Politics

Mayor Brandon Scott has struck a deal with P. David Bramble, owner of Harborplace and a heavy contributor to his re-election campaign, to advance $16 million in city funds to help him erect an office building in West Baltimore. The building would house the headquarters of a small city agency, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development (MOED), and help jump-start Bramble’s Reservoir Square project on West North Avenue.

Vice President Kamala Harris ‘ campaign announced Friday that it raised $310 million last month, an eyepopping sum showing that donors who once seemed spooked about the prospects for November’s election with President Joe Biden are now offering mountains of cash to boost his former No. 2. The haul by Harris, the Democratic National Committee and affiliated entities far outpaced Republican former President Donald Trump, whose campaign and assorted committees said they took in $138.7 million for July.

Mayor Brandon Scott had the crowd right where he wanted them. He told a rapt audience in December what so many had waited so long to hear: Baltimore finally had a big plan to address the city’s vacant housing epidemic. To pull it off, the mayor and the city must convince the revenue-strapped state to do something unprecedented: contribute nearly $1 billion over 15 years and give Baltimore control of a portion of the sales tax collected in the city.

A small but vocal band of conservative Republicans in the Maryland House of Delegates are about to gain some firepower — which they hope to use to increase their visibility and influence in upcoming legislative sessions and, perhaps, on the campaign trail. The leaders of the caucus-within-the-House GOP Caucus informally known as the Maryland House Freedom Caucus say their group is about to be officially recognized by the umbrella organization for conservative Republican lawmakers nationwide known as the State Freedom Caucus Network.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. appointed a high school classmate and real estate agent to the county ethics commission in 2020, the same year her boss, former county firefighter Philip Tirabassi, received a secret $83,675 settlement from the county. Tirabassi also helped handle Olszewski’s personal real estate transactions.

More than 250 Marylanders with developmental disabilities were “erroneously” disenrolled this summer from Medicaid programs that gave them access to community services and other care, leaving family members frustrated and angry as they try to regain services for loved ones. “It feels like he somehow fell out of the system that was supposed to work for him,” said Frederick resident Patricia Marshall, 67, of her grandson’s sudden loss of his Medicaid waiver.

The Montgomery County Council has approved legislation designed to cut into the county’s office vacancy rate. The “Make Office Vacancy Extinct (MOVE) Act” would codify and make permanent the program that awards grants to businesses that relocate to or expand within Montgomery County, Maryland. During the discussion before Tuesday’s vote, Council member Evan Glass noted the office vacancy rate for Montgomery County hit a record high this year. The rate topped 18% in the first quarter of the year, according to CoStar, a commercial real estate company.

A longstanding tourism organization in Harford County alleges the local government sought to undermine its reputation and replace the nonprofit after attempts to seek payment failed, according to a new lawsuit. Visit Harford, which became the county’s official tourism marketing organization in 2015, filed the lawsuit Wednesday morning, accusing the county of breach of contract and interfering with business relationships. Under an almost decade-long contract, the county is required to pay the organization $645,000 per year in three equal installments.