Despite multibillion-dollar deficits projected for future state budgets, several Maryland lawmakers are championing planned increases in education spending, including publicly funded pre-K. “We know that we have a structural deficit. There’s no hiding that,” said Del. Jared Solomon, a Montgomery County Democrat, speaking on Thursday to a group of private child care providers at a symposium hosted by the Maryland State Child Care Association.

U.S. Senate candidates vying to represent Maryland mostly stuck to their campaign scripts during their only debate of the unusually close race in a reliably blue state. But there were some big clashes as they fielded questions for an hour at the debate moderated by NBC’s chief political analyst Chuck Todd at Maryland Public Television in Owings Mills.

Kudos to the Supreme Court of Maryland for reversing an Anne Arundel County Circuit Court judge’s ruling and allowing Question F voting to proceed. Whatever one may think of the state of Harborplace and MCB Real Estate’s plans to tear down the once-popular retail and dining pavilions and build four high-rise buildings, including hundreds of apartments along with retail and office space and off-street parking, the voters of Baltimore should be trusted to render judgment on its future.

Ahead of a draft master plan mapping out the future of the Crownsville Hospital Memorial Park, federal officials have secured more than $4.6 million in funding to preserve historic artifacts and clear the way to develop a public park on the former hospital grounds. About $4.1 million of the funds announced at a news conference Wednesday will be used to demolish dilapidated structures at the hospital site to prepare for a public park and develop a trail system through the Chesapeake Heritage area.

Those who watched Thursday’s televised debate between former Gov. Larry Hogan and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, especially those paying attention to Maryland’s U.S. Senate race, probably weren’t surprised by what they heard. On one side was the familiar presence of the two-term GOP governor, who has elevated his national profile in recent years as a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump.

The northern lights were visible in large parts of the country Thursday, including Maryland, delighting skygazers who witnessed the rare event. The Space Weather Prediction Center issued a severe geomagnetic storm watch for Thursday and Friday, after scientists detected a coronal mass ejection (CME) — a large blast of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s surface — on Tuesday evening.

While nestled a safe distance away in Towson, Pickett Brewing Company’s self-proclaimed “beertender” Eric Kraai watched his two children narrowly escape the destruction of Hurricane Helene. Ellen, 21, who still lives in Boone, a town along the Blue Ridge Mountains about an hour and a half drive from her brother, Andrew, 29, in Asheville, made it out of North Carolina shortly after the Category 4 storm hit. They returned to find their communities devastated.

Driving a car to the parking lot to catch the MARC train is so 1984. Get with the times, people — wouldn’t it be nice to live within walking distance of the station instead? Few people can walk to a MARC station now. But that could change in a few years under a new state transportation plan released Thursday. The Maryland Department of Transportation wants to encourage construction of apartments and other housing — an estimated 2,600 total units — next to six train stations between Baltimore’s Penn Station and Washington, D.C.’s Union Station.

The two candidates for Maryland’s open U.S. Senate seat met for their first and only debate Thursday afternoon. Now, there is a new controversy in the race. WTOP has been reporting for weeks that Democrat Angela Alsobrooks was in a dispute over $47,000 in back property taxes for homes she owned in Maryland and D.C. But the spotlight is now on the finances of Republican Larry Hogan.

The Curtis Bay community voiced their concerns to the Maryland Department of Environment during a meeting Thursday. The hours-long meeting was about the permit renewal for the local CSX Coal Terminal. Residents have been vocal about their fear of the health impact the terminal has on the community. “Sometimes, if you come out the door, it smells like rotten eggs. Sometimes, it smells like an animal died somewhere around your house,” said Edith Gerald with the Community of Curtis Bay Association.