Politics

A sponsor of legislation that is now being considered by the Maryland General Assembly and designed to protect residents’ privacy online called the current data environment in the United States “almost like the Wild Wild West.” The bill, backed by state Sen. Arthur Ellis, D-Charles, and others, requires only personal data that is “reasonably necessary” be collected for a specific product or service as requested by a consumer. That “data” can sometimes be as personal as someone’s own fingerprint or face.

Maryland lawmakers aren’t yet ready to allow terminally ill patients in the state to choose when to die. Efforts to legalize medical aid-in-dying have fallen short once again in Annapolis. “If the votes aren’t there, the votes aren’t there,” Senate President Bill Ferguson said Friday as he announced that the bill will not come up for a vote this year. “We are not going to be taking a vote on the bill this session, as it does not appear we have the votes to pass it in the Senate,” Ferguson said, acknowledging that the bill could be considered in the future “when we think there’s a better chance of passage.”

Maryland House members from Prince George’s County gave their support Friday to two bills that would give County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) more discretion over how to pay for schools, a move officials said could offer some relief as local leaders confront a looming budget deficit this spring. The decision comes after weeks of conversations among county leaders over whether to expand how Prince George’s uses money from local telecommunications and energy taxes to pay for schools.

The Maryland House of Delegates passed two extensive pieces of juvenile justice legislation Friday — mere days after the 90-day legislative session reached its halfway point. Sponsored by Del. Sheila Ruth, a Democrat representing Baltimore County, House Bill 615 would prohibit school administrators from having students charged with a crime under Maryland’s education code that criminalizes behaviors that disrupt school time.

It was just after sunset, and the evening traffic was buzzing on Highway 50 as 24-year-old Elijah Kinlaw popped into his local Walgreens to pick up some smokes. He had just finished a long day working at a local roofing company, and he was still wearing his neon green work T-shirt and a red beanie. After his shifts, Kinlaw typically smokes to wind down. His cigarette of choice: a cooling, minty Newport.

Before it sold out, Hozier fans paid $40 via Ticketmaster to sit on the lawn for the singer’s Merriweather Post Pavilion concert in May. Now, latecomers who buy tickets on StubHub will pay nearly five times more for the same vantage point. In some extreme cases, tickets are being digitally hawked on resale sites for 10 or 20 times their face value — before the Columbia music venue even puts them on sale, said Audrey Fix Schaefer, the director of communications for I.M.P., which operates Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Baltimore’s financial position has improved somewhat in recent months, a lift that comes even as the city has taken a few major hits from vacancy in its downtown business district. The city has seen its property tax base shrink by $181 million just since July 1, largely a consequence of updated appraisals to major commercial properties that have lost business and tenants since the pandemic, Deputy Finance Director Bob Cenname told the City Council on Thursday.

Members of Frederick County’s state delegation have made 30 requests totaling $27.5 million for capital project funding for fiscal year 2025. State lawmakers file bond bills to get funding for projects in their districts. Money is authorized as part of the state’s capital budget bill. Of the $27.5 million in funds requested by members of the Frederick County delegation as of Thursday evening, $14 million was requested on behalf of the Frederick County government.

Baltimore will create a fellowship program with the city’s two historically Black colleges and universities to encourage city students to choose careers in public service. The program, which Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, announced Thursday, will use $4 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to pay stipends to 25 recent graduates of Coppin State University and Morgan State University. Graduates will work for a variety of city agencies for nine months while receiving professional development training.