Politics

After years of debate over the county’s approach to regulating land use in the area around Sugarloaf Mountain, the Frederick County Council on Tuesday rejected the proposed Sugarloaf Rural Heritage Overlay Zoning District. The council voted 5-2 to reject the overlay. Councilmembers Brad Young, M.C. Keegan-Ayer, Kavonté Duckett, Mason Carter and Renee Knapp voted against the overlay. Councilmembers Jerry Donald and Steve McKay voted to approve it.

Baltimore County legislators unanimously passed a pair of bills Monday enshrining the Office of the Inspector General into county law in a highly anticipated vote after Council Chair Julian Jones Jr. announced he was withdrawing widely criticized amendments that would have hamstrung the watchdog agency. The County Council voted 7-0 to pass two bills that codify the three-year-old office into the county charter and require public hearings and written notice to justify any future attempts to shrink the agency’s budget.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday endorsed Rep. David Trone (D-Md.) in the sharply contested Democratic primary race to be Maryland’s next senator, along with two other top Democrats in the House of Representatives. The campaign for the open Senate seat in deep-blue Maryland has largely become a two-person race between Trone, who has already spent nearly $10 million of his fortune blanketing the state with ads, and Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks and her supporting phalanx of Maryland politicians.

Speed dating was the vibe that several attendees and candidates used to describe Saturday’s meet and greet with Democratic candidates for Maryland’s Sixth Congressional District in Gaithersburg. Attendees were divided into nine small groups that traveled around to stations featuring each of the nine candidates who participated in the event. The groups had 10 minutes with each candidate, who could choose to give a pitch on their campaign, ask questions of the group, or a combination of both.

Billions of dollars in collected operating and transportation budget deficits will present Gov. Wes More (D) with one of the toughest challenges of his nascent administration. Ever ebullient, Moore was sworn in earlier this year vowing to move quickly to rebuild state government, end childhood poverty and leave no one behind as he promised that the state would “win the decade.” Those ambitions are about to be tested against stark budget realities that will make Moore, as with all governors, pick and choose and prioritize.

Baltimore County legislators passed unanimously Monday a pair of bills enshrining the Office of the Inspector General into county law in a highly-anticipated vote after Council Chair Julian Jones Jr. announced he was withdrawing widely-criticized amendments that would have hamstrung the watchdog agency. The county council voted 7-0 to pass two bills that codify the three-year-old office into the county charter and require public hearings and written notice to justify any future attempts to shrink the agency’s budget.

Helping Maryland’s counties afford their share of the Blueprint, the landmark plan to revamp the state’s public schools and early childhood programs, will be the No. 1 education issue before the General Assembly in 2024, Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King said. The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, passed by the legislature in 2021, increases education funding by $3.8 billion annually for 10 years, with the cost borne by the state, the 23 counties and Baltimore City.