Politics

The Maryland Senate passed a substantial juvenile justice reform measure Monday as lawmakers reached a milestone day in their 90-day session with three weeks left. The reform legislation, which now goes to the House, generally says a child younger than 13 will not be subject to the jurisdiction of juvenile court for delinquency proceedings and may not be charged with a crime. But juvenile courts would have jurisdiction over a child who is at least 10 and has committed the most serious crimes, like murder and other crimes of violence.

Thiru Vignarajah, the former city, state and federal prosecutor who has run for Baltimore state’s attorney and mayor, is running for state’s attorney again, setting the stage for a potential rematch of the last election for the city’s top prosecutor. Unsuccessful bids for the Democratic nominations for state’s attorney in 2018 and mayor in 2020 make Vignarajah a familiar face in Baltimore. He has been a partner at the law firm DLA Piper and prosecuted a range of high-profile cases during stints as deputy Maryland attorney general, special U.S. attorney for Maryland and chief of major investigations in the Baltimore state’s attorney’s office.

A court hearing on Baltimore County Council’s proposed map of its council districts focused heavily on disagreement over the extent to which county residents’ voting breaks down along racial lines. U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby heard arguments Monday afternoon over whether the council’s newly redrawn map of its district boundaries is fair to Black voters. The plaintiffs, including the Baltimore County NAACP branch and a number of county residents, have said the new map — like the first one — would disadvantage Black voters.

The Democratic-led Maryland Senate passed legislation this month calling on a state commission to compile and post circuit court sentencing data on a largely county-by county-basis, rebuffing Gov. Larry Hogan’s proposal that the posted information provide by name the sentence each Maryland judge rendered for violent criminals. Following the Senate’s 46-0 vote, attention now has shifted to the House Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hold a hearing on the Senate-passed bill Tuesday.

Baltimore City Council introduced five bills Monday aimed at combating the city’s problem with vacant properties. The legislation, which includes three bills sponsored by City Council President Nick Mosby and two from Odette Ramos, calls for increasing several fees associated with owning a vacant property in Baltimore. Another bill would streamline the city’s newly approved in rem foreclosure process to make sure it’s aligned with state law.

Gov. Larry Hogan announced Monday that the Maryland Department of Health donated 50 ventilators to Ukraine to help hospitals treat the wounded during Russia’s invasion. The Republican governor said the Astral portable ventilators were donated to the Paul Chester Children’s Hope Foundation — a Dickerson-based grassroots medical organization that provides surgical care to people in developing countries.

An influential legislator is taking aim at what he considers “astroturf” lobbying by large government contractors. Under a measure sponsored by House Majority Leader Eric Luedtke (D-Montgomery) and 14 others, companies with million-dollar state government contracts would be required to disclose contributions they make to advocacy organizations. “It’s a transparency bill that allows the public in Maryland to know whether the people advocating for major taxpayer-funded projects in their community have a financial stake in the project in question,” Luedtke told members of two House committees at a March 10 hearing.

The Maryland Senate and House of Delegates have passed conflicting legislation to ban the possession of “ghost guns,” the increasingly prevalent untraceable firearms that can be assembled at home with parts bought online, regardless of the assembler’s age or criminal history. The Senate voted 35-11 on Wednesday for a measure that would put the ban in place on March 1, 2023. The House voted 94-41 earlier this month for a bill that would make the prohibition effective two months earlier, on Jan. 1.