Even as it searches high and low for funds to support ambitious climate goals, the state is forcing gas utility customers to subsidize billions of dollars in fossil fuel infrastructure spending. In competitive markets, companies don’t spend billions of dollars on long-lived assets without believing they have a product customers will want for a long time. Absent strong future demand, the investment won’t be profitable and could lead to investor losses and, ultimately, bankruptcy.
It’s hard to walk a block in downtown Bethesda, Maryland, without seeing a restaurant, and that’s partially the point, for the “Savor Bethesda” restaurant week, which begins Friday, Feb. 16. “It’s a thing we love about Bethesda,” said Stephanie Coppula, director of marketing and communications for the Bethesda Urban Partnership, which shepherds the event. “You can Metro in, or you can just park in one spot, and just take a few steps, and you’ll see so many great restaurants to try.”
Lawmakers again on Thursday pushed for the passage of a bill that would prohibit students from being charged for displaying some forms of disruptive behavior at school. “All this bill does is it prevents students from being charged with a crime for something that really shouldn’t be a crime,” Del. Sheila Ruth, a Baltimore County Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, said during Wednesday’s House Ways and Means Committee hearing.
Former Maryland governor Larry Hogan never gave much consideration to running for U.S. Congress — until a bipartisan immigration deal broke down last week on the Senate floor. “I made this decision a week ago,” Hogan, a Republican, told CNN’s Dana Bash on Wednesday in his first interview since announcing a surprise campaign for Maryland’s open Senate seat. U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, who has held the seat since 2007, is retiring.
Baltimore is close to finalizing the purchase of two hotels to be used as housing for the city’s homeless residents, ending a search that began nearly three years ago in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The $15.2 million deal, which is set to be considered by the Board of Estimates next week, would give the city control of two hotels, a Holiday Inn Express and a Sleep Inn, both of which are in the area of Gay and Front streets near the mouth of Interstate 83. The city is also purchasing a parking lot between the two hotels, which are catty-cornered from the city’s juvenile justice center.
Montgomery County legislators on the local and state level are pushing for greater protections for tenants nearly a year after a deadly fire at a downtown Silver Spring high-rise apartment complex claimed the life of a 25-year-old woman. On Jan. 24, state Del. Lorig Charkoudian (D-Dist. 20) introduced The Melanie Nicholle Diaz Fire Safety Act in the Maryland General Assembly. A complementary Senate bill is being sponsored by Sen. Will Smith (D-Dist. 20).
The expiration of federal funding will mean students in Anne Arundel County will not get to take Chromebooks home starting in the next academic year. The district released a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying grants from the Coronavirus Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund are expiring, the costs to repair damaged student devices are mounting.
Alarms blared on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier in the Red Sea at 4 a.m. on Tuesday morning, warning personnel to prepare for potential flight operations against a Houthi drone that was flying over nearby ships. That drone was ultimately deemed not to be a threat. But the incident demonstrated how the crew of the carrier are constantly on a heightened alert for incoming threats from the Iran-backed militants in Yemen, who have been routinely targeting commercial ships as well as US and coalition forces in the key waterway with missiles and drones.
After missing deadlines to get reimbursed for about $10 million spent on key housing services in Baltimore, city government officials received approval from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for a second chance at the money. Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services director Ernestina Simmons told City Councilmembers about the development last week at a grants management hearing.
One measure currently before the Maryland General would close a gap in the state’s criminal record expungement eligibility. The bill, HB0073, would change the definition of terms in the Maryland code, clarifying that the timeline for expunging an eligible state criminal record begins at the completion of the sentence — meaning the “time when a sentence has expired, including any period of probation, parole or mandatory supervision.”