Politics

Bishop Donte Hickman was building toward the climax of his sermon early Sunday, his deep voice climbing gradually in volume, energy and pace, as he brought an oft-quoted passage from the Book of Matthew to life. God has given us what Jesus called the keys to the kingdom — and the keys to our own dignity, sanctity and future — he said, as long as we remain strong in our faith. “If you have the keys, won’t you take them out?” Hickman cried. And in the front row at Southern Baptist Church, his most famous congregant stood and did exactly that.

Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman kicked off a series of town halls this week to hear residents’ priorities for the upcoming fiscal 2024 budget. Residents of District 2, which includes Glen Burnie and part of Millersville, gathered at Glen Burnie High School Thursday to advocate for better pay for library staff, remedying staffing shortages at Anne Arundel County Animal Care and Control, and funding to help ease a learning gap in county public schools. Pittman will be visiting the other six districts in the coming weeks as he prepares to introduce his spending plan to the council this spring. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

“Politics is a very humbling business,” said Wes Moore. “When we were first got into this race, I was polling at 1%!” Moore is a bestselling author, former Army captain, and now, as a first time’s-the-charm politician, Maryland’s Democratic governor-elect. He won in a landslide, beating his Republican opponent with more than twice as many votes. “We ended up receiving 89% of the vote in Baltimore,” he said. A vote of confidence from a city that’s struggling with high crime rates, high poverty rates, and high unemployment rates. Sanneh asked, “A lot of smart people have been working on these issues for a long time. What makes you think you can do something that all these smart, talented people haven’t been able to do?”

Twenty-four hours after Columbia Association President and CEO Lakey Boyd said she had no choice but to be transitioned out of her role, residents of Maryland’s second-largest city packed the nonprofit’s boardroom Thursday night to testify in support of the embattled leader and demand transparency from the board. “Lakey Boyd has sacrificed herself for our community,” Skye Anderson testified to the association’s board of directors. “You, dear board members, have sacrificed our community for yourselves.”

Before the gridlock began on the House floor on the first day of the 118th Congress, Glenn Ivey had a party to go to. He entered his swearing-in ceremony that morning as if arriving on a red carpet: hugging, shaking hands, taking selfies with the dozens of supporters who lined up to greet him at a reception for Ivey in the Library of Congress. His son, Maryland state Del. Julian Ivey (D-Prince George’s) took the stage to introduce him — with the added task of recognizing every other elected official present in the room.

The state of Maryland released a report this week that could have a major impact on the cannabis industry and that of its upstart little sibling: Delta-8 THC. Like many first children, Maryland’s medical cannabis industry has had to follow a lot of rules — rules on growing, processing, testing and selling. It took years to mature into an industry with a half-billion dollars in annual revenue.