Politics

Autoworkers at Detroit’s biggest vehicle manufacturers are signing up for strike shifts, buying burn barrels and saving money to prepare for a possible work stoppage as contract talks remain tense ahead of Thursday’s deadline. Many say they see a strike as inevitable, even as small signs of progress between the United Auto Workers and the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — appear.

U.S. poverty spiked over the past year, with child poverty more than doubling, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday, while the proportion of people lacking health insurance in 2022 dropped to an uncommonly low level. The new figures reflect the uneven pace at which the government has ceased some forms of pandemic assistance as well as the calamitous effects of record inflation on household finances.

U.S. Rep. David Trone on Tuesday urged the Biden administration to terminate an immigration enforcement agreement between the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, citing anti-immigrant statements by the embattled sheriff and numerous reports of civil rights violations by his agency.

Gun rights nonprofit Maryland Shall Issue appealed a federal judge’s decision to uphold an Anne Arundel County law requiring gun sellers to hand out pamphlets on suicide prevention and safe gun storage. Since then more than 20 parties have filed amicus briefs defending the county’s bill.

Ever wondered what it’s like to serve in the halls of Congress? Think you can do better than the elected officials there now? A unique public policy experiment created by the University of Maryland’s Program for Public Consultation seeks to put the average American in the decision-making shoes of their congressional representatives — and sow common ground and build public policy polling at the same time.

Amid fretting and high hopes that their children will succeed in the academic year, concerns that students could be exposed to toxic pesticides might not be the first thought on parents’ minds. But ensuring that Maryland schools reduce pesticide-exposure has been an ongoing concern for groups like the Maryland Pesticide Education Network and the Children’s Environmental Health Network, who have been advocating for clear policies on pesticide use in schools for years.

When Jennie Burke’s 13-year-old daughter needed hernia surgery six years ago, it wasn’t the operation Burke feared — it was her daughter’s recovery from it, and whether she’d need opioids to keep the pain at bay. At the time, Burke’s brother was “hitting rock bottom” from a heroin addiction that would later kill him. Like many Americans in the early 2000s, he became addicted to opioids after being prescribed OxyContin following an appendectomy. In 2020, the year he died, 68,630 people died from opioid overdoses.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-5th) enjoys his annual bull roast in Prince George’s County because he gets to hug, shake hands and nibble on hot food alongside fellow Democrats and other friends. The event celebrates various accomplishments made during the year and coincides with his birthday in June, but was postponed due the poor air quality from the Canadian wildfires. It resumed Friday as orange, red and white balloons were stationed at various places at Newton White Mansion as hundreds came to pay homage to Maryland’s longest-serving member of the House of Representatives.