Baltimore County announced Monday a new effort that officials say will extend the life span of the county’s sole publicly owned landfill by as much as 40 years after previous estimates said it would run out of capacity by 2027. The Baltimore County Department of Public Works applied in November with the Maryland Department of the Environment for a permit to expand the Eastern Sanitary Landfill in White Marsh, according to Nick Rodricks, the county’s solid waste management bureau chief.

Recent increases in some types of crime by young people in Maryland have led certain law enforcement officials and others to call for greater levels of “accountability.” Before reflexively accepting these calls, we need to consider what accountability should look like in the context of juvenile justice. In doing so, it is important to keep in mind what science and research tell us about how to promote positive outcomes for children.

Several stakeholders expressed concerns over the lack of school funding in the Harford County Public School superintendent’s proposed $660.9 million operating budget for the 2025 fiscal year during a public comment session Thursday evening. The meeting, held at the Board of Education building, comes nine days after Superintendent Sean Bulson presented his operating budget to the board members.

A high-profile downtown office tower whose lien holder is an entity of MCB Real Estate is headed to auction in foreclosure on Thursday. The 10-story 1 E. Pratt St. building across from Harborplace will be sold “as is” on the steps of the Clarence M. Mitchell III Courthouse on Jan. 25 at 2 p.m. Bidders are required to pay a $1 million deposit, according to an online auction flyer by Atlantic Auctions Inc., a Baltimore auctioneer handling the sale for two substitute trustees.

As the Maryland legislature has settled in for its 446th session, state lawmakers will consider thousands of pieces of legislation — including dozens of measures that tweak local laws. Most of those local issues are initially settled at the local level, with lawmakers organized into their respective regional, county and city delegations. While there are some changes to delegation leadership in 2024, several delegations will be led by familiar faces.

Standing in a conference room on the 22nd floor of a downtown office tower, with views of the courthouse and City Hall to his right, new Baltimore Sun owner David D. Smith started sharing opinions. He gave his opinion on how Freddie Gray’s 2015 death and the subsequent prosecution of Baltimore Police officers left the department unwilling to do its job. But that wasn’t all.

Gov. Wes Moore plans to give the University of Maryland Medical System $100 million over five years to fund a new 325,000-square-foot hospital in Easton. The new regional medical center will replace the out-of-date University of Maryland Shore Medical Center at Easton to serve patients from Caroline, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne’s and Talbot counties.

Maryland has announced a state-wide “Disparity Study” aimed to determine if there is racial or gender discrimination markets in which the State does business and the impacts of that discrimination. The study is being led by the MGT Consulting Group (MGT) and will collect data on the availability of firms owned by women and minorities in the State and how those firms are used as contractors and subcontractors in the Maryland marketplace.

 

The financial news out of Annapolis is grim with the Maryland General Assembly’s annual 90-day legislative session underway. In the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, Maryland is projecting a structural deficit of $761 million. That is expected to balloon to about $2.7 billion in fiscal year 2029. The state’s budget last year was $63 billion.

In Wednesday’s column, state Del. Sandy Rosenberg and Baltimore City Councilman Eric Costello explained why they won’t support a second term for Mayor Brandon Scott. They each have endorsed Sheila Dixon, the former mayor who left office amid a scandal. Rosenberg and Costello say city services have been poorly managed during Scott’s first term. My mailbox hasn’t exactly been swelling this week with citizen affirmation of that claim.