The House rejected proposed Senate amendments on a high-profile higher education bill Friday and instead appointed conference committee members to help resolve the differences between the two chambers. The House and Senate are at odds over House Bill 1244 and Senate Bill 1022, a measure designed to improve the approval process for higher education programs.

In her first few months as a Minnesota state legislator in 2021, state Rep. Kaela Berg often wondered: “What the hell am I doing here?” A single mother and flight attendant without a college degree or prior political experience, Berg now had a seat at the legislative table, shaping policy decisions in her home state.As she ran against a former two-term Republican representative — a commercial real estate agent — she also was struggling for housing and living in a friend’s basement.

 

Lawmakers, Moore administration officials and environmentalists have reached a compromise on a data center bill that is enabling a leading green group in the state to drop its opposition to the measure. Gov. Wes Moore (D) has made legislation to help attract the data center industry to Maryland a top priority for this legislative session.

Suppose you’re president of the United States and a catastrophe happens — say it’s the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge just outside of Baltimore after a massive container ship slams into it. As president, you’ve got the full force and resources of the federal government to call upon to respond to the disaster: cabinet secretaries, the military, emergency agencies, independent investigators and more.

Authorities have suspended search-and-rescue efforts for four construction workers lost in the Patapsco River after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. Two others were pulled from the wreckage Wednesday, and two survived the catastrophe. Each of these men helped make the Baltimore region a thriving, vibrant and safer community.

Despite back-to-the-office requirements and mandates, the share of office workers on-site in the D.C. area remains among the lowest among the 10 largest metros. Additionally, since 2020, the weekly average has rarely topped 50% of pre-pandemic occupancy, according to building security firm Kastle Systems’ weekly reports.

The Maryland Senate approved a Howard County Republican to serve on the State Board of Elections on Friday — but not without debate. “I think one of the qualifications that we need to consider when selecting our members of the State Board of Elections is their temperament. Another is their judgment,” Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee Vice Chair Cheryl Kagan, a Montgomery County Democrat, said before the deciding vote.

Officials are planning to resume limited maritime traffic around the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore. The captain of the port is preparing to establish a temporary alternate channel on the northeast side of the main channel for commercially essential vessels, according to a news release Sunday night from the Unified Command.

The Francis Scott Key Bridge was built the same year Steve Becker was born, so he has known it all his life. “On a clear day,” he said, “you can see it from all over the place.” Becker grew up in Dundalk, as did his father and one of his grandmothers, and still lives there, commuting to an office near the Inner Harbor where he works as a software engineer.

 

At rush hour one June day in 2012, authorities held traffic over the Francis Scott Key Bridge while a transport ship passed underneath, delivering a set of 14-story super cranes that would herald a new era for the Port of Baltimore. These gantry cranes were final pieces in a much-anticipated expansion of Baltimore’s Seagirt Marine Terminal. The port would soon be able to accommodate some of the newest — and biggest — cargo ships on the ocean.