Politics

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen joined other lawmakers and environmental organizations Thursday to introduce legislation that would hold the nation’s largest polluters financially responsible for the costs of the climate crisis. “The reason we’re all gathered here together is because we all agree on a simple but powerful principle, which is that polluters should pay to clean up the mess they have caused, and those who polluted the most should pay the most,” Van Hollen, a Democrat, said during a Capitol Hill press conference Thursday.

A Donald Trump campaign bus rolled into Maryland Thursday in a visit organized by the Black Conservative Federation. The bus visited Northwood Plaza. The group said it’s committed to getting former President Trump back in the White House. “Yes, we do support Trump. Why? We feel like his policies worked when he was in office in 2016,” said Brenda Thiam with the BCF. “I am a graduate of an HBCU, and he worked hard with the presidents of HBCUs to bring them funding.”

A year ago, the annual dinner of the group Progressive Maryland turned into an impromptu pep rally for U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), who was the keynote speaker. Raskin had already said he wasn’t going to run for Senate in 2024, but many of the activists at the dinner tried to persuade him to change his mind, with chants of “Run, Jamie, Run!”

Nearly two years after fumbling more than $10 million in federal homeless services funds, officials have approved Baltimore’s request to recoup much of the lost money. Mayor Brandon Scott told reporters last week that officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development informed City Hall that it had approved the request to get reimbursed for more than $6 million in grant funds the city received in the 2020 fiscal year — money the city had forfeited after blowing a deadline to send in the reimbursement forms.

The second year of Gov. Wes Moore’s signature public service and jobs program for mostly young Marylanders started Wednesday much like its first — an enthusiastic pep talk, a marching band and hundreds of participants wearing matching red shirts, eager for a new opportunity. Over 600 people are part of the program’s second class and will spend most of the next year earning at least minimum wage while working for a nonprofit organization, company or government agency.

In the days after the cargo ship Dali toppled Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the financial toll on the city was incalculable and overwhelming. All water traffic to and from the city’s bustling port was halted, disrupting the shipments that typically come and go via trucks and trains. Baltimore’s emergency officials were occupied with complicated rescue and recovery efforts that stretched on for weeks.

A Baltimore County councilman is trying to change a new law that would let voters decide this fall whether to expand the council for the first time since 1956, arguing that it doesn’t provide voters with enough information to make a decision. Councilman Pat Young, a Catonsville Democrat, was the lone vote against a measure in June to hold a referendum on council expansion.