Politics

What happened last Friday at the U.S. Supreme Court was an outrage for Bethesda resident Julie Paquin. A transplant from California, Paquin, 68, said she has prioritized living in a blue state where most of her political positions are validated by local elected officials — a standard that she said has only been further entrenched by last week’s watershed decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion.

Glenn Ivey wasn’t planning on being in the parade, but as he pulled up behind it in District Heights on Juneteenth, he thought — why not? He hopped out of the car, his hands full of campaign literature, his campaign staffers — his family, actually — carrying “Glenn Ivey for Congress” signs, and started greeting the voters who lined the street for the festivities or watched from their front lawns.

When Calvert County Republican Mark Jones was asked during a June poll whether he felt American democracy was either secure or threatened, he answered, “very threatened.” Prince George’s County Democrat Marianne Rankin agreed about the threat. “This is not the country I grew up in,” she recalled telling her son after seeing video of people rushing the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.

Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot, a Democratic candidate for governor, has tested positive for COVID-19. Franchot tweeted that he tested positive Friday night and was experiencing “very mild” symptoms. “I will be quarantining, and continuing to campaign from home until I am able to safely return to the trail,” tweeted Franchot, who said he was vaccinated and boosted.

Federal prosecutors responded Thursday to Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s renewed push to dismiss the perjury charges against her by calling her legal arguments “Orwellian.” After rejecting Mosby’s first attempt to have the charges dismissed on the grounds of vindictive prosecution, U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby agreed earlier this month to hear the two-term Democrat’s new arguments for dismissal of the perjury charges.

What happened last Friday at the U.S. Supreme Court was an outrage for Bethesda resident Julie Paquin. A transplant from California, Paquin, 68, said she has prioritized living in a blue state where most of her political positions are validated by local elected officials — a standard that she said has only been further entrenched by last week’s watershed decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion.

Just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to broadly regulate greenhouse gas emissions, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore stood on the banks of the Patapsco River in Baltimore, surrounded by environmental leaders, promising to take swift and bold action on climate change if elected.

While two Republicans – an incumbent and a challenger – will be facing off in the July 19 primary as the only two candidates in the race for Harford County state’s attorney, the lack of a Democratic challenger has made the contest no less contentious. The race heated up this week when the Harford County Deputy Sheriff’s Union released a letter saying they had no confidence in current Harford State’s Attorney Albert Peisinger Jr., and that they voted to endorse his challenger, Alison Healey, for the office.

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision limiting the EPA’s ability to rein in power plants’ greenhouse gas emissions won’t affect Maryland’s own accelerating emissions reduction goals — but makes such efforts by states all the more important in addressing the threats of climate change, advocates said. “The importance and urgency of Maryland’s actions to fight climate change went up dramatically today,” Maryland League of Conservation Voters Executive Director Kim Coble said.