Politics

Former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby wants President Joe Biden to intervene ahead of her federal sentencing on perjury and mortgage fraud charges. In an interview Wednesday night on “The ReidOut,” Joy Reid’s MSNBC weeknight show, Mosby said she has done “absolutely nothing wrong, nothing illegal, nothing criminal” — and said she thinks it would be appropriate for Biden to pardon her.

Thiru Vignarajah has dropped out of the Baltimore mayor’s race and endorsed former Mayor Sheila Dixon, a move that could dramatically reshape the May 14 Democratic primary. The attorney announced his decision at a Wednesday afternoon news conference in Fells Point. He has consistently placed third in polls measuring support for candidates.

Ten of the 22 Democratic candidates running in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District met Tuesday to discuss race, economic opportunity and the environmental crises facing Maryland’s most vulnerable populations. The seat represents several communities along Anne Arundel County’s eastern border with the Chesapeake Bay that are susceptible to rising sea levels, including Annapolis, Cape Saint Claire and Riviera Beach.

In the contested Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, candidate Angela Alsobrooks picked up support from the only other woman to hold the job in Maryland: Barbara A. Mikulski. Mikulski surprised a crowd gathered at an Alsobrooks fundraiser at Guilford Hall Brewery in Baltimore Tuesday night with her brief speech praising the candidate. Though the retired senator did not use the word “endorsement,” her remarks had all the hallmarks of one.

Baltimore’s top three Democratic challengers lambasted Mayor Brandon Scott’s record Tuesday in what could be the final televised debate before next month’s primary election, casting him as an ineffective leader who has painted a portrait of improvement to mask a more complicated and stagnant on-the-ground reality. But pointing to improvements in public safety, the local economy and the city’s vacant housing problem, Scott argued that Baltimore isn’t in a position to change hands just yet, and asked voters to allow him to “finish the job.”

A fast-emerging field of climate research is helping scientists pinpoint just how many dollars in damages from a natural disaster can be tied to the historic emissions of individual oil companies — analysis that is the centerpiece of new efforts in Maryland and other states to make fossil fuel companies pay billions for floods, wildfires and heat waves.

Thiru Vignarajah takes a bite out of his loaded, cheese-drenched vegan sausage at Lexington Market and reflects on how this year is different, refreshing even. In his fourth campaign in six years — twice for state’s attorney and now twice for mayor — Vignarajah has jumped into the Baltimore harbor and ditched his wealthy donors to instead spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money through Baltimore’s new public campaign financing system.