Sequestration Fallout, Early Voting, Booms At APG, and The Ravens Trade Anquan Boldin

Baltimore officials say that the sequestration spending cuts are threatening the city's jobs programs. Officials say nearly a half-million dollars in federal spending reductions will affect the Mayor's Office of Employment Development and funding through the Workforce Investment Act (via our wire service and the Baltimore Business Journal).

Meanwhile, Maryland contractors who get much of their business from the federal government are in a holding pattern as the sequester slowly kicks in. Many have issued hiring freezes, and some expect layoffs in the future (via our wire service and the Gazette). 

Some tentative good news on the sequester front, now, for the 2013 Ocean City Air Show. While the Navy says the cuts are forcing the Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron to cancel performances at several OTHER air shows around the nation, they are still scheduled to perform at Maryland's early-June event (via the Daily Times). 

More early voting centers could be coming to Maryland for next year's elections... and those centers could be open for more days and for more hours each day. The changes to early voting come under a bill approved last night by the State Senate. It would allow many Maryland jurisdictions to have more early voting centers; for example, Baltimore's current five would be upped to eight. Those centers would be open for eight days before the primary and general elections, instead of the current six days. And the hours for the centers would be extended. The early voting measure now moves to the House of Delegates (via the Baltimore Sun).

Construction on Baltimore City's planned casino has been ordered to stop. The casino's site is at the heart of a lawsuit over industrial contamination -- lawyers say the site wasn't properly cleaned up before the state and the city greenlighted the casino. That lawsuit gets a hearing on Friday, and the site's developers had said construction wouldn't start until after that point -- but as the Baltimore Sun reports, that construction had already begun. A Baltimore Circuit Court judge issued the order to halt the work yesterday.

Federal regulators have rejected a request by the owners of the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant to add a third reactor to the southern Maryland facility (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun). 

The Army is planning a number of large detonations over the next several days at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Weather permitting, the loud booms are set to occur through March 22nd (via our wire service and the Aberdeen Patch). 

The deaths of ten horses that were injured and euthanized over a six week period at the Laurel Park racetrack has led to a state investigation (via our wire service and the Baltimore Sun).

In sports: The Ravens have traded star wide receiver Anquan Boldin to the San Francisco 49ers for a sixth round pick in this year's NFL Draft. The trade came after the team was unable to renegotiate Boldin's six-million-dollar salary for the upcoming season. Boldin reportedly refused the team's request to take a two-million-dollar pay cut before he was traded. Boldin was a standout performer in Baltimore's Super Bowl championship run, with 380 receiving yards and four touchdowns in the playoffs (via our wire service; more here from the Baltimore Sun).

And: the Orioles fell to the Pittsburgh Pirates 4 to 3 in yesterday's spring training game.