A recent decision by Maryland’s Public Service Commission (PSC) allowing electric utility companies to access millions of dollars in federal grants without public oversight or input violates the Commission’s regulatory responsibilities, the state agency representing ratepayers said this week in its latest filing. The agency added that the decision also could divert funding away from the state’s policy goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions through clean energy projects and achieving climate resilience.
A controversial ruling puts Maryland’s utility companies in charge of billions in federal funds
Baltimore state’s attorney nominee Ivan Bates has a plan for squeegee workers. Will Mayor Brandon Scott go along with it?
Thursday’s sit-down at The Capital Grille on East Pratt Street between Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and State’s Attorney-to-be Ivan Bates was your standard political power lunch. Bates with salmon and the mayor with a salad, the two men held the first of many conversations about how to address public safety in Baltimore and the importance of collaboration. Both want to figure out how to get the roughly 117 squeegee workers who stand at 25 different intersections, cleaning motorists’ windshields for a few bucks, off the streets. But they differ in their approaches. The issue flared up in July after a deadly encounter between squeegee workers and a baseball bat-wielding man.
Maryland’s Libertarian candidate for governor says he offers a ‘compelling alternative’
David Lashar acknowledges his bid to become Maryland’s next governor is a long shot. But, he says, this is not a no-shot situation. Nationally, Democrats are feeling the drag from President Joe Biden’s low approval ratings and an economy heading for recession — and historically, the party in control of the White House has taken losses in its first midterm election. Closer to home, Republicans have nominated a candidate for governor, Dan Cox, who attended then-President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021 rally at the Ellipse before a mob overran the U.S. Capitol building. One long-time Republican has disavowed the party after Cox’s win, while GOP Gov. Larry Hogan says he won’t support Cox.
Opinion: Ivan Bates: Baltimore’s new state’s attorney has a monumental task
With independent candidate Roya Hanna dropping out of the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s race, Democratic primary winner Ivan Bates officially becomes the city’s next top prosecutor, with no opponents left to face in the November general election. And while it took two campaigns, four years apart, for him to win that role and unseat two-term incumbent Marilyn Mosby, we suspect Mr. Bates will find that his biggest challenges still lie ahead. The office he inherits in January is overworked, understaffed, underexperienced and underpaid. And many employees are suffering from an acute case of low morale prompted by those conditions combined with: the city’s consistently high homicide rate, a lack of cooperation among agencies and ceaseless criticism of the current officeholder.
Primary winnows field of Baltimore County school board candidates to six in three districts
Six of 10 Baltimore County school board candidates are moving onto the Nov. 8 general election after the counting of mail-in primary ballots finished Friday afternoon. Robin Harvey, a social worker, won about 63 percent in District 1 and will face Cory Koons, a scientist, in the fall race. Koons had nearly 20 percent and a third candidate, Baltimore City teacher George Roycroft III, had nearly 18 percent. Two candidates in each district advanced to the Nov. 8 general election, when elections are held for seven seats on the 12-member board.
Shellenberger wins Baltimore County state’s attorney primary race
Baltimore County’s incumbent state’s attorney beat back an upstart primary challenger and will move on to the November general election. On the final day of counting, incumbent Scott Shellenberger added 182 votes to his nearly 2,000 vote lead and edged out Robbie Leonard. In all, Shellenberger finished with a more than 2,100 vote lead over Leonard. But the results took more than a week and initially Leonard led the 16-year incumbent by more than 800 votes. But in the days that followed, Leonard saw his lead eroded as more than 87,000 mail-in votes were counted.
A North Avenue storm drain collapse could take months to repair. Owners of demolished Baltimore rowhouses face even more uncertainty.
The first sign of trouble came soon after floodwaters from a heavy summer rainstorm had receded. A neighbor alerted Quentin Bell the night of July 2 that a section of sidewalk in front of his East North Avenue rowhouse had collapsed, exposing the home’s foundation. An orange cone warned passersby, but the woman said she nearly fell in as she chatted on the phone. Faucets ran dry inside Bell’s home the next day. By then, as the hole slowly widened, it was blocked off by long, white Baltimore Department of Transportation signs. Bell called 311; an operator told him there was no record of any work being done on his block, along the north side of Greenmount Cemetery, and that an inspector would be sent out days later.
Baltimore City could soon regain control of troubled water treatment plant
State management of the troubled Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant could end in as little as five weeks, an official from the Maryland Department of the Environment said during a community meeting Tuesday night in Essex. The plant, which is owned and operated by Baltimore City but located in Baltimore County, has complied with its environmental permit for the past seven weeks following months of pollution overages, said Lee Currey, director of MDE’s water and science administration. If the facility stays in compliance for five more weeks, the Maryland Environmental Service — which took over the troubled plant in March at MDE’s behest — would have to leave unless the city asks it to remain, per an agreement reached between the two parties last month.
U.S. House passes ban on assault weapons after spate of gun violence
The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a ban on semi-automatic firearms — the weapons used in multiple mass shootings during the last three months — on a near party-line vote. With the 217-213 vote, the bill, H.R. 1808, will head to the evenly divided Senate, but it’s unlikely to advance there, as the ban would need all Democrats on board plus 10 Republicans to get past a filibuster. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, has not announced if he plans to bring the weapons ban to the floor for a vote. “Each year, more children die from gun violence than any other cause,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on the House floor. “Our nation has watched unspeakable horror as assault weapons have been used in massacre after massacre.”
New night market in Howard County seeks to provide place to celebrate Asian food and culture
Growing up in China, Yumin Gao frequented its night markets, as well as those in Thailand, Japan and other Asian countries. Gao loved the vibrancy of the open-air street bazaars, where people came together among vendors hawking authentic dishes at affordable prices. After moving to Baltimore, the Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist attended a few food festivals in the area, but they did not live up to his expectations. So he got together with some friends and they wondered, “Why can’t we do something like that?”