Politics

The Cannabis Reform Act of 2023 is expected to hit the floor of the Maryland House of Delegates on Tuesday accompanied by amendments, as the bill to prop up an adult-use recreational marijuana market progresses through the General Assembly. With more edits still possible, lawmakers pushed the bill out of the House Economic Matters Committee last week, voting 16-5 along party lines. Three delegates were excused from voting.

When Baltimore Police send out a news bulletin about a crime, a request for anonymous tips is almost always included. Police ask would-be tipsters to call Metro Crime Stoppers of Maryland, a volunteer-run nonprofit that solicits anonymous tips about perpetrators from across the Baltimore metropolitan region with the promise of cash rewards for the tips that help detectives solve crimes and make arrests. Except hardly anyone ever gets paid, and those who do don’t get much.

When a customer walks into a supermarket or department store in Maryland, they might encounter a person wearing a bulletproof vest, a badge and a belt equipped with a baton and pepper spray. If the guard is employed by the store, they likely are unlicensed and unregulated. If the store contracts from a private security agency, its guards are required to have a Maryland State Police-issued license. 

The Baltimore County Council approved a compensation policy for county employees on Monday evening, nearly five years after voters approved a charter amendment granting the council oversight to set appointees’ salaries. However, a provision in the new law allows the county executive and county administrative officer to have the final say in determining senior officials’ severance packages.

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced Sunday morning that he won’t run for president in 2024 — saying he had “no desire to put my family through another grueling campaign just for the experience.” In recent weeks, pundits and pollsters have suggested that a crowded GOP field would help solidify former President Donald Trump’s status as a frontrunner in 2024. In a statement, Hogan said he did not want to contribute to the dynamic.

Maryland lawmakers moved forward a bill that would enable workers at Baltimore’s Walters Art Museum to form a union, the latest step in an ongoing organizing effort at the museum. “It’s the right step forward to save the Walters and help it flourish,” Baltimore Sen. Jill P. Carter said Friday, after her fellow senators agreed to advance legislation allowing workers to unionize. Baltimore’s members of the House of Delegates previously voted to support a slightly different version of the same bill.

Two weeks ago, a 25-year-old woman died in an apartment fire in Silver Spring, Maryland, and now the state’s lawmakers are hoping a new bill will make complexes safer. “We want justice,” Cesar Diaz told our news partners at NBC Washington. His daughter, Melanie Diaz, was killed during a fire at the Arrive Silver Spring apartment complex on Feb. 18.

A decision is due any day from a federal court in Texas that could have sweeping repercussions on abortion access across the country — including in states, like Maryland, where the procedure is protected. Several anti-abortion groups and doctors are suing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to revoke its 22-year-old approval of the drug mifepristone, which is used in combination with the drug misoprostol in 98% of medication abortions in the U.S.