Politics

After months of hedging, Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk finally stripped certain users of their blue verification checks last week. Before he purchased the social media platform, the blue check system served to verify that accounts claiming to belong to notable individuals and organizations were actually being run by those individuals and organizations. Now, Musk is charging $8 a month for check marks through Twitter Blue.

In celebration of Arbor Day, the Division of Energy and Environment announced that it has received Maryland’s People Loving and Nurturing Trees Award. The award is issued by The Maryland Association of District Forestry Boards in partnership with the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Their PLANT Award program annually recognizes communities that prioritize and actively care for their trees and are committed to improving their forested areas’ overall health and sustainability.

Wes Moore cares less about being remembered as the first Black governor of Maryland and more about being remembered for doing something that made your life better. That’s why, he says, people voted for him. “[Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller’s] and my portraits are going to look a little different from the ones we’ve always seen in the Capitol. But that’s not the point.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said Thursday he is planning to sign gun-control measures approved by lawmakers in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year. The high court’s ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen ended a requirement similar to a Maryland law for people to demonstrate a particular need to get a license to carry a concealed gun in public.

A survey released Wednesday by Anne Arundel Community College’s Center for the Study of Local Issues reports an increase in residents concerned about housing costs, which local leaders say they’ve been working to combat. Of the top county issues assessed in the survey, housing costs recorded the sharpest rise in concern since the previous survey released about six months ago.

Recent lawsuits surrounding the treatment of transgender people housed in Baltimore’s state-run corrections facilities have brought attention to how the detention sites handle gender identity, prompting LGBTQ+ activists to call for a mandatory overhaul of state policies. While most jails in Maryland are operated through county-level governments, Baltimore’s pretrial detention facilities are managed by the state-level agency that operates Maryland’s prisons.