Politics

The Baltimore County Council on Monday night approved new leadership for the Planning Board and the appointment of the county’s first Black fire chief. Last week, County Executive Johnny Olszewski nominated researcher C. Scott Holupka to be chair and real estate professional Emily Brophy to be vice chair. He had previously tapped Joseph W. Dixon, a longtime leader in the Howard County fire department who recently moved to Florida to lead the Gainesville department, to be fire chief.

Maryland voters continue to express deep economic concerns about the price of consumer goods while at the same time having more positive than negative views about the state’s direction and of Gov. Wes Moore, a new poll from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County found. The statewide UMBC Poll — conducted just over a month before Election Day — also found more Maryland voters have a favorable view of the Democratic Party than the Republican Party.

Baltimore City Council is moving forward on legislation to tax vacant properties at a higher rate than occupied ones, the latest strategy rolled out in recent weeks to combat the city’s thousands of abandoned buildings. Council President Nick Mosby, a Democrat, introduced the plan Monday, the last day current councilmembers could do so with enough time to pass before a new council is sworn-in in December. The bill is backed by every councilmember.

The heads of two city agencies have acknowledged that a statistic they used to try to flip the narrative of the latest inspector general report about working conditions faced by sanitation workers was off by a wide margin. Originally, Human Resources Director Quinton Herbert and Public Works Director Khalil Zaied reported that “approximately 56% of the DPW employees” who attended a city-run digital training class were from the Bureau of Solid Waste.

Maryland has been working on laws and other efforts to help people in “the most dire circumstances,” Maryland’s secretary of housing and community development said Monday. Secretary Jake Day talked about a variety of housing issues during a presentation at C. Burr Artz Public Library in Frederick on Monday.

The District of Columbia has issued a bill to U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks — it totals $47,580 — to account for her receiving property tax credits she was not qualified for. The bill, which is due by Oct. 31, is for a combination of back taxes and interest, according to a copy obtained by The Baltimore Sun following a public records request to the Washington, D.C., Office of Tax and Revenue.

Trains and trams, bikes and buses. Electric ferries, too. The delegation of Maryland officials in Sweden this week used them all. The weeklong trip has been an exercise in using sustainable transportation, something that’s readily available in the two Swedish cities visited — Stockholm and Gothenburg — but not nearly as much in Anne Arundel County. On Friday, the delegation’s final full day in Gothenburg, lessons on ways to move sustainably filled every meeting.

With 30 days to Election Day, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, are launching a media blitz that began on Sunday, with the two set to appear in a handful of interviews with traditional and new media figures, a senior Harris campaign official told NBC News. The two sat down with CBS’ “60 Minutes” for separate interviews that will air on Monday, and each will appear on late-night comedy shows later this week.

A forum for Maryland’s 6th Congressional District seat on Sunday turned into a fiery debate between the candidates in its final moments, and audience members joined in. The League of Women Voters of Frederick County, in collaboration with Hood College, hosted Republican Neil Parrott and Democrat April McClain Delaney for a forum Sunday afternoon.