WYPR News

The Baltimore City Council approved Monday a bill to establish public campaign financing for candidates running for city offices. The Fair Election Fund would distribute matching funds to candidates who agree not to accept individual donations larger than $150 or donations from corporations, unions and PACS.

The fund’s proponents say it will give candidates who don’t receive hefty checks from corporations a fighting chance as well as boost the impact of donations from Baltimore City constituents.

It’s difficult to get voters to turn out for a special election, but the task of replacing someone as visible as Elijah Cummings might motivate Marylanders to cast their ballots in a special election primary this winter.

Governor Larry Hogan announced Tuesday that Maryland will move forward with the long-delayed State Center project. It was the second time in 17 months he’s made that announcement.

Back in June 2018 the governor issued a call for developers interested in taking over the project, which has been tied up in lawsuits.

He said then he was “pleased to announce that we are finally able to move forward” with the project despite “15 years of inaction and failure.”

Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges related to the sales of her Healthy Holly children’s books.

She entered guilty pleas in federal court in Baltimore to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and two counts of tax evasion. 

During a scheduled arraignment, Pugh appeared publicly for the first time since a news conference in March the day after she was released from Johns Hopkins Hospital after being treated for pneumonia.

A federal grand jury has indicted former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, seven counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and two counts of tax evasion.

The indictment, handed up Nov. 14 and unsealed Wednesday, was announced by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Internal Revenue Service.

Lettuces and herbs soon will be growing on an environmental cleanup site in eastern Baltimore County. 

The Bethlehem Steel site at Sparrows Point was a toxic wasteland when Tradepoint Atlantic began developing it five years ago. 

The company Gotham Greens’ mission is to grow produce where you would least expect it. 

State Senator Jill Carter has joined an increasingly crowded Democratic field of 17 candidates running for Maryland’s 7th Congressional District seat left vacant by the death of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings in October.

Carter filed to run for the seat Monday at the state Board of Elections and has planned a “special announcement” about her campaign for Tuesday afternoon. In between those events, she attended her third fundraiser Monday night in Ellicott City, the southern part of the 7th district.

The Baltimore City Council passed a plastic bag ban Monday evening, meaning those plastic bags found at the grocery store or your favorite takeout place will disappear next year. 

  The Baltimore City Council passed the Water Accountability and Equity Act Monday, paving the way for water bill discount programs and Department of Public Works oversight measures.

Climate change is real and human activity is driving it. That is the science, and teachers and administrators say it’s being taught that way in Baltimore County schools. 

But there are climate change skeptics. 

In this way, climate change is like evolution. The teaching of the scientific theory runs afoul of some people’s beliefs.

A recent study published in the journal Science found that North America has lost 29 percent of its bird population in the last 50 years. That’s nearly 3 billion birds of all different species, from meadowlarks to swallows to robins.

And to no one’s surprise, the Baltimore region has noticed that decline. For example, the whippoorwill and the American woodcock, once common around Baltimore and throughout eastern North America, are at risk because their habitat has been declining with urbanization.

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings joined an ever growing field of candidates today running to represent to represent Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, a seat last occupied by her late husband, Elijah Cummings.

The Baltimore City Council shepherded two highly visible bills toward law on their Monday, Nov. 4th meeting. WYPR’s Emily Sullivan discussed progress on the Water Accountability and Equity Act and a plastic bag ban bill with Nathan Sterner.

Baltimore County will prohibit landlords from rejecting would-be tenants because they use housing vouchers, also known as section 8. 

The Baltimore County Council approved the controversial legislation Monday night in a vote that went straight down party lines.The four Democrats on the county council voted for it. The three Republicans voted against. 

The first time Kweisi Mfume was elected to represent Maryland’s seventh congressional district, he was 38 years old. Now 71, he says he wants to continue the work of his one-time successor, Congressman Elijah Cummings, whose death last month left the seat vacant.

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Arbutus are near each other. But when you think about Arbutus, “college town” probably doesn’t come to mind. 

A business is opening Monday morning in the southern Baltimore County community that hopes to help change that. 

Menhaden are fish near the bottom of the Chesapeake Bay food chain. They’re good for crab bait and they’re pursued on an industrial scale by Omega Protein Corporation to be turned into fish oil and fish meal for factory fish farms.

The Canadian company owns several U.S. fishing fleets, including one in Reedville, Virginia.

It was standing room only in the Baltimore County Council Chambers Tuesday afternoon, as the council heard from both sides of the controversial issue of housing vouchers. 

Meantime, the odds may be improving that the legislation will pass the county council when it comes up for a vote next week.

Chronic understaffing at several state agencies is forcing employees to work 80-hour workweeks and endure dangerous work environments, some employees told state lawmakers at a briefing Tuesday.

T.J. Smith, a former Baltimore Police Department spokesman, formally announced his run for mayor on Tuesday.

The Democrat made the announcement on the 1400 block of Argyle Avenue, the same street where his younger brother Dionay was murdered in the summer of 2017. 

Surrounded by other families who lost loved ones to violence, Smith said the city needs fresh leadership to drive meaningful change.

Housing vouchers, also known as section 8: are they a helping hand for people in need or do they threaten neighborhoods? 

The Baltimore County Council has scheduled a public hearing Tuesday afternoon on legislation that would forbid landlords from rejecting would-be tenants because they use the vouchers. 

Thousands of people in Baltimore County find themselves on opposite sides of the controversy.

Elijah Cummings returned to New Psalmist Baptist Church for one last time on Friday. 

It's the church where he sat in the front row for the 7:15 a.m. service nearly every Sunday for about 40 years. And just as steadfast as his relationship with the church was his relationship with hometown of Baltimore, speaker after speaker reminded the congregation.

Maryland Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller announced Thursday that he is relinquishing his gavel when the General Assembly returns to Annapolis in January. The 76 year old has cancer and several related health issues.

“My mind is still strong but my body is weak,” Miller said at a press conference Thursday. “This is a fulltime job. It’s a statewide job. And we need somebody younger.”

The Maryland Senate will have a new leader for the first time in 33 years when the legislature reconvenes in January.

As expected, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, the longest continuously serving state Senate president in the country, announced Thursday that he will step down from his leadership role.