Politics

The updated COVID-19 vaccine will be available for free starting Friday for Baltimore adults without health insurance and those whose health insurance doesn’t fully cover the cost of the new shot. The Baltimore City Health Department announced Thursday that it received its first supply of the new COVID vaccine from the federal government’s Bridge Access Program, which provides shots at no-cost to the 25 to 30 million adults without health insurance.

Former state Sen. Jennie M. Forehand (D-Montgomery), who combined Southern charm with steely persistence when it came to pursuing her legislative priorities, died Tuesday in Indianapolis after a long battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. She was 87. Forehand represented the Rockville and Gaithersburg areas in the General Assembly for 36 years — 16 in the House and 20 in the Senate — before retiring at the end of 2014.

Shannon Sneed, the runner-up in 2020′s race for Baltimore City Council president, has created a campaign fundraising committee in support of another run for the council presidency. Sneed, a member of the City Council from 2016 to 2020 representing East Baltimore, left political office in 2020 after her failed bid for council president. That year she earned 29.4% of the vote in a seven-candidate field, trailing now-Council President Nick Mosby by 14,950 votes.

A proposal to widen an 11-mile stretch of the Capital Beltway in Virginia has entered a new phase with the release of nine possible construction alternatives. Topping the list is an extension of toll lanes into Maryland. Virginia transportation officials unveiled concepts that include congestion pricing along new 495 Express Lanes, dedicated bus lanes and technological enhancements to combat traffic snarls from the Springfield interchange to east of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge.

Most Baltimoreans get their news through TV and find local media a fair, accurate source of information that will help determine how they vote, according to a new survey from Goucher College Poll in partnership with The Baltimore Banner. The Goucher-Banner poll surveyed 711 registered Baltimore voters by cellphone and landline from Sept. 19-23. The poll has a 3.7 percentage point margin of error.

Baltimore’s spending board approved contracts Wednesday for Mayor Brandon Scott’s appointees to lead the police and fire departments, two days after both agency veterans were officially confirmed by the City Council. The contract for acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley calls for a starting annual salary of $285,000 for three years, a $10,000 jump from the starting salary of his predecessor, Michael Harrison.

A handful of members within the Maryland congressional delegation are asking the Internal Revenue Service to waive rules that would financially burden families who paid into the college trust program Maryland 529. In August, State Treasurer Dereck Davis announced that his office would allow Maryland 529 account holders to electronically view their account balances and accrued interest earnings, modernizing a troubled agency that had almost entirely relied on paper documents since its 1997 inception.

The Baltimore County Council will explore the possibility of adding more council members, following years of pressure from voting rights advocates. Councilman Izzy Patoka, a Pikesville Democrat, introduced a resolution Monday proposing a work group to study “whether any changes to the structure of the council are appropriate and [will] serve the goal of improving representation for county residents.”

While Marylanders are being reminded to get their flu and RSV vaccines, they are also being reminded that COVID-19 boosters are available. But a new poll found that not everyone is rushing to get the shot. The poll by Gonzales Research and Media Services showed that 52% of respondents said they will be getting their boosters this year, while nearly 42% said they will skip it. And their willingness to get the booster shots appears tied to how they feel about the federal government’s handling of the pandemic.