Thursday, December 5, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Politics

With Trump gone, Maryland Gov. Hogan becomes one of first governors to attend White House meeting with Biden

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan traveled to the White House for a meeting Friday, something he was loath to do during the administration of former president Donald Trump. The Republican governor attended an Oval Office session about COVID-19 relief with President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and a bipartisan group of other governors and mayors.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
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Maryland House Democrats push to expand eligibility for covid relief

An effort by Maryland House Democrats to expand eligibility for Gov. Larry Hogan’s covid-19 stimulus plan, including to noncitizens, is receiving pushback from the Republican chief executive, who said it could jeopardize passage of the legislation and the help it would provide to others. “Anything they attempt to do to change the bill that’s already been passed unanimously by the Senate . . . it threatens the bill,” Hogan said Thursday.

Scott: ‘We need to allow local health departments to be the lead’

“The problem here is two things: It’s the rollout and it’s the lack of vaccines we have to administer,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott told C4 and Bryan Nehman Tuesday morning.  “We need to allow local health departments to be the lead on this because they know how to reach individuals,” Scott said. “They have the connections, they run clinics for flu vaccines.” Scott said local health departments are getting doses, and being told week by week what they’re getting, but private pharmacies can see up to three weeks out.

Read More: WBAL
Maryland Democrats gear up to override dozens of Gov. Hogan’s vetoes

Maryland lawmakers plan to spend this week undoing dozens of vetoes from Gov. Larry Hogan, reviving measures ranging from programs to boost public schools to a first-of-its-kind tax on digital ads. Democrats hold such significant majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly that they typically can override the Republican governor’s vetoes, even if they lose a few members from the original votes.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Can Maryland learn from other states’ COVID vaccine rollout and create a single sign-up site?

It is an online scavenger hunt that often ends in futility, or in some cases, the cold parking lot of a COVID-19 vaccine clinic, turned away without that precious shot in the arm. Almost two months after the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine arrived in Maryland, a sign-up process that involves scrounging through multiple websites for seemingly phantom appointments has everyone from legislators to doctors to a desperate public asking: Isn’t there a way to go on a single site to request and schedule a shot?

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Howard launches commission to look at historical namesakes of county-owned streets, buildings, statues

For the past year, cities and states across the country have reckoned with racist and historically ignorant namesakes on buildings, street signs and statues. Howard County is now among the jurisdictions intentionally examining whose name gets used and where. Howard County Executive Calvin Ball announced the inception of the Public Facilities and Spaces Commission on Thursday. The 12-person commission is set to examine the names of buildings, streets and statues in the county and decide whether or not to rename them.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Feldman Pushes Cannabis Legalization, Ferguson Co-Signs

Senate Finance Committee Vice-Chair Brian J. Feldman (D-Montgomery) has filed legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis and pump funding into communities that have been adversely impacted by its current criminalization. The bill has a powerful set of cosponsors, including Senate Majority Leader Nancy J. King (D-Montgomery), Budget and Taxation Chair Guy J. Guzzone (D-Howard), Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair William C. Smith Jr (D-Montgomery) and Vice-Chair Jeffrey D. Waldstreicher (D-Montgomery).

Baltimore health officials blame overbooking as people are turned away from city’s vaccination site

People with appointments for coronavirus vaccinations were turned away Tuesday when they arrived at Baltimore’s vaccination center, a situation city health officials attributed to overbooking by the state’s vaccination scheduling system. Dr. Letitia Dzirasa, Baltimore’s health commissioner, said that due to a limited supply of vaccines, the city has moved to distributing only second doses of the two-shot vaccine for at least the remainder of February.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
A Strange Occurrence: Little Opposition To A Climate Bill

In the world of climate related bills, it’s not often you hear of a legislative hearing that draws minimal opposition, or where labor and environmental groups agree to work toward the same goal. Somehow, that happened in Annapolis Thursday. Robin Clark from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation was the first to testify before the Senate’s Environmental Affairs Committee in favor of the Climate Solutions Now Act.  It’s a wide-ranging bill that aims to eliminate greenhouse gases in Maryland by 2045.

Read More: WYPR

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