Politics

The Baltimore County Council is scheduled to vote on nearly 400 zoning requests Tuesday, the culmination of a lengthy Comprehensive Zoning Map Process that occurs every four years. The CZMP, which began in August 2023, allows residents, business owners, developers and lobbyists to request to rezone a property anywhere in Baltimore County. Planning staff made recommendations, and public hearings were held for each council district in June.

Almost 15 years ago, Baltimore slashed retirement benefits for its cops and firefighters. They never forgot about it. Now, police and fire workers are on the cusp of getting some of those lost benefits back. Under a proposal being pushed by Mayor Brandon Scott, tens of millions in taxpayer dollars could go toward reinstating a few key benefits in the police and firefighters’ pension, which the city cut in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may have suspended his national presidential campaign, but he will appear on the general election ballot in Maryland. Kennedy announced last week that he will wind down his campaign activities and endorsed Donald Trump, the Republican nominee and former president. Despite Kennedy ending his independent run, state elections officials said Kennedy has qualified for inclusion on the November ballot in Maryland.

Maryland is one of two states, with California, to pass a so-called Kids Code law — legislation aimed at providing privacy and other protections to children using online platforms. But a federal appeals court’s decision last week to uphold much of a lower court’s injunction of the California law – on which Maryland’s law is based – is raising new fears about the vulnerability of the Maryland law to court challenge.

She’s the sitting vice president who has been in office for 3 1/2 years. She’s also the presidential candidate of just five weeks promising a “new way forward.” Kamala Harris is having it both ways as she hits the campaign trail after the Democratic National Convention, taking credit for parts of President Joe Biden’s record in rallies staged in front of Air Force Two while casting herself as a new leader who rails against “the politics of the past.”

Dressed in suffragette white, Angela D. Alsobrooks strode off the Democratic National Convention stage this week after the most important speech of her political career — straight into a bear hug from Rep. Steny H. Hoyer, her longtime mentor and a Maryland political legend. Before a national audience, Alsobrooks had firmly established her ties to Vice President Kamala Harris — another mentor — and she leaves the convention with fresh momentum in a tight Senate race against former governor Larry Hogan that could determine which party controls the agenda.

U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume is exploring the expansion of a bill that would protect college athletes to include high school players in the wake of the death of a Franklin High School football player this month. Leslie Noble, a 16-year-old junior guard on Franklin’s varsity football team, died Aug. 14 after collapsing during a practice. First responders were called to the high school’s field in Reisterstown for a suspected case of heatstroke.