The Montgomery County School District added 61 new electric buses to its fleet on Monday, part of a planned 326 buses to be added by 2024. Although Montgomery now has the largest operating electric fleet in the nation, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday that 391 school districts across the U.S will soon receive nearly $1 billion combined for new clean school buses. The awards were part of the Clean School Bus Program, included in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill. The program will award roughly $5 billion to school districts for zero- and low-emission buses over the next five years. The EPA report said that 95% of these buses will be electric. This round of awards received roughly 2,000 applications from school districts around the country. The first round of awards gave out $913 million, which will cover an estimated 2,468 buses.
Clean Bus Program awards almost $1 billion for clean buses across the U.S., including in Baltimore
Mizeur seeking upset in Eastern Shore district long dominated by Harris
In a condo along the Kent Narrows overlooking the Chesapeake Bay, Heather Mizeur preached common ground. Speaking to a room packed mostly with supporters, the Democratic candidate for Maryland’s 1st Congressional District pitched her campaign as an exercise in radical bipartisanship — an approach she described as both essential and rare in today’s toxic politics. “When I go to talk to Republicans, I help them understand the Democrats, and when I go and talk to the Democrats, I help them understand the Republicans,” she said. “It’s like I’m walking in two worlds, and really stitching us back together.” Mizeur’s appeals to bipartisan goodwill drew applause from the intimate gathering, some of whom opened their checkbooks at the end of the evening in support of the Democrat’s challenge to six-term incumbent Rep. Andy Harris, a Republican.
Only one Democrat is on the local ballot in Carroll County. The Democratic Central Committee says it’s ‘very frustrating.’
When residents of Carroll County’s District 3 cast a ballot in this year’s general election, they will be the only ones who can vote in a race between a local Democrat and a local Republican. There is only one Democrat running for local office in the county, and he is running for the District 3 commissioner seat. District 3 is centrally located in Carroll and includes the City of Westminster. Two candidates are on the ballot to represent the district for the next four years — Republican Tom Gordon and Democrat Zach Hands. Hands is the only Democrat running for commissioner in any of the county’s five districts. The four other races only have a Republican candidate running.
Baltimore County school board race heats up with endorsements, warnings
As Election Day nears, the races for Baltimore County school board are heating up, with ads and endorsements highlighting the political divide in what are officially nonpartisan contests. School board elections have long been races that some voters rarely think about until they enter the polling place, but this year in Baltimore County, Democrats are making a last-minute pitch urging voters to beware of candidates they believe hold extreme views. On the other side, some Republican elected officials are lending their support to candidates voicing conservative views on the teaching of race and gender. The endorsements elevate the school board races, which are some of the only general election contests where there is little polling, and the outcomes are less clear.
Renovated and reopened National Cryptologic Museum a spymaster’s delight; newly declassified artifacts on display
The newly renovated and reopened National Cryptologic Museum, run by the National Security Agency and located near the spy agency’s headquarters at Fort Meade, deals a fatal blow to one of the most enduring myths of the Cold War: There is no “red phone” linking the Oval Office to the Kremlin. Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin do indeed communicate, but there is no crimson handset that the two leaders can pick up during a global crisis to be immediately connected. “The red phone? That’s Hollywood,” museum director Vincent Houghton said. What’s actually on display might be even better. Most of the artifacts — 85% says Houghton — are either the first of their kind, were used by a key person or are the only ones left.
Rodricks: Baltimore’s two-man graffiti crew needs reinforcements
At lunch the other day, I heard an informed lament about a decline in public service — that is, a loss of popular interest in teaching, becoming a police officer or prosecutor, fueled by the stresses of the pandemic, a surge in public scrutiny and harsh criticism from both the right and left. It was a troubling trend to contemplate, especially in the needful city of Baltimore. So good thing my next stop was Washington and Biddle, on the east side, for a rendezvous with the city’s graffiti removal team. Under the railroad tracks that pass over that intersection, Eric Ford and Tony Clark rolled beige paint across the tag of a serial graffitist.
Nathanson: The Road Wars that started in the 1960s are not over
In the years following World War II, with a growing economy and the vast expansion of automobile ownership, there was broad support for investment in highways that would knit the country together. While there was already 1944 legislation envisioning a 40,000-mile system of highways on the books, it took the leadership of President Dwight D. Eisenhower to bring about the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. Also known as the National Interstate and Defense Highways Act, Ike’s signature domestic legislation, with an initial authorization of $25 billion for the construction of 41,000 miles of roadway, was the largest public works program in American history through that time. But the president did not understand all the details of the bill he had signed.
Veterans deserve extra attention, including in the justice system
Almost everyone agrees that our country should give special treatment to the men and women who have served in our armed forces, whether in aid for education, preference in federal hiring or generous pensions. If you put yourself in harm’s way to protect and defend your country, you have gone above and beyond the role of the ordinary citizen and deserve special treatment. That still holds true for any veteran whose life has gone off the rails and who ends up in the justice system. If they are arrested for a nonviolent crime, their actions cannot be excused, but they need and deserve as much help as the community can give. That is the reasoning behind the creation of veterans’ courts, where they can get the help they need. Veteran advocates and the local United Way are laying the groundwork for such a court here.
Brooks: The rising tide of global sadness
Taylor Swift was quite the romantic when she burst on the scene in 2006. She sang about the ecstasies of young love and the heartbreak of it. But her mood has hardened as her star has risen. Her excellent new album, “Midnights,” plays upon a string of negative emotions — anxiety, restlessness, exhaustion and occasionally anger. “I don’t dress for women,” she sings at one point, “I don’t dress for men/ Lately I’ve been dressing for revenge.” It turns out Swift is part of a larger trend. Researchers Charlotte Brand, Alberto Acerbi and Alex Mesoudi analyzed more than 150,000 pop songs released between 1965 and 2015. Over that time, the appearance of the word “love” in top-100 hits roughly halved. Meanwhile, the number of times such songs contained negative emotion words, like “hate” rose sharply.
Statewide Md. Dems outraise GOP foes by dramatic margins
Democrats running for the three statewide offices in Maryland have outraised their Republican opponents by dramatic margins over the past two months and enter the final sprint to Election Day with substantially more resources than their GOP foes. Wes Moore, the Democratic nominee for governor, raised a whopping $5,252,438 between Aug. 24 and Oct. 23, and had $3,824,989 on hand, according to newly filed campaign finance statements submitted Friday to the Maryland State Board of Elections. Moore’s take was supplemented by the $525,843 that his running mate, former state Del. Aruna Miller (D) collected during the two-month period. Together, the Moore-Miller ticket had almost $4 million in the bank — almost 10 times the war chests of Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick), the GOP nominee for governor, and his running mate, attorney Giordana Schifanelli.