Politics

Ken Ulman, a one-time rising political star in Maryland who more recently has been a key consultant and influencer in the state on economic development and construction projects, is returning to the political arena. Ulman was overwhelmingly elected the new state Democratic chair Saturday morning, easily dispatching a 22-year-old member of the Baltimore County Democratic Central Committee, Edward Crizer III, and Vontasha Simms, a Charles County Democratic Central Committee member who ran unsuccessfully for a state Senate seat last year. He replaces Yvette Lewis, a venerated figure among many party leaders who stepped down earlier this fall.

The design phase of a widening project for part of Route 214 will be fully funded by the end of next year. Meanwhile, money is still being sought to complete design work for other Anne Arundel priorities, including road widening projects on Routes 2 and 3, the state says. “These are where we have traffic bottlenecks, where too many cars are trying to get into the same place at the same time and you’ll notice a lot of them are north-south,” Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said at a meeting with the Maryland Department of Transportation on Tuesday.

The red-brick warehouse that houses Baltimore’s elections information and equipment is over 50 years old and, by many accounts, is falling apart. Parts of the ceiling are sagging, or have holes. At least one of the metal doors used for unloading equipment has rusted shut. Others have to be pried open with a steel bar. The warehouse, despite boasting 40,000 square feet, is packed with thousands of voting machines, ballot carts, and provisional ballot applications. There is no space to train election judges.

The leader of CASA of Maryland, an immigrant rights organization, says the organization’s apology over comments on the war in Gaza comes after consultation with members of the Jewish community. In an interview with WTOP, Gustavo Torres, executive director of CASA, said that the apology issued by his group came after “receiving comments from a lot of great friends and partners in the Jewish community.”

Being a Baltimore City Council member is technically a part-time job, so many members have chosen to supplement their City Hall salaries with other work. Like most of the city’s public servants, they must file an annual financial disclosure form to the ethics board listing any additional sources of income they may earn, any properties they have a stake in, gifts they may have received and how their spouses earn money.

The federal government unfairly penalizes state-legal marijuana businesses whose owners have been convicted of marijuana-related crimes, restricting them from loans and other banking tools, a group of U.S. Senate and House Democrats wrote to the Treasury Department asking for a change in policy. The group of 20 lawmakers, who mostly represent states where recreational marijuana is legal, said in a Tuesday letter that 2014 guidance from the department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network to put “red flags” on marijuana businesses hurts the businesses’ chances of securing banking services or loans.

A federal grant will help grow wind farms in Maryland. Sparrows Point Steel in Baltimore County won a $47 million grant from the U.S. Maritime Administration for its offshore wind manufacturing facility. “We are working hard to bring offshore wind energy to Maryland and this award gives a much-needed boost to our efforts to establish an offshore wind supply chain right here in Baltimore,” Sparrows Point Steel CEO Jeff Grybowski said in a news release.

Maryland Del. Joe Vogel, D-Montgomery, has raised and spent the most money out of all candidates vying to represent the state’s 6th District in the House. Vogel has raised $252,813, putting him above his fellow Democrats — and also above all Republicans running for the seat. Currently representing District 17 in the Maryland House of Delegates, Vogel has not officially filed for candidacy, according to the Maryland State Board of Elections website, but announced his congressional campaign in May.