Politics

The second year of Gov. Wes Moore’s signature public service and jobs program for mostly young Marylanders started Wednesday much like its first — an enthusiastic pep talk, a marching band and hundreds of participants wearing matching red shirts, eager for a new opportunity. Over 600 people are part of the program’s second class and will spend most of the next year earning at least minimum wage while working for a nonprofit organization, company or government agency.

In the days after the cargo ship Dali toppled Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, the financial toll on the city was incalculable and overwhelming. All water traffic to and from the city’s bustling port was halted, disrupting the shipments that typically come and go via trucks and trains. Baltimore’s emergency officials were occupied with complicated rescue and recovery efforts that stretched on for weeks.

A Baltimore County councilman is trying to change a new law that would let voters decide this fall whether to expand the council for the first time since 1956, arguing that it doesn’t provide voters with enough information to make a decision. Councilman Pat Young, a Catonsville Democrat, was the lone vote against a measure in June to hold a referendum on council expansion.

Ever since President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign, former president Donald Trump has been sour and on the defensive. His new opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, made clear in their scorching debate here Tuesday night that she will spend the next two months trying to keep him there. If debates matter, this one should. But the overriding question in such a divided country is whether it will.

When a group called PEACE began circulating petitions to impose term limits on City Hall, the idea didn’t seem too far-fetched. Other elected officials, even Mayor Brandon Scott, had previously expressed support for term limits. David Smith, the billionaire Baltimore County media mogul who finances PEACE, would later say the 2022 effort was “a test,” an opportunity to see how easy it is to change city government.

In a family-owned Salvadorian restaurant in Wheaton earlier this summer, the Democratic faithful in Montgomery County watched mostly in silence and lingered at the bar afterward as President Joe Biden stumbled through a debate that would seal his fate as the leader of his party. Just over two months later in the same local haunt, the mood had shifted into celebration, the margaritas and Coronas flowing during a rematch that was anything but quiet for a new Democratic nominee at the top of the ticket.

Kamala Harris on Tuesday night faces a task unprecedented in modern political history. On the debate stage in Philadelphia, she will deliver both an opening argument – to the millions of voters who want to know more about her – and a closing argument – for her candidacy and against Donald Trump’s – as their lightning campaign enters its final eight weeks.