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Local government

    The Baltimore Convention Center on April 2, 2025.
    Does Baltimore need new taxes to renovate the Convention Center? Consultants may decide
    On Monday, state lawmakers passed a bill that extends the life of a Convention Center and tourism task force for another year, at a cost of about $350,000.
    Public and political pressure on BGE ramped up as the cold winter and previously approved rate hikes combined to create eye-popping bills.
    What BGE customers need to know about Maryland’s utility legislation
    The Maryland General Assembly tried to tackle complaints about escalating gas and electric bills.
    The Baltimore County Council had made it harder to develop in designated rural areas of the county. The urban-rural line protects the Gunpowder River and county reservoirs, including Loch Raven, shown here.
    Baltimore County Council advances measure to make it harder to build in rural areas
    The Baltimore County Council has voted to advance a measure that would require a supermajority to build in designated rural areas of the county. The charter amendment will now go before voters in 2026.
    City officials have frozen spending at several Baltimore agencies that were over budget, including the police and fire departments.
    Baltimore freezes spending at police, fire and parks agencies as economy slides
    The freeze, which was announced to the City Council during a hearing Tuesday, was put in place two weeks ago.
    The WIN Waste Baltimore trash incinerator is seen along Interstate 95 in Baltimore. The state legislature voted Monday to end clean-energy subsidies for incinerators.
    Maryland lawmakers approve end of clean-energy subsidies for trash incinerators
    The proposal, which received final approval Monday from the Senate as part of a sweeping energy bill, comes as Maryland looks to slash energy-sector emissions to curb climate change.
    Senate President Bill Ferguson moderates floor debate at the Maryland State House on Monday as the General Assembly passed a trio of energy bills.
    Maryland approves plan to fast-track power plants, override local solar bans
    Maryland lawmakers passed an energy plan to get a handle on soaring utility prices and boost in-state power generation.
    As sales of electric vehicles have lagged state goals, car companies have pushed to delay penalties for not meeting certain thresholds.
    Gov. Moore’s executive order could delay fines for car companies as EV sales lag
    Gov. Wes Moore issued an executive order that would allow his administration to punt fines on car companies that fall short of Maryland’s electric vehicle mandates.
    A majority of voters prefer more county-wide voting hubs to casting their ballots at neighborhood schools, churches or community centers.
    Poll: Marylanders prefer voting at countywide hubs to neighborhood precincts
    A Washington Post-UMD poll found support for establishing countywide voting centers.
    Armstead Jones, Baltimore City's elections director, speaks at the start of the canvass of mail ballots in the 2022 primary election at the city's elections warehouse.
    Baltimore election director Armstead Jones announces retirement after absences
    Jones had a colorful way with words, delivering seemingly casual responses to alarming situations.
    Westgate Circle is the boundary for downtown Annapolis, where West Street, Taylor Avenue and Spa Road intersect.
    With a finger salute, Annapolis’ big art project is still struggling
    Art is about symbols. One of the crudest is a good way to explain why it’s proving so hard to fill Westgate Circle in Annapolis.
    A sign promotes the Inflation Reduction Act during an event at the headquarters of the Green & Healthy Homes Initiative in Baltimore's Canton neighborhood on Monday, Aug. 15, 2022.
    Baltimore nonprofit sues EPA over $180M in canceled and frozen funds
    A Baltimore nonprofit focused on lead remediation and childhood asthma is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, alleging the Trump administration has illegally cancelled and frozen tens of millions of dollars in grant funding.
    The Baltimore Convention Center on April 2, 2025.
    Baltimore could pay for downtown’s facelift using this one weird trick
    A proposed authority to oversee the Baltimore Convention Center could also control other parts of downtown Baltimore.
    Advocates say Howard County’s police accountability board is failing
    Advocates say Howard County's police accountability board has not pushed hard enough to address apparent racial disparities in policing and failed to fulfill some of their basic duties in 2024.
    Mayor Brandon Scott speaks outside of vacant homes on West Saratoga street during a press conference hosted by Build One Baltimore on February 16, 2023.
    ‘Scale and speed’: State wants to fast-track redeveloping Baltimore’s vacants
    $50 million will start hitting the streets July 1, Maryland’s housing secretary said.
    Ardena Githara of Rosedale was put on administrative leave from her federal job earlier this year.
    Federal jobs helped build Baltimore’s Black middle class. What happens now?
    In Baltimore and Baltimore County, Black full-time federal workers earn a median income about $30,000 higher than other Black workers.
    Lawmakers have rewritten a housing bill proposed by Gov. Wes Moore so that it will now set housing targets in each county and Baltimore.
    The last-ditch effort to salvage a statewide housing bill
    If it passes, the bill would require Maryland's housing agency to post public housing targets on its website and publish an annual report assessing the progress.
    Brandon Scott has a spending plan — for now. But federal spending cuts and layoffs could mean big changes later.
    Brandon Scott’s $4.6B Baltimore spending plan could be scrambled by Trump cuts
    Baltimore City's plan closes an $85 million shortfall with several additional fees.
    The old Choate House, photographed in 1989, was a 215-year-old tavern on Liberty Road. A developer demolished the historic property in March to make way for new townhouses.
    Choate House was a national historic landmark. A Baltimore County developer bulldozed it.
    The developer who tore the historic home down said he also wanted a different outcome, that he even offered to pay to move it to a parcel of land he is donating to the county.
    An illustration showing groups of people in various forms of daily life, some are disappearing, one in the center is being erased.
    Maryland immigrants voice fear over threats to legal protections amid Trump crackdown
    Of Maryland’s 1 million immigrants, many are under a giant umbrella of temporary student or work visas, as well as humanitarian protections.
    The exterior of Baltimore City Hall on August 17, 2022.
    Baltimore investigating $1.5M theft after fake vendor deceived city employees
    Baltimore City officials do not know who is behind the sophisticated scheme, which involved months of email correspondence between city officials and the unknown person.
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