Politics

People lie on mortgage applications every day. Fudging a few key details on a routine form can make a loan seem less risky to a lender. Instead of saying they’re buying an investment property, they claim it’s a vacation home. Maybe they don’t disclose a debt. That could make a lender feel more confident about issuing a loan with a lower interest rate and cutting the amount of down payment required.

In a year of extraordinary budget surpluses, Maryland lawmakers are planning to set aside $800 million to cover future costs of the state’s sweeping education reform law known as the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. As the Maryland Senate neared a vote on the state budget for the next fiscal year, Sen. Guy Guzzone said the decision was made in recognition of last week’s announcement that revenues are projected to be $1.6 billion higher than previously estimated, on top of a budget surplus that already was huge.

With her political challengers circling and a federal indictment looming over her, Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby held her second news conference in as many days, in an effort to tout a job well done while remaining coy on whether she will run for a third term. Mosby, a progressive Democrat and Baltimore’s top prosecutor, released a report Wednesday examining the racial disparities for people the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office prosecutes.

Maryland Senate and House lawmakers are poised to pass gas tax legislation on Thursday.  Once the bill is passed, it goes to Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk. Senators tell WJZ that Hogan will likely sign the bill into law on Friday morning. Once he does, gas prices will drop immediately.  This emergency legislation is on the fast track to pass, in order for prices to quickly drop at the pump.

Members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee heard testimony about a measure named to honor slain Baltimore Police Officer Keona Holley on Tuesday. The Officer Keona Holley Public Safety Act, or Senate Bill 652, would make people ineligible for parole if they are convicted of conspiring to, attempting to or committing the murder of a police officer because of their role in law enforcement. “This was not a shooting that was done in the course of a crime to which Officer Holley had responded,” said Sen. Robert G. Cassilly (R-Harford), the bill’s sponsor.

A Ukrainian-born Maryland lawmaker wants more action to aid Ukraine in the fight against the Russian invasion. Del. Kirill Reznik, of District 39, was born in Kyiv in 1974. Although his family left the country when he was 4, he still feels the pain of losing a piece of his past when he sees the devastation of the war. “They are places that are part of family heritage, family stories,” said Reznik. “We’re lucky we’re not having to make the decisions people in Ukraine are: their livelihood or their life, or their family or their life, or — you know, everything they’ve known or their life.”

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby unveiled a new prosecutorial data dashboard Tuesday, touting her office’s successes over her seven-year tenure while refusing to commit to a bid for reelection. The interactive portal underscores what the two-term Democrat described as a commitment to transparency. She said the data reflects determination from her staff during a period encompassing the prosecution of police officers after the death of Freddie Gray, the ramifications from the Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal and a coronavirus pandemic that upended the courts.