Politics

Vice President Kamala Harris will hold an event in Maryland next week to mark the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning abortion protections, according to an announcement from President Joe Biden’s campaign. No time or location for the Monday event was immediately available. It’s Harris’ second visit to the state this month, following a gun violence-focused event June 7 with Democratic Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks in Prince George’s County.

After hours of debate and numerous amendments, the Prince George’s County Council has put together its plan for what it calls “rent stabilization.” The deal reached this week meets many of the demands raised by progressive advocates, leading the apartment industry to warn it will backfire in the long run. But the 10-0 preliminary vote this week, a culmination of lots of discussion and compromise among the council, made clear that this will be what passes into law when the final vote on the matter comes next month.

The top-earning State House lobbyist from the last half year — a period that covers the most recent General Assembly session — is making history. According to newly released records from the Maryland State Ethics Commission, which regulates registered lobbyists in the state, Lisa Harris Jones from the firm Harris Jones Malone was the top earner from Nov. 1, 2023, to April 30 of this year.

Baltimore City Council members unanimously approved a $4.2 billion spending plan Monday without touching the version introduced by Mayor Brandon Scott this spring. The council’s approval caps off a budget season with fewer fireworks than in recent years. The body passed the spending plan in a 14-0 vote Monday evening with Councilman Zeke Cohen absent.

Del. Jason Buckel, the top Republican in Maryland’s House of Delegates, has been charged with driving under the influence and other offenses, according to court records. Buckel was stopped by Maryland State Police Thursday night on U.S. Route 40 near Campground Road in La Vale in Allegany County, less than two miles from his home, according to court records.

Criminal justice reform advocates and state Democrats see the 175,000 pardons that Gov. Wes Moore issued Monday as one step in a broader shift in how society and governments view people with cannabis-related convictions.Moore on Monday pardoned low-level cannabis use and possession convictions for approximately 100,000 people, some of whom have multiple convictions.

“For most nations, the role of the legislative branch in foreign policy is limited to providing a rubber-stamp on the policies of the executive. The United States is different,” said two U.S. senators in the preface of a Senate report. One of those senators, Joe Biden, is now the U.S. president. After referencing the U.S. Constitution, the senators’ preface continues: “It is an arrangement that gives the Senate, and the Committee on Foreign Relations in particular, an essential role in the formulation of foreign policy.”

Maggie Rogers fans at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, got a surprise when Maryland Gov. Wes Moore hopped on stage at the singer’s hometown concert Sunday evening. “Listen, I got an announcement to make,” Moore said to cheering crowds at the concert. Lauding her work as a representative of the state, her moves to register voters and her advocacy for reproductive health, Moore shouted a declaration for the state.