Politics

Baltimore state’s attorney candidate Ivan Bates unveiled a detailed plan Tuesday for how he’d bring down a persistently high rate of violent crime as the city’s elected prosecutor. Touting beefed-up gun prosecution, enhanced law-enforcement cooperation, data-driven training and new diversion programs, Bates’ plan details how his administration would “prioritize removing violent offenders from our communities” and “support alternatives to incarceration.”

Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh’s announcement last fall that he would not seek reelection sent shockwaves through political circles and launched widespread speculation about who would seek to replace him as the state’s chief legal officer. Only one candidate, Republican Jim Shalleck, had already declared his intention to run at the time. A wider field of candidates has coalesced since Frosh’s announcement in October. U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown quickly said that he would depart Congress after his third term in order to run for attorney general.

A powerful array of utilities, building industry groups, energy companies and restaurateurs are lining up to defeat a key provision of major climate change legislation that legislative leaders are hoping to push through the General Assembly over the next few weeks. They’re objecting to a measure that would impose strict emissions reductions standards on the building industry and push for new commercial and residential building construction to use only electric sources for heating, with the goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions for the building sector by the year 2040.

Comptroller Peter V.R. Franchot (D) announced a new online portal for tracking state payments to vendors Monday. But a state senator slammed the comptroller for not acting sooner to make vendor payment information publicly available. Franchot rolled out the new system, Maryland Vendor Information Electronic Warehouse (MD-VIEW), at a Monday morning press conference. The online database will allow users to see when the state makes payments to vendors and contractors.

Cat owners can be a particular breed. Take Ginny Boveington of Crofton, owner of two tortoise-shell cats adopted from a rescue center in Columbia. When one of her cats needed surgery for crystals building up in her bladder, Boveington said, she was able to pay for the operation with CareCredit, a company that finances out-of–pocket medical expenses not covered by insurance.

Companies that provide car insurance to Maryland motorists are prohibited from using a person’s credit score in deciding whether to write them a policy. But companies may use credit scores in setting a policyholder’s premium. The result, critics contend, is that certain car owners face higher premiums than they should. Two state lawmakers hope this is the year the General Assembly outlaws the use of credit scores in setting car insurance rates. Two nearly identical bills have been introduced to achieve that goal — one by Del. Melissa Wells (D-Baltimore City), the other by Del. Jay Jalisi (D-Baltimore County).