maryland is going to have this fall. Wednesday dawned with the Senate Majority PAC, a group affiliated with U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), hitting former Gov. Larry Hogan (R) for being endorsed by Arizona’s leading MAGA Republican, Kari Lake, who congratulated Hogan on social media and said she looked forward to serving with him in the Senate.

A report details new findings on the police unit that provides executive protection for Baltimore City leaders. The report focused on several items, including overtime paid to officers. Officers worked 2,300 overtime hours protecting Mayor Brandon Scott, 1,600 covering State’s Attorney Ivan Bates and 340 covering Police Commissioner Richard Worley.

Three Baltimore City Council candidates maintained their narrow Election Day leads after the first round of late-arriving mail ballots were counted Thursday. The outcomes of these races — which include two incumbents fighting to hang on — will help determine the makeup of the next council. It’s possible that Mayor Brandon Scott, who declared victory in his reelection run Tuesday night, will end the week with even more council allies in addition to a friend in the likely new City Council president, Zeke Cohen.

 

The ship that caused the Francis Scott Key Bridge to collapse in March, killing six construction workers, is expected to move soon, with officials setting a target of early next week for the refloat. Moving the ship out of its current position is a critical step in Key Bridge Response Unified Command’s current efforts to reopen the Patapsco River’s main 50-foot-deep, 700-foot-wide shipping channel, which has been closed since March 26.

Maryland drivers have felt the impact on traffic in the weeks following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. There’s new federal data that supports that feeling. “The rush hour now starts at, I would say 2:30 p.m., instead of the 3 o’ clock hour,” a driver named Kris said. “I do notice a lot more traffic on I-695,” driver Edward Brunson said.

On the opening day of striped bass fishing in Maryland, recreational anglers and charter boats ventured out onto the Chesapeake Bay, but not all were enthusiastic about the start of the season. New regulations set by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) aimed at bolstering the struggling rockfish population in the Chesapeake have left some captains and guests apprehensive.

Frederick County’s Board of Education has narrowed the school district’s budget deficit to about $6.4 million after approving multiple cuts on Wednesday, which included reductions in average raises for district employees. Frederick County Public Schools’ proposed expenditures for fiscal year 2025’s operating budget were about $988 million — about $50 million higher than its projected revenues, according to a presentation from Heather Clabaugh, associate superintendent of fiscal services.

Republican Larry Hogan on Thursday sought to undercut Democrats’ plans to eviscerate him on abortion rights and his bipartisan image, with the newly minted Senate nominee and former governor describing himself as “pro-choice” for the first time and releasing an ad with footage of prominent Democrats praising his two-term tenure.

Federal and state environmental officials have acknowledged for the past couple of years that states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed will fall short of meeting some of their pollution reduction and resiliency goals by the federally prescribed 2025 deadlines. But policymakers, scientists, academics and advocates continue to focus on both the 2025 objectives and a new set of imperatives that reflect both the progress and the challenges in Bay cleanup that remain.

The phrase, “make the world a better place,” is used so commonly that it can seem devoid of meaning. It can be found in song lyrics, in canned food drives, anti-litter campaigns and even in support of military intervention abroad. But sometimes there are opportunities where the United States, as a nation, can have an undeniably positive impact on parts of the world that direly need our help.