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Politics

Senators Press State Officials to Improve Vaccination Rates Among Non-White Residents
February 23, 2021 -

Appointments at Maryland’s COVID-19 mass-vaccination sites will be managed by a new web portal beginning in March, the state’s acting health secretary announced on Monday. Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) and his health chief, Dennis R. Schrader have resisted calls for a state-run sign-up system, but Schrader told lawmakers that “the new pre-registration system will improve the user experience, and better prepare for the day when supplies are very abundant.”

Read More: Maryland Matters
In a virus-ravaged city, nearly 400 million vaccine doses are being made — and shipped elsewhere
February 23, 2021 -

In a city battered by the coronavirus, one biomedical plant is churning out enough vaccine doses to inoculate every resident hundreds of times over. The lifesaving medicine is brewed in stainless steel vats and bottled at subfreezing temperatures — then loaded into trucks that carry the vaccines hundreds of miles away. Most will never return. At the eastern edge of Baltimore, Emergent BioSolutions is manufacturing almost all of the yet-to-be approved Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines for the U.S. population — an anticipated hundreds of millions of doses in the coming months.

Read More: Washington Post
100 US dollar banknote money
Maryland passed the nation’s largest tax credit for the poor. Democrats want it for noncitizens, too.
February 22, 2021 -

The Maryland General Assembly is mired in a partisan fight over whether to use one of the nation’s most effective anti-poverty tools to help immigrants who are not citizens. Democrats are advancing a bill to extend cash payments for the working poor to include taxpayers without Social Security numbers, citing a moral obligation to help all needy households amid a pandemic that has disproportionately harmed the poor and people of color. Their efforts put the state near the forefront of a national debate over expanding the social safety net for immigrants in the absence of federal immigration changes.

Read More: Washington Post
Policeman watching the St Patrick's parade
Black Troopers Allege Discrimination in Maryland State Police
February 18, 2021 -

The leader of Maryland State Police is going before state lawmakers Thursday to address accusations of racism and discrimination inside the department. The agency told News4 it flat out denies the allegations being made by some of its Black officers. Prince George’s County Bureau Chief Tracee Wilkins spent the past few months investigating officers’ concerns and digging into data that appears to show some disparities between the department’s Black and white officers.

Read More: NBC 4
Who is Stewart Bainum Jr.? Maryland-raised businessman whose nonprofit is in line to buy The Sun has had second careers in politics, philanthropy.
February 18, 2021 -

The Baltimore Sun is poised to be acquired by a nonprofit founded last month by Stewart Bainum Jr., a Montgomery County-raised business owner who has also been active in Maryland politics and philanthropy. The acquisition would include The Sun, The Capital Gazette in Annapolis, the Carroll County Times and other community newspapers in the Baltimore metro region.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Homeowners, renters in Md. struggling with payments during pandemic
February 17, 2021 -

Many homeowners and renters continue to fall behind on monthly payments during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now there’s a renewed push to ensure they don’t lose their homes or get evicted. Maryland has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who is hopeful that states will get more help addressing housing issues in President Joe Biden’s $1.9-trillion pandemic-relief package working its way through Congress. Speaking with state lawmakers during a virtual meeting on Tuesday, the Democrat noted that by the end of last year, the delinquency rate on residential properties was 8.8%.

Read More: WTOP
After riot, impeachment trial, shaken Maryland congressional staff must navigate a U.S. Capitol forever changed
February 17, 2021 -

When they pull back the blinds, staff members in the office of U.S. Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger can look across Independence Avenue at the U.S. Capitol, which seems to glow at night. The view, once stirring, now unleashes more complicated emotions. The Baltimore County Democrat’s staff can’t uncouple the dome’s majesty from stomach-churning memories of the Jan. 6 Capitol siege — when they peeked out to watch rioters scaling the building — or from ongoing threats posed by right-wing extremists.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Who gets checks, tax breaks — and when — from Maryland’s coronavirus pandemic RELIEF Act package?
February 17, 2021 -

When Gov. Larry Hogan put pen to paper and signed the RELIEF Act into law, he triggered a series of maneuvers that will enable hundreds of thousands of state residents to get stimulus payments and many businesses to get tax breaks. The RELIEF Act is the Republican governor’s signature effort of the current General Assembly session. It’s a more than $1 billion combination of direct payments, tax breaks and business aid aimed at helping those taking the worst financial hit from the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers expanded on the governor’s proposal and the bill won bipartisan support.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Ep. 4: Glass Ceilings with Robin Shaivitz
February 16, 2021 -

On episode 4 of The Lobby, the undeniably groundbreaking Robin Shaivitz, former Vice President & Senior Government Relations Advisor with the erstwhile firm Alexander & Cleaver, joins Damian for a new telling of her remarkably storied career as Annapolis’ original female contract-lobbyist.

Join us for an incredibly insightful conversation about fighting for what you believe in, finding success in chaos, and how to shatter glass ceilings.

We hope to see you soon in the Lobby.

Read More: Center Maryland
A police car
Momentum grows to repeal Maryland Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights. But how to replace it is up in the air.
February 15, 2021 -

For years, activists and a handful of Maryland lawmakers have tried and failed to nix the state’s Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill of Rights, a 1974 act that enshrines in state law certain job protections and due process rights for police officers accused of misconduct. Now, what long appeared an uphill battle looks increasingly likely to reach its goal: that Maryland’s General Assembly will repeal the law, which critics have said goes beyond guaranteeing due process rights to shielding dirty officers from discipline.

Read More: Baltimore Sun

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