Politics

Frederick County Executive Jessica Fitzwater said she wants the county to encourage and nurture diversity. She announced on Monday, that starting this year, all Frederick County employees — including her — must undergo diversity, equity and inclusion training, so they can understand themselves and the people around them.

The Prince George’s County Council in Maryland has introduced a bill that would permanently impose rent caps — or rent stabilization as the council calls it. The bill, introduced by Council Chair Jolene Ivey and backed by five other council members, was quickly panned by progressive groups that rallied outside council chambers, and by progressive members, who criticized Ivey as the bill was introduced.

The Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee Monday nominated Del. Sara Love to fill the vacant District 16 seat. Love, first elected to the House of Delegates in 2018, would fill the vacancy created by the departure of Sen. Ariana B. Kelly, who resigned earlier this year to lead the Maryland Commission for Women. At the time, Kelly said she hoped Love would file for the seat.

Two days before he was to deliver the State of the Union address in Washington D.C., during an election year — a year in which he said “our very democracy” is “at risk” — an American president made an unplanned stop outside a rather unexpected locale: Hagerstown, Maryland. The airport for the city of less than 50,000 people, located about 20 miles north of the site of the Civil War’s bloodiest battle at Antietam, has been visited more times this year by President Joe Biden than the one for Baltimore, the state’s largest city that he toured by air in April.

The Baltimore County Council approved an amendment that supporters say will help the county grow responsibly as new housing developments may threaten the stability of the public schools. The bill calls for an amendment to the county’s “Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance,” which would ensure there are enough roads, water and schools to accommodate the expected population growth.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Larry Hogan, the former two-term governor, won’t attend next month’s Republican National Convention that will be led by former President Donald Trump, a Hogan political adversary. “I can definitively tell you Governor Hogan will not be in attendance,” campaign spokeswoman Blake Kernen said in an email response to questions from The Baltimore Sun.

Union leaders representing state parole and probation agents are calling for the immediate firing of Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs and two others following the line-of-duty death of an agent last week. Parole and Probation Agent Davis Martinez, 33, died Friday while conducting a home visit with a client in Chevy Chase. Martinez is the first parole and probation agent to die in the line of duty.