Recent reports on the current overall health of the Chesapeake Bay are not good. The recently released Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s 2022 State of the Bay Report gave the overall health of the Bay a D+ grade (unchanged from the D+ grade in their 2020 report). Following the release of the CBF’s 2022 report a headline for a recent news article was “Despite cleanup efforts, the Chesapeake Bay remains a pollution challenge.”
Now is the time to move forward on great opportunities for improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay
Delegates, Senate president pledge to pass Maryland 529 overhaul in session’s final weeks
State delegates pledged Tuesday to work with their Senate counterparts to pass bills aimed at overhauling Maryland’s troubled state college savings agency before the legislative session ends in less than three weeks. Democratic Del. Cathi Forbes of Baltimore County has led House efforts to improve Maryland 529 since December, when parents with accounts in its Maryland Prepaid College Trust turned to legislators for help recouping tens of thousands of dollars in lost earnings.
Can a climate disaster still be averted? The opportunity is slipping away.
For all the attention given in recent days to the “Will they or won’t they?” speculation over the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump to the latest claim of liberal “wokeness” in some educational venue, you can bet that Americans will not spend nearly enough time educating themselves on the latest report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The tragedy of this is readily apparent.
New EPA limit is progress in effort to protect drinking water
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has taken a huge step forward on the path to make drinking water safer for millions of Americans — including many people here in Frederick County — by setting tougher standards for “forever chemicals.” The state and federal governments must finish the work. Now comes the hardest part: identifying the sources of the chemicals, stopping them from getting into the water supply and — most challenging of all — cleaning up our drinking water.
Fitzwater releases transition report with 64 recommendations
Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater shared a report on Monday that outlined what her administration will prioritize for the county in the next four years. Since the formation of Fitzwater’s transition team in December, more than 130 people were part of eight committees that explored and offered recommendations for economic development and jobs in Frederick County, education and workforce development, government innovation and more.
Debunking myths about electrification
The March 10 commentary “More than consumer choice” amplifies several false or unsupported myths the fossil fuel industry is propagating to preserve the status quo, to the detriment of Maryland’s consumers and the state’s achievement of its climate goals. What the petroleum distributors don’t mention is that electric technologies are outperforming fossil technologies and provide the least-cost path for reaching state climate policy goals, according to technical analyses performed for the Maryland Commission on Climate Change and for my office — the statutory representative of Maryland’s utility customers.
Council votes 9-2 to approve position focused on increasing broadband access; Craig Rice is Elrich’s choice for role, per sources
The Montgomery County Council voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve a position to focus on expanding broadband access countywide, including in rural areas. Sources in County Executive Marc Elrich’s office said that he will submit former County Councilmember Craig Rice (D-Dist. 2) for the position; his appointment, which requires council confirmation, has not been announced publicly yet.
Baltimore lands on list of best cities for sports business
Baltimore cracked a new national ranking of the best cities for sports business — but was far from the top of the list. The city claimed the 40th spot out of 50 on the Sports Business Journal’s best sports business cities list thanks to its strong lacrosse presence and many sponsorship companies. Baltimore’s two professional sports teams form a solid foundation for the city’s sports business industry, but new events like the CIAA Tournament and Maryland Cycling Classic have also helped the city raise its reputation. Local companies that like to spend on sports sponsorships also helped boost Baltimore in the ranking.
Podcast: He’s Holy I’m Knott Welcomes Stewart Bainum, Chairman of Choice Hotels International & Lead Investor and Co Founder of The Baltimore Banner
Rev. Al and I are back, and we start the 2023 year with a guy who made more news happen in 2022 than anyone we know…. Stewart Bainum, the uber successful Chairman of Choice Hotels International, made lots of news by getting himself in the news business as the lead investor in The Baltimore Banner.
One of Wes Moore’s biggest anti-poverty ideas won’t pass this year
A key piece of Maryland Gov. Wes Moore’s anti-poverty agenda is all but certain to fail in the legislature this year, but the new Democratic governor is still claiming a win. While the General Assembly is advancing Moore’s bill to accelerate a planned increase in the minimum wage so that it hits $15 per hour later this year, about two years earlier than planned, they roundly rejected his idea to tie future increases to inflation — and give up their power to set the minimum wage.