Politics

Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday announced that Maryland would shift its focus on Chesapeake Bay cleanup in response to a recent study that said states could be making greater progress on the issue. Joined by EPA Region III Administrator Adam Ortiz at a state wildlife research center in Queenstown, Moore said the state would follow the science outlined in a report by the Chesapeake Bay Program Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee and focus more on the bay’s shallow water resources.

The City Council has marked its calendar for a second hearing on the Brooklyn Day shooting, with its eye on gaining new information about the Baltimore Police Department response and more data on the Safe Streets violence mediation program. The hearing, planned for Sept. 13 at 1 p.m., was announced in a tweet on Thursday by Councilman Mark Conway, the public safety chair, who said he expected the Police Department will have by then completed its “after-action report.”

In real life, Bob Odenkirk, who played a morally-challenged attorney in Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, is a campaign donor to President Joe Biden and an outspoken critic of former president Donald Trump. But his political contributions don’t stop there. In an era in which out-of-state money increasingly influences state races, the Los Angeles-based actor gave $1,500 to Montgomery County Councilman Will Jawando, a Democrat seeking the U.S. Senate opening created because Maryland Democrat Ben Cardin isn’t seeking reelection next year.

The Baltimore area is one step closer to forming a Regional Water Governance Task Force authority. Under legislation approved this year in Annapolis, the regional authority would take over management of the water system now run by Baltimore City and surrounding counties. The first step was a 13-member panel to figure out how to do that.

Several park trails in Carroll County will now permit a certain class of motorized e-bikes to be used alongside hikers, runners and equestrians. The Board of Carroll County Commissioners voted 3-2 at its Thursday meeting to change a county ordinance and allow for the use of Class 1 e-bikes on county-owned park trails. The bicycles have an electric motor that operates when a rider is pedaling and automatically shuts off when the bike reaches 20 mph.

Prosecutors in Tennessee are reviewing the FBI’s investigative file on bureaucrat turned fugitive Roy McGrath’s death near Knoxville, even as the internal review remains ongoing, officials said Thursday. A spokesman for the Knoxville field office of the FBI, Darrell DeBusk, said both the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office, as well as the local U.S. Attorney’s Office, are “reviewing the file.”

Maryland officials on Thursday named the 13 individuals who will help decide the future of the Baltimore area’s water and wastewater system by serving on a task force convened by the General Assembly. By late January, the task force will deliver its recommendations to legislators in Annapolis, stating how the critical infrastructure, which is largely managed by Baltimore City, ought to be governed in the future. From there, legislators will pick up the baton.

Resort officials this week approved the second reading of an ordinance on non-accessory workforce housing, but not before a lengthy discussion on length of stay and off-street parking requirements. On Monday, the Mayor and Council had before them the second reading of an ordinance amending the town’s zoning code to allow for non-accessory workforce housing. After a lengthy discussion, officials voted to approve the code amendment, but to set a rental period of more than 30 days.