Politics

Wes Moore cares less about being remembered as the first Black governor of Maryland and more about being remembered for doing something that made your life better. That’s why, he says, people voted for him. “[Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller’s] and my portraits are going to look a little different from the ones we’ve always seen in the Capitol. But that’s not the point.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday he is planning to sign gun-control measures approved by lawmakers in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year. The high court’s ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen ended a requirement similar to a Maryland law for people to demonstrate a particular need to get a license to carry a concealed gun in public.

A survey released Wednesday by Anne Arundel Community College’s Center for the Study of Local Issues reports an increase in residents concerned about housing costs, which local leaders say they’ve been working to combat. Of the top county issues assessed in the survey, housing costs recorded the sharpest rise in concern since the previous survey released about six months ago.

Recent lawsuits surrounding the treatment of transgender people housed in Baltimore’s state-run corrections facilities have brought attention to how the detention sites handle gender identity, prompting LGBTQ+ activists to call for a mandatory overhaul of state policies. While most jails in Maryland are operated through county-level governments, Baltimore’s pretrial detention facilities are managed by the state-level agency that operates Maryland’s prisons.

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland has been advocating for the Equal Rights Amendment, either in Washington or Annapolis, for more than 50 years. A vote on his effort to revive the amendment is scheduled for Thursday and, for Cardin, it’s long been personal. “My mother was a force in my family,” the 79-year-old Democrat said in an interview. “So many people I love are women, like my two granddaughters. I want them to have every opportunity.”

The death this week of Harry Belafonte, the iconic singer, actor and civil rights leader, brought a wealth of memories for everyone who has known or admired the man and his work. For former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening (D), the news of Belafonte’s passing at the age of 96, recalled a time when Glendening, then Prince George’s County executive, traveled to Senegal in the late 1980’s and ran into Belafonte on a couple of occasions. Each time, the meetings were fortuitous.

The Board of Carroll County Commissioners is proposing a $546.7 million operating budget for fiscal 2024, adding $25 million more in spending to the package budget officials recommended in early March. The spending and revenue plan for fiscal 2024, which starts July 1, is $45.4 million (9.1%) higher than the current operating budget. To help pay for the $25 million increase in spending, commissioners are proposing an increase to the recordation rate tax from $5 per $500 to $6.25 per $500, which will bring in a projected $3.9 million.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat who was diagnosed with cancer last December, said Tuesday that he completed chemotherapy treatment and “the doctors are extremely optimistic.” “I had the last chemo today and got to ring the bell,” the fourth-term, Montgomery County representative said in an interview, referring to the ceremonial end of chemotherapy or radiation. Raskin, 60, who was prominent in a House committee’s investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, was diagnosed with diffuse large B cell lymphoma, a serious but curable form of cancer.