Politics

Gov. Wes Moore (D) is working to shore up a beleaguered historic nomination in advance of a Senate hearing Monday. The governor met with members of the Coalition of Black Maryland State Troopers for about 90 minutes Friday to discuss Roland Butler Jr. Moore tapped the retired Maryland State Police lieutenant colonel to become the first Black superintendent of the organization. The meeting with Moore, which included Butler, comes days before a key hearing in the final two weeks of the session.

At a gathering that evoked the long road to marriage equality and the continued fight for the rights of the LGBTQ community, Gov. Wes Moore said he intends to sign a bill that would require Maryland Medicaid to cover gender-affirming procedures for transgender patients. “We should not be asking any Marylander to validate their humanity. We should not be asking any Marylander to try to justify their humanness,” Moore told state lawmakers in a newly formed LGBTQ+ Caucus during a cocktail hour Thursday at the governor’s residence.

As the County Council continues its deliberations over County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposed operating and capital budgets, county officials said remaining federal assistance should continue to be spent on social services, business assistance and similar areas. That federal assistance is coming in two forms—reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for COVID-19-related expenses such as for personal protective equipment, and money from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), signed into law by President Joe Biden in March 2021 to provide economic relief due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Resort officials this week approved a budget amendment for fiscal year 2023, but not before a spirited discussion on the town’s advertising allocation. On Monday, the council voted 6-1, with Councilwoman Carol Proctor opposed, to approve the second reading of several budget amendments for fiscal year 2023. The change, which reflects an increase in room, income and admissions tax revenues, also proposes an increase in grant, salary and advertising expenditures. Proctor said she opposed the transfer of additional funds to the town’s advertising budget.

As a supposed tell-all book about the fugitive Roy McGrath’s time as former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s chief of staff climbed one of Amazon’s bestseller lists Wednesday, some speculated about the author’s identity. Including Laura Bruner, McGrath’s wife. Bruner, through her attorney, said she did not know and had never met Ryan C. Cooper, the author of “Betrayed: The True Story of Roy McGrath.” “She doesn’t know who this Ryan Cooper is,” said William Brennan, Bruner’s attorney.

Baltimore City Council president Nick Mosby believes the city should look at day laborers to fill some vacant city jobs. It’s been more than a year since city sanitation had to roll back services like weekly recycling. Mosby told C4 and Bryan Nehman on Thursday that he endorses the bill to use day laborers to fill up to 700 vacancies at five different agencies, including the Department of Public Works, to help collect recycling and trash.

Latino lawmakers and community leaders rallied Wednesday morning outside the State House to show their support for Gov. Wes Moore’s nominee to the Maryland Stadium Authority board and demand that the Senate confirm her appointment. Members of the Legislative Latino Caucus and other elected officials from across the state joined representatives from CASA Inc., the advocacy organization that provides social services to immigrants, and other leaders to endorse Moore’s nomination of Yolanda Maria Martinez, whose name has been held up by the Senate.