Politics

U.S. Rep. David Trone said Wednesday that $4.8 million in funding for a new Fayette Street bridge is included in the federal government’s 2023 budget and not an earmark this time around. Trone gave an update on funding for construction at the bridge site during a visit to Cumberland Wednesday. The two-lane bridge, which spans CSX railroad tracks, was damaged when it was stuck by a train in June 2018, forcing its closure. CSX opted to pay for a partial repair, allowing the span to open to one lane of traffic in January 2020.

Baltimore’s spending board approved a $575,000 settlement Wednesday stemming from an arrest made by members of the city’s Gun Trace Task Force, bringing the total paid out as a result of the rogue force’s actions to more than $15 million. The five-member Board of Estimates voted unanimously in favor of the settlement reached with Darnell Earl, who sued the Baltimore Police Department and three members of the task force over a 2015 arrest that resulted in a year and a half of jail time.

Rocky Brown was known for pushing the city to meet the needs of youth in the Bocek/Madison-Eastend neighborhoods in East Baltimore where he lived and was active. One example of that was in 2017 when he convinced the city to reopen the Bocek Recreation Center, at the time a lone, boarded-up building with trash piling up by its doors and a playground that went unused. The facility had been closed for at least 20 years.

The Harford County Council held its first legislative session of the new fiscal year Tuesday evening. The council introduced two resolutions and three bills at the meeting. The first resolution is to adopt the Master Water and Sewer Plan Fall 2022 update. The bill states that the county code requires an updated Water and Sewer Plan every six months.

State Senate Republicans on Tuesday laid out their strategy for picking up seats in the fall election. Notably, it did not include working closely with Del. Dan Cox (R-Frederick), the GOP nominee for governor. During an online news conference, the Republicans said they would spotlight Democratic policies and proposals on the campaign trail in an attempt to argue that Democrats are out of step with average Marylanders and causing harm to their pocketbooks and well-being.

Anne Arundel County Council Republican Nathan Volke of Pasadena withdrew a controversial bill Tuesday night that would ban all flags other than the county, state and federal flags from flying on county flagpoles or being displayed in county buildings. He replaced the bill at Tuesday’s council meeting with one that would prohibit the county from allowing individuals or groups outside government to fly flags on county flagpoles. The bill will not be open for public hearing until Oct. 3 due to council procedure that allows residents time to review the new proposal.

By the end of this year, Maryland gamblers may be able to place mobile sports bets. The arrival of online sports gambling has been more than two years in the making, but as recently as last month, a 2022 launch didn’t seem likely. At that time, a Maryland state gaming control agency official said it was “everybody’s hope” that mobile sports betting could take place in the state before the Super Bowl in February. However, the Sports Wagering Application Review Commission began accepting applications Tuesday from mobile sports betting businesses and Maryland Lottery and Gaming Director John Martin predicted that mobile wagering could start before the end of 2022.