Stacy Rodgers will retire in April after almost five years as Baltimore County’s top administrative official, according to a county news release. Rodgers, 63, is the first Black person and second woman after Robin Churchill, who was appointed in 1997, to serve as chief administrative officer, an office that oversees Baltimore County’s agency leaders and day-to-day operations.

Plans by Baltimore-based Constellation Energy to mass-produce carbon-free hydrogen could be jeopardized under proposed federal guidelines that exclude existing nuclear plants from tax subsidies designed to boost a budding clean hydrogen industry. The newly released rules outline qualifications for clean hydrogen production credits offered through the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act, which, in part, aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2030. Constellation, which produces electricity at power plants, including the nation’s largest fleet of nuclear power plants, had been counting on the credits to help make clean hydrogen production cost-effective.

 

Mounting financial pressures on Maryland’s ambitious education, transportation and climate plans are set to loom large in the coming months as the Maryland General Assembly returns to Annapolis to begin its annual legislative session Wednesday. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle say addressing rising concerns about public safety is their top policy priority heading into the 90-day lawmaking sprint.

Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) President & CEO Craig Behm joins Center Maryland’s The Lobby to discuss the role CRISP plays in the healthcare community. CRISP is the state designated health exchange in Maryland, as well as a health data utility. CRISP’s new headquarters is located in the Merriweather District of Downtown Columbia.

The decisions we make impact real lives. As I represent Northeast and East Baltimore in the Maryland Senate, my constituents constantly remind me of the consequences of those decisions in social media posts, encounters in public places and through emails or calls to my office. In 2020 and 2021, the General Assembly took a visionary step forward, adopting a resolute One Maryland approach to tackle the challenges of public transportation.

Where’s Larry Hogan? Or maybe the better question is: Where’s the next Larry Hogan? The Maryland Republican Party enters 2024 badly splintered with the biggest plank in its eye named Donald J. Trump. The former president may well win the state’s Republican primary on May 14 when all but a handful of states have already cast their ballots, but whether his name appears on the general election ballot in November is nearly irrelevant. Trump won’t win Maryland.

It appears that the Frederick County Public Schools system has learned the wrong lessons — or nothing at all — from its most recent botched attempt to draw new school boundaries. More than a year ago, the school board launched the Crestwood Area Redistricting Study to determine how to best accommodate a 300-seat addition at Crestwood Middle School.

With the rise of AI and data connectivity, the need for data centers is swelling. Forward-looking states that coordinate to create a collective planning and regulatory strategic framework will be rewarded and benefit from this growing demand. This collaborative approach is critical in Maryland’s data center strategy. When one component falls, it has the potential for a full collapse.

Deborah Seiler counted down as the clock ticked toward midnight Saturday night, her fingers ready to click “start” on the online Free Application for Federal Student Aid. Despite the long-awaited new FAFSA form launching at midnight, the website kicked her out as part of the U.S. Department of Education’s “soft launch” of the 2024-25 application that is only accessible for short periods.

Have New Year’s fitness goals or just itching to play a game of pickup basketball? If you’re a Montgomery County, Maryland, resident, you can have full access to fitness rooms and many recreational activities for free this year. The county announced on Dec. 27 that free RecFit passes will be available again after their extreme popularity last year.