Politics

Maryland’s newly published and adopted heat standard, which goes into effect Monday, requires all workers to have access to water, shade, and rest breaks when temperatures exceed 80 degrees — it joins just a handful of other states that have standards protecting workers from extreme heat. Maryland’s heat standard, which is nearly four years in the making, could have saved someone like Ronald Silver II, a Baltimore City sanitation worker whose on the job death was first reported by WYPR.

Eight years after Noah’s Law went into effect, Maryland legislators have closed a loophole that allowed some drivers to repeatedly drive while intoxicated. Now, anyone caught driving under the influence will be required to install an ignition interlock device, which includes a camera. The updated law goes into effect on Tuesday.

A proposal that many advocates saw as a pivotal tool for fixing up thousands of vacant properties across Baltimore went down at Monday night’s City Council meeting with barely a fizzle. Councilwoman Odette Ramos has championed legislation to establish a “land bank” in Baltimore for well over a year, arguing that the specialized authority would be better equipped than City Hall to clear complex title issues and move blighted properties into the hands of responsible developers.

Beneath a purple disco ball in a packed South Baltimore bar, Angela Alsobrooks launched into a stump speech with a quick nod to her past and — like most of her campaign for U.S. Senate — an almost singular focus on her future. It all started, she told supporters at Captain Larry’s in Riverside earlier this month, with public safety, when she ran for the Office of Prince George’s County State’s Attorney after realizing her 4-year-old daughter “was living in a place that wasn’t quite safe enough for her.”

For 13 years, Diane Kraus has parried her disease’s every blow with rounds of radiation and chemotherapy, some of them ineffective, all of them with a cost — nausea, confusion, vertigo, pain — which she also parried with more drugs. “I want to live,” said Kraus, who was diagnosed in 2011 with metastatic breast cancer. “I want to be around. There is fun to be had and people to see.”

Republican JD Vance and Democrat Tim Walz will meet Tuesday in the lone vice presidential debate of the 2024 election, bringing together undercards who have spent two months going after each other and the opposing nominees who top the major-party tickets. The matchup, hosted by CBS News in New York, might not carry the same stakes as the Sept. 10 debate between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

A conservative super PAC funded by Trump skeptics and backers alike jumped into the Maryland Senate race in the past week, airing three political ads with strikingly different tones — all aimed at swaying voters to support Republican Larry Hogan in the increasingly expensive and unexpectedly close contest that could determine which party controls that chamber. One ad praised Hogan as an independent-minded former governor who would work with both parties if he wins in November. Two others were scathing attacks on his opponent, Democrat Angela Alsobrooks.

The District of Columbia has determined that U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks owes $18,000 — and potentially another $41,000 in penalties and fees — for receiving property tax credits she was not qualified for, a campaign spokesman said Friday. Connor Lounsbury, a campaign senior adviser, said the figures resulted from talks between Alsobrooks representatives and Washington, D.C., tax officials.