Politics

We’ve seen Gov. Wes Moore speak a few sentences in Spanish from time to time, and now he’s dabbling in another language: American Sign Language. At a bill signing ceremony this week, the Democrat highlighted one of the measures receiving his signature: the Maryland Sign Language Interpreters Act. The act creates a new State Board of Sign Language Interpreters to regulate and license interpreters. The lead sponsors were Sen. Nancy King, a Montgomery County Democrat, and Del. Heather Bagnall, an Anne Arundel County Democrat.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, will spend the rest of the month deciding whether he will run for U.S. Senate, in what is already shaping up to be a crowded primary battle to replace outgoing Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin. “After five months of chemo, I am taking the month of May to seriously investigate the 2024 election, the Senate, the House, and the role I can best play in Democratic victory and progress in the country,” Raskin tells TIME.

Officials in Ocean City voted unanimously this week to approve the first reading of the fiscal year 2024 operating budget. On Monday, the Mayor and Council had before them a first reading of the proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2024. The spending plan, which totals $155,155,151, includes a general fund budget of more than $105 million and a tax rate of $0.4526 per $100 of assessed value.

Jerome Segal, philosopher and founder of the Bread and Roses political party, is entering the race to fill a U.S. Senate seat after Sen. Ben Cardin announced his retirement. WTOP’s Kate Ryan reported Segal’s plans to run on Thursday. His announcement comes after he ended his 2024 presidential campaign. Cardin has long served in Maryland politics — before being elected to the Senate, he spent 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives representing a big part of Baltimore and a number of local suburbs.

Funding cuts and staffing shortages at the Maryland Department of the Environment over the past decade have coincided with a decline in the state’s ecological health. MDE’s water-related enforcement actions and identification of major polluters plummeted during former Gov. Larry Hogan’s time in office. During this same period, water quality standards in the Chesapeake Bay declined significantly, falling to the same levels as those observed in the early 1990s, according to data from Chesapeake Progress.

Friction continued Thursday between an elected Baltimore leader and the city school system over the length of weekly youth programming this summer amid plans to revive a youth curfew. City Councilman Zeke Cohen announced Thursday morning that he had “reached a compromise” with Baltimore City Public Schools to create “Field Trip Fridays” for young people enrolled in summer programming affiliated with the city school system.

Maryland has begun an unprecedented effort to renew Medicaid coverage for nearly 1.8 million adults and children for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. States were required to provide uninterrupted coverage for those enrolled in Medicaid, the public health insurance program for low-income people, throughout the pandemic in exchange for increased federal funding. But the public health emergency is set to end on May 11.

Maryland’s State Board of Elections kicked off the search Thursday for the state’s first new elections administrator in over 25 years. A job listing for the position, approved by the board, will be posted Friday and start a two-week application period. Board members expect to conduct interviews before the end of the month and announce their selection during a June 5 special meeting.

Freshman Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17) has filed to run for Maryland congressional District 6, just hours after its current representative, Democrat David Trone, announced he would be running for U.S. Senate in a bid to succeed Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). Vogel, who is among the first members of Gen-Z elected to the State House, has filed the Vogel for Congress campaign with the Federal Election Commission.