Politics

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore displayed a wide range of support as he reignited plans for the east-west Red Line transit line in Baltimore, but it remains unclear who will pay for the multibillion-dollar project. Moore said to reporters Thursday that the project will cost “billions of dollars,” but added that “there’s a cost of inaction.” Cost estimates and potential benefits and impacts of the Red Line project are expected to be completed by the fall.

Prince George’s County lawmakers pressed pause on a controversial bill that would’ve prohibited townhouse construction for a time across most of the county, pitting proponents concerned about inadequate infrastructure and public services against opponents, including many in the real estate industry, concerned about economic growth.

The U.S. Supreme Court is poised to rule in the next month on watershed cases that could alter the future of college admissions and the fate of Democratic President Joe Biden’s signature plan to forgive student loans. Decisions are expected in June or early July before the court takes a summer recess. Legal experts believe affirmative action is at risk after the high court’s conservative majority expressed serious doubts about the necessity of the practice during oral arguments this fall.

Some House Republicans, angered by the indictment of former President Donald Trump, are threatening to withhold funding for the FBI and put the brakes on plans for the agency to move out of D.C. Conservative lawmakers are upset by the FBI’s role in searches for classified documents at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home.

Though they only make up a fraction of cars and trucks on the road now, many projections — from Wall Street firms, trade groups and automakers themselves — predict an imminent surge in electric vehicles over the next decade. S&P Global estimates that the nearly 2 million electric vehicles on U.S. roads today will grow to more than 28 million by 2030, when they’ll comprise 40% of all new cars and trucks sold.

Among the small-town government business of passing a $4.6 million annual budget, requesting that a broken bank window be boarded up and seeking news on an 8-foot python spotted on the loose two weeks ago — unfortunately, no updates — a monumental change happened this week in this Caroline County town near the Delaware state line.

Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins “regretted” signing a letter that allowed a local machine gun business owner to obtain a combat-style machine gun, according to a motion federal prosecutors filed Wednesday. The motion outlines how undercover federal investigators tried to confirm that Jenkins’ co-defendant, Robert Krop, had illegal machine guns at his Frederick business, The Machine Gun Nest.

Baltimore Rep. Kweisi Mfume says he has introduced legislation that would award a Congressional Gold Medal to Henrietta Lacks, the late Turner Station resident whose cell line has been used in multiple medical breakthroughs. The Democratic congressman, who represents most of Baltimore City and some of Baltimore County, announced the legislation at a news conference Wednesday on Capitol Hill alongside members of Lacks’ family.