Politics

As Maryland lawmakers hash out whether to again change child conviction laws, the Baltimore area’s top prosecutors want constituents to tell their State House reps one thing. “The email you should send them is ‘juvenile crime is out of control — reverse the Juvenile Justice [Reform] Act,’” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger told a group of well over 100 listeners during a rare joint Baltimore City-Baltimore County town hall Wednesday night.

Since starting work for Anne Arundel County government in 2008, Earl “Bud” Reaves, the aptly nicknamed county forester, has been raising concerns to his peers about an overwhelming quantity of invasive vines strangling and killing the tree population. With a push from a concerned resident, Reaves finally has been given the go-ahead to enlist county employees in tackling the problem.

As Maryland continues the redetermination of 1.8 million residents’ eligibility for Medicaid, the federal government is requiring all states to suspend the disenrollment of some who would have normally been kicked off the low-income health care plan, and reinstate the enrollment of others. At issue is a concern from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that some people were inappropriately disenrolled, and the agency instructed states to evaluate their redetermination metrics to ensure as many qualified people can stay enrolled as possible.

More than 3.5 million federal employees and military personnel — many in the Washington, D.C., area but also scattered across the states and around the globe — are bracing for another partial government shutdown, as U.S. House Republicans struggle to produce a short-term plan to fund the government past the end of the month.

Maryland’s transportation officials are considering adding more speed cameras to roadway work zones and increasing speeding fines in those areas, among other potential changes, Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller said Thursday. There are an average of three work zone crashes in Maryland every day, threatening the safety of roughly 1,000 construction workers spread across more than 300 sites, Miller said.

After years of backlash against former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s Beltway widening plan, in August the Moore administration introduced a modified proposal to address congestion. The new plan nixes the controversial public-private partnership, which would allow a private company to profit from tolls decades into the future. Nonetheless, it still entails road-widening, which critics point out induces more traffic demand.

Pay raises for city officials and nuisance sweeps of area streets were highlighted Tuesday during mayor and City Council meetings. Cumberland Code Compliance Manager Kevin Thacker, appointed zoning administrator last month, at a work session provided an update of community development projects and programs. The city sold roughly a dozen properties, attained by donation or delinquent tax situation, for rehabilitation in the past year and demolished five others.

Some potential cannabis businesses are criticizing the tight turnaround to obtain new licenses to grow, process or distribute marijuana, after the Maryland Cannabis Administration announced applications will open on Nov. 13, with distribution set to start just six weeks later on Jan. 1. The bill that legalized cannabis for individuals 21 and older in Maryland that took effect July 1 created a timeline for the recreational industry, including a two-round licensing process for new cannabis businesses that will initially prioritize applicants who qualify for social equity, an initiative aimed to remediate harm from the criminalization of cannabis.