Politics

Achieving the aggressive offshore wind power goals of the federal government and individual states will require billions of dollars in spending on transmission infrastructure, “unprecedented” cooperation between grid operators and federal and state agencies and would be aided by major buildout of a domestic supply chain, per a pair of recent reports. Coastal states across the country, from California to Louisiana to Maine, are pushing for offshore wind projects, but the reports see potential bottlenecks looming, both in the supply chain to build and install turbines as well as in the ability to bring the electricity ashore.

The Baltimore Police Department has made sweeping changes in policy and practices, but it’s essential the department “stop the bleeding” in terms of its recruitment and retention, a federal judge warned Thursday. Insufficient staffing marks the agency’s biggest obstacle to achieving compliance with the policing consent decree between the city and the U.S. Justice Department, according to Judge James K. Bredar, who is overseeing the process. The decree, reached in 2017, lays out a series of reform

In their first meeting as members of the Board of Public Works, Gov. Wes Moore (D) and Comptroller Brooke Lierman (D) said the panel will sharpen its focus on including more diverse businesses in state contracts. “We will ensure that we are treating minority business enterprise goals not just as suggestions from prime contractors, but as promises and commitments made to both the state and our MBE communities who simply want a fair shot at competing for and receiving work,” Moore said.

Several county-specific requests for funding, liquor licenses, and urban renewal authority, were approved by members of the Carroll County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly during a Zoom meeting on Thursday. These legislative requests were made to delegation members at a public hearing in Westminster on Jan. 13. The approval Thursday is the next step in a lengthy legislative process that includes passage by both the House and Senate and being signed into law by the governor. Most of this takes place during the 90-day legislative session, which ends April 10.

Associated Black Charities lost a multimillion-dollar contract to dole out federal Ryan White HIV assistance funds in Baltimore after the city rebid the $16.35 million contract last year. The deal to serve as fiscal agent for the large grant instead went to a newly formed LLC based in Owings Mills. The change in fiscal agents was followed by a scathing audit of the Baltimore City Health Department released last week that found a lack of oversight and controls over the agency’s grant funding, including where and how much of the Ryan White program’s millions were spent. The audit also warned that such findings could potentially threaten the city’s ability to receive federal funding in the future.

The cannabis industry, education, and health care are among the issues the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland will focus on during the 2023 General Assembly legislative session. During the group’s first press conference of the session Wednesday, Baltimore Sen. Jill P. Carter noted the importance of including the Black community when establishing the state’s recreational cannabis industry. The caucus wants to prioritize growing, possession, and dispensation licenses for those who have faced disproportionate harm from the past criminalization of cannabis.