Politics

As lawmakers nationwide push to limit the types of books that can be found in schools, Gov. Wes Moore (D) joined nine other governors to fight censorship of textbooks in a letter released Friday. Moore, along with other Democratic governors, called on textbook publishers to “hold the line” and refuse to water down their educational materials at the behest of Republican lawmakers and conservative parents.

Mayor Brandon Scott and two Baltimore City Council leaders issued a joint statement Friday night that delivered a stinging rebuke to the leadership of the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts and that vowed to explore “alternative options.” The statement, which was signed by Scott, City Council President Nick J. Mosby and Eric Costello, chairman of the Ways & Means Committee, was in essence a vote of no confidence in the organization’s board of directors and chairman Brian D. Lyles, the board leader and volunteer who in January began to run BOPA’s day-to-day operations after the abrupt departure of former CEO Donna Drew Sawyer.

Maryland’s state elections board is scheduled to name a successor to outgoing state Elections Administrator Linda Lamone Monday afternoon. Lamone is expected to depart around Sept. 1. The board launched a speedy search in early May with a two-week period for accepting resumes from candidates.The field was  narrowed to a small set of finalists before the Memorial Day weekend. The board privately interviewed those candidates last week.

Carroll County officials are continuing to consider changing a law that bans all motorized vehicles from county-owned park trails, and allowing a certain class of e-bikes that operate when the rider is pedaling, with a motor that automatically shuts off at a top speed of 20 miles per hour. The next step is a public hearing, during which the Board of County Commissioners and the county’s Department of Recreation and Parks will collect input from county residents and park users.

Long-serving Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) on Thursday backed Prince George’s County Executive Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) for Senate, offering a weighty endorsement in a growing field of contenders. “I ask all Marylanders to join me in sending a strong, experienced and compelling voice to the United States Senate — someone who looks like the state and country she serves,” Hoyer told a crowd in Suitland, touting Alsobrooks’s experience and emphasizing the history she would make as Maryland’s first Black senator.

The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts will appear before the Baltimore City Council Friday evening for a budget hearing that is likely to focus on the quasi-governmental agency’s mission as well as its funding. Tensions between the council and the arts group that mounts city festivals escalated Thursday when an amendment was introduced that would trim $1 million from BOPA’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget.

To give perspective of what pedestrians experience traversing Georgia Avenue, Montgomery County Council member Natali Fani-González (D-Dist. 6) took Gov. Moore (D) on a walking tour of Downtown Wheaton on Wednesday to see firsthand the lack of bike lanes, narrow sidewalks and the challenge of crossing a busy road.

When Gov. Wes Moore (D) took office in mid-January, he vowed to shake up the Maryland Public Service Commission, a powerful but obscure agency that regulates gas and electric utilities. Critics in recent years have complained that the PSC hasn’t been proactive enough when it comes to the state’s strategy for fighting climate change.