With support from the legislature’s presiding officers and Attorney General Anthony Brown, state lawmakers are hoping this session to establish a comprehensive data privacy law after several years in which proposals failed. Enforcement of the new law would fall to the Office of the Attorney General, which Brown said.

When Geraldine Giordano started classes at Anne Arundel Community College, the native of Colombia spoke little English. On her way to earning her associate’s degree in business and administration, she took nine courses in English, progressing to reading and writing academic papers in her second language.

Bethesda-based hospitality giant Marriott International Inc. on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $848 million. On a per-share basis, the company said it had profit of $2.87. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $3.57 per share. The results topped Wall Street expectations.

After hours of charged testimony Tuesday, Baltimore City Council members advanced a legislative package that would clear the way for the redevelopment of Harborplace, marking an early step forward for the nearly $1 billion waterfront project. Residents packed the City Council chambers Tuesday for the four-hour hearing, which offered an opportunity for council members to formally stake their positions on the redevelopment project.

As he begins the second year of his term, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has a 58% approval rating, according to a new poll released Tuesday. Moore has positive ratings among Democrats (74% approval) and unaffiliated voters (52% approval), while he’s not viewed as favorably among Republicans, who offered 57% disapproval of how the Democratic governor his doing his job, according to the poll from Gonzales Research & Media Services.

 

A 4-year-old girl arrives at her foster parents’ home, having left the only home she’s ever known to find safety in the United States but then to experience unimaginable cruelty. “That was at the tail end of family separation,” recalled her foster mother. “She literally was pulled from her grandmother’s arms and cried for the first two weeks — ‘Abuela, Abuela, Abuela’ — just cried for her grandmother over and over again.”

 

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks (D), who has seen her principal opponent in the Democratic Senate primary, U.S. Rep. David Trone, dominate the airwaves for several months, went up with her first TV ad of the campaign Monday. It’s partially a biographical spot with a few not-so-subtle digs. The 30-second ad begins with Alsobrooks in half the frame, speaking to the camera, while small mug shots of U.S. senators — all white and mostly male and elderly — pop up on the other side of the screen.

 

A majority of Maryland voters will not support a 1-cent increase in the sales tax dedicated to transportation projects around the state, according to a poll released Tuesday. The results are part of the latest survey released by Annapolis-based Gonzales Research & Media. That survey also includes new data on the performance of Gov. Wes Moore (D) in office, and gauges support for strengthening penalties for firearm theft and fentanyl distribution as well as medical aid-in-dying legislation and abortion rights.

 

Community college leaders and their supporters have recently rallied against a “dramatic” decrease in funding proposed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, though it remains to be seen to what extent — or if — state lawmakers will restore the cuts. State Senate Majority Leader Nancy King, a Democrat who chairs a subcommittee focused on how the state pays for education, said she was surprised to see the administration scale back “sacred funding for the community colleges,” which also rely on money from tuition and local governments.

Former Gov. Larry Hogan’s decision to file on the last day possible as a Republican candidate to represent Maryland in the U.S. Senate caught much of the political establishment off-guard. This is likely because the 67-year-old had pledged repeatedly that he had absolutely no intention of doing so. But politicians being politicians, there ways always a Senate run possibility, despite his months of flirting with a run for president as a third-party candidate and walking away because, as he wrote in a New York Times op-ed, he didn’t want to “risk being part of another multicar pileup that could potentially help Mr. Trump recapture the nomination.” He’s got too much going for him not to consider it.