Around Maryland

The Maryland Supreme Court will consider whether the state’s Public Service Commission’s oversight of utility companies includes the authority to penalize them for deceptive telephone solicitations. The justices this month agreed to hear SmartEnergy Holding LLC’s challenge to a Maryland Appellate Court ruling that PSC’s authority to protect consumers against “anticompetitive and abusive practices” includes those conducted by phone in violation of the Maryland Telephone Solicitations Act.

The American Civil Liberties Union of D.C. filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government Tuesday for damages on behalf of a woman who says she was injured by low-flying military helicopters used to disperse protesters in Washington in 2020 during the widespread racial justice demonstrations after the Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd. The ACLU of D.C. filed an administrative complaint in 2020 against the National Guard for the maneuvers, but that case has remained unresolved, said ACLU staff lawyer Michael Perloff.

A Baltimore judge approved the needed redactions Tuesday for the attorney general’s report on sexual abuse within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, clearing the way for its public release. Circuit Judge Robert K. Taylor ordered the Maryland Attorney General’s Office to redact 37 names from the report and to anonymize the identities of 60 other people, removing them from the 456-page document entirely.

City Dock in Annapolis, Maryland, is one of the D.C. area’s most popular destinations to eat, drink, shop and relax, right on the waterfront — but the charm of being on the water also carries the growing risk of flooding. Monday, the city got an infusion of $3.46 million from Congress, to help pay for its estimated $50 million City Dock revitalization project. U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin as well as Rep. John Sarbanes presented a ceremonial check to Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley.

Marilyn R. Goldwater, an emergency-room nurse by training who served 24 years in the Maryland House of Delegates, where she became known as an advocate for improving and expanding health care across the state, died Jan. 7 at her daughter’s home in Manhattan Beach, Calif. She was 95. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s disease, said her daughter, Diane “Dee” Goldwater.

Attorney General Anthony Brown said his office on Monday sent a judge the proposed redactions for its report on Catholic clergy sexual abuse, meeting the deadline to do so. The redacted names, which many number more than 200, include individuals who are living, are accused of abuse, or hiding, enabling, assisting in the cover-up of abuse, or protecting abusers from the consequences of their actions, and whose identities were revealed as a result of a grand-jury subpoena, according to a statement from Brown.

Ten Montgomery County, Maryland, public schools are expected to pilot the Advanced Placement African American studies course next year, and Superintendent Monifa McKnight said she’s a proponent of the class. A school system spokeswoman said MCPS is still finalizing the list of schools offering the course, but the College Board invited 10 high schools to participate. In an interview with WTOP, McKnight said she’s “a big proponent of African American studies being supported and in our schools and in our school systems.”

The Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics (PIA) Hagerstown campus will receive $750,000 in federal funding to support an expansion of its facilities. Funding for PIA’s expansion was a part of the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in December. The PIA Hagerstown project was secured by Congressman David Trone (MD-06) and both Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin.

An attempt by the ALCU of Maryland and the Legal Defense Fund to resurrect a nearly 30-year-old lawsuit to gain more state funding for Baltimore City schools was scuttled by a Circuit Court Judge earlier this month. Baltimore City Circuit Judge Audrey J.S. Carrion ruled on March 3 in favor of the state, granting summary judgment in Bradford vs. the Maryland State Board of Education.