Behind The Blueprint is a series from the Local News Network at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism. BY KIERSTEN HACKER, CHRISTINA WALKER AND ELA JALIL, March 4th, 2024 ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Maryland’s Democratic-led legislature passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future in 2021, vowing to pour billions of dollars into the state’s public schools to offer […]

By LYDIA HURLEY Capital News Service Feb 22, 2024 Annapolis, Md. – Some Democratic lawmakers in Maryland are proposing a set of income tax hikes this year, but even bill sponsors have admitted that getting their colleagues on board will likely be a long-haul effort. The lawmakers aim to address a looming state budget deficit […]

From Maryland Matters, marylandmatters.org By Bryan P. Sears February 23, 2024 The buck stops with Michael Higgs. That is the message from Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) when it comes to who is responsible for the State Department of Assessments and Taxation missing a mailing deadline for 107,000 properties. “To me, if you’re the head […]

By KIERSTEN HACKER Capital News Service ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Gov. Wes Moore delivered a State of the State address on Wednesday that candidly described some of the state’s most pressing challenges and called on lawmakers to join him in a spirit of “partnership” to tackle them all. One year into his administration, Moore laid out […]

By KIERSTEN HACKER, ANGELIQUE GINGRAS and TYRAH BURRIS Capital News Service ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Gov. Wes Moore and top lawmakers headed into the 2024 General Assembly session Wednesday with a looming budget deficit in mind, hoping to avoid tax hikes and dramatic cuts and focus, instead, on their important priorities. Moore and his fellow Democrats […]

Press Release – MD Attorney General – press@oag.state.md.us BALTIMORE, MD (January 12, 2024) – Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown today joined a coalition of 12 Attorneys General in a letter encouraging the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to reschedule cannabis to Schedule III under the federal Controlled Substances Act in the interest of public […]

From Maryland Matters By Josh Kurtz October 20, 2023 It was early morning on a patio just outside the Conowingo Dam, and Mike Martinek was looking at hundreds of juvenile eels that had been suctioned from the Susquehanna River into a giant freshwater pool. Martinek, a fisheries biologist for an environmental consulting firm, and a couple […]

Hannah Norman, KFF Health News December 1, 2023 Bill Eisenman has always fished. “Growing up, we ate whatever we caught — catfish, carp, freshwater drum,” he said. “That was the only real source of fish in our diet as a family, and we ate a lot of it.” Today, a branch of the Rouge River […]

BY STEPH QUINN, Capital News Service  –  2 DAYS AGO SILVER SPRING, Md. — Lawmakers, clinicians and educators gathered Thursday for a ribbon-cutting celebration of Compass Health Center, which aims to provide timely mental health crisis care to adolescent and adult patients throughout Maryland, where emergency room wait times are the longest in the nation. Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee Chair […]

BY TOMMY TUCKER, Capital News Service  –  3 DAYS AGO ANNAPOLIS, Md. – An audit released Friday found that the Maryland Board of Elections did not report for more than a year its findings that people voted or tried to vote more than once in the 2020 general election – well after the results were certified, according to The Office […]