Politics

Backups at Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay Bridge are a summer traffic fixture, but maybe things would move along much better if there were eight or more travel lanes? Anne Arundel County and its neighbor on the other side of the water, Queen Anne’s County, want a new, bigger and better bridge between them. The Anne Arundel County Council passed a resolution 6-1 Monday night that matches a resolution recently passed by the Queen Anne’s County Council.

Maryland state parks desperately need a boost in funding to hire more permanent staff and update old infrastructure if they want to meet growing demands for park access, state park leaders told lawmakers on Tuesday. Due to years of low funding and understaffing, park rangers in state parks are overburdened and need support, state park leaders said.

Abortion rights supporters rallied in all 50 states Saturday, including in Annapolis, sounding the alarm over recent laws restricting women’s access to abortions and reproductive health care. More than 250 people gathered under bright sunshine at Lawyers’ Mall in Annapolis to show their support for keeping abortion safe and legal and offer their full-throated declaration that women should control their own bodies. “Bans off our bodies” was a popular sign at Saturday’s rally.

A month-old poll conducted for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore shows a wide-open race for the nomination in 2022 — though with plenty of room for Moore, a first-time candidate, to grow and prevail. Unsurprisingly, the most seasoned candidates in the Democratic race — Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot and former Prince George’s County executive Rushern L. Baker III — led the field, with 17% and 12% respectively.

The maps of Baltimore in a new study of transit equity remind Lawrence Brown of the infamous 1930s residential security map segregating the city’s neighborhoods by race and redlining Black residents into the areas east and west of downtown. The analysis by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Baltimore Transit Equity Coalition shows different city neighborhoods’ access to transit as well as social vulnerability, pollution and health. The darkest colors represent the areas of greatest need.

Two Democratic candidates for governor rolled out endorsements Monday — in one case, a roster of elected officials from Baltimore City, and in the other, a U.S. senator from out of state. Wes Moore, the author and former nonprofit CEO, is picking up endorsements from seven West Baltimore political leaders, including the entire delegation from the 40th legislative district. The list features state Sen. Antonio L. Hayes, Dels. Marlon D. Amprey, Frank M. Conaway Jr. and Melissa R. Wells, and City Councilmembers John T. Bullock, Phylicia Porter and James Torrence.

Yaakov “Jake” Weissmann, who served as chief of staff for two state senate presidents, has been selected to serve in a top government position in Montgomery County. Weissmann spent 12 years in the senate president’s office, the last three as top aide to Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) and his successor, Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City). He left the legislature in late July.

The committee charged with selecting nominees to oversee the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan has declined to send a new slate of potential appointees to Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) after he cited concerns about a lack of diversity among their nominees. “The Committee worked diligently to meet its statutory charge to select qualified nominees with expertise in the areas specified in the law and, to the extent practicable, that represent the diversity of the State. We are confident that we have fulfilled our charge,” the nominating committee’s chair Shanaysha Sauls and its vice chair Sen. Paul Pinsky (D-Prince George’s) wrote in a letter to Hogan on Sept. 17.