The Maryland State Board of Education is preparing to “reset its role and voice” and advocate for education policies during the next legislative session, a departure from its normal practice. Education policies are expected to be a dominant topic in 2024 as state lawmakers examine the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, the state’s education reform plan that costs billions of dollars in state and local funding.

Six lieutenant governors from across the country joined gun violence prevention advocates to share their stories and offer solutions at a policy discussion event Tuesday. The Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association hosted the gun violence prevention policy summit, which was the first event of its kind. The DLGA partnered with the gun violence prevention advocacy groups Everytown for Gun Safety, March for Our Lives and Giffords, as well as the labor union American Federation of Teachers, for the event.

State Labor Department officials are preparing for a potential uptick in unemployment insurance claims tied to a possible federal government shutdown next month. Congress narrowly averted a shutdown at the end of September with a 45-day resolution meant to provide extra time to cut a budget deal. Reaching an agreement is now complicated by an ongoing battle within the Republican Party to elect a new House Speaker.

In response to the murder of Washington County Circuit Court Judge Andrew Wilkinson, the first bill the Maryland state Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee may consider next legislative session would grant more privacy to judges and their families. Wilkinson, a 52-year-old husband and father of two, was shot to death in his driveway Thursday night.

April McClain Delaney, an attorney with a telecommunications policy background who until last month was a top official of the U.S. Commerce Department, announced Wednesday she is running for the Democratic nomination in Maryland’s 6th Congressional District. The seat was held for six years by her husband, Democrat John Delaney, a multimillionaire businessman who won it following an upset primary victory in 2012.

Residents of the federally subsidized Wilbourn Estates apartment complex gathered Monday to ask the Annapolis City Council what it plans to do to help them as they await further information about when they will be able to move back into their homes. In late August and early September, Annapolis inspectors condemned at least four units in Wilbourn Estates and cited several others for code violations.

EcoMap Technologies, a Baltimore-based ecosystem AI software company, Tuesday announced the appointment of co-founder Sherrod Davis as CEO as the company moves forward in the wake of the death of co-founder and CEO Pava LaPere. Davis was elevated from chief operating officer to take over as CEO. Since joining EcoMap in 2021, Davis has played an important role, securing nearly $8 million in funding to advance EcoMap’s next-generation technology and expand the team to 30 members, including recruits from cities such as Chicago, Boston, Dallas and New York City.

While the Montgomery County Council changed the name of the Policing Advisory Commission to the Community Advisory Commission on Public Safety on Tuesday, the body’s role will remain mostly the same. Bill 32-23, sponsored by councilmember Dawn Luedtke (D-Dist. 7), proposed amendments to how the commission functions, including the name change, in hopes of preventing confusion between the commission and the state-mandated Police Accountability Board (PAB).

 

Topgolf Baltimore — the upscale place to get a drink and drive golf balls — just hit the market for $59.3 million. The three-level sports entertainment facility that opened to great fanfare in late October 2022 near M&T Bank Stadium has been listed for sale and is being hailed in a brochure as the anchor of the emerging $10 million Warner Street Entertainment District on property owned by Caves Valley Partners and Caesars Entertainment.

Thousands of miles from the epicenter of the Israel-Hamas war, a 20-year-old Maryland woman sat at her family’s dining table near a shelf of baby photos and her vocal dog Ziggy while envisioning her future as a soldier. Life thus far for Gabi, who asked The Banner to withhold her last name for safety reasons, always felt cleaved in two — one existence growing up in suburban Baltimore County with her parents, sister and schoolmates; the other visiting paternal grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends in Israel.