Politics

The delegation to the Maryland General Assembly representing the lower Eastern Shore concluded its 2023 work in Annapolis 10 days before, but their duties were not quite finished until they made their way back home for the Post Legislative Session Forum in Salisbury. At the Wicomico County Civic Center on Thursday, April 20, six area legislators attended a luncheon hosted by the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce before recapping their recent three-month period of legislative activity. There were over 100 community members on hand to hear from the delegation.

Members of the Frederick County Board of Education appeared receptive on Wednesday when the student member of the body argued that his position should have voting rights — but also expressed reservations. Lucas Tessarollo, a senior at Gov. Thomas Johnson High School, is the student member of the board for the 2022-23 school year.

As TikTok has mushroomed to more than 150 million monthly U.S. users, so have warnings among both state legislators and members of Congress about its potential danger as a tool of the Chinese government. Dozens of states and the federal government this year banned public employees from downloading the popular app on their government devices.

Baltimore County adopted a rule last year making employees’ retirement appeals cases confidential, shutting the public out from knowing how such conflicts are resolved and how much taxpayer money may be going to fund settlements. The Baltimore County Board of Appeals issues decisions about complaints ranging from building permits to towing license applications to disputes involving the Baltimore County Employees’ Retirement System.

President Joe Biden lambasted Republicans’ emerging trade-off plans to raise the nation’s debt limit only in exchange for spending cuts and other policy concessions on Wednesday, declaring that GOP lawmakers are threatening a historic default on U.S. obligations “unless I agree to all these wacko notions they have.”

A former top Maryland official who skipped his trial on corruption charges and died last month as a fugitive in an armed confrontation with federal agents after a three-week manhunt had made no plans to travel for his trial in Baltimore, according to a newly-unsealed FBI affidavit. Roy McGrath, a one-time chief of staff for former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, missed the first day of trial in federal court on March 13, triggering a manhunt that ended when McGrath was wounded in a shooting April 3 near Knoxville, Tennessee. He died at a hospital.