maryland general assembly

General Assembly has an opportunity to protect patients from abusive treatment by medical providers.

Cummings challenges drugmakers to explain high costs of drugs, while state lawmakers look to new regulation

Advocates for increasing Maryland’s minimum wage will push legislation to gradually raise the hourly rate to $15 by 2023, a starting point for negotiations on what’s expected to be one of the hottest topics of this year’s General Assembly session.

Baltimore City Solicitor Andre Davis says the mayor’s new choice to become police commissioner will hold community meetings in all nine of the city’s police districts in the coming weeks, as part of a plan to build support for the nomination.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is releasing his latest budget proposal and celebrating his second inauguration this week in Annapolis, while members of the General Assembly begin a push for what might end up being the hottest issue of the session: raising the state’s hourly minimum wage.

Baltimore County state Sen. Kathy Klausmeier presided over the Maryland Senate for the first time Friday, substituting for President Thomas V. Mike Miller, who was absent due to cancer treatment. Klausmeier is the new president pro tem of the state Senate. She's been in the legislature since 1995.

Gov. Larry Hogan did the right thing in opposing a pipeline in Western Maryland that would carry fracked gas, but what else is he going to do to protect the environment?

Maryland Senate president is finding out what state retirees already know - prescriptions are costly and it's worse on Medicare.

Efforts to address Baltimore crime like mandatory sentences for violent offenders can have unintended negative consequences.

Adam Good is the most famous member of the Taneytown Good clan for his "George Washington slept here” story, but it is his brother, Jacob, who deserves better name recognition.

Amid competing charges of racial exclusion and anti-Semitism, the women's march takes to the streets for a third year. Some are boycotting the national march in Washington over the controversy, and instead focusing on local marches, such as three in Maryland: Baltimore, Annapolis and Westminster.

Maryland Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford said Thursday that the Hogan administration wants to expand funding for addiction treatment.

Medical marijuana has not been proven to be an effective treatment for opioid addiction, according to a study the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission submitted to the General Assembly.

A former Maryland state representative has filed a civil rights lawsuit against Governor Larry Hogan and Attorney General Brian Frosh, taking aim at a controversial executive order denying contracts to businesses that boycott Israel.

Given the partisan tones of nearly everything exuding from Washington, D.C., these days, bipartisanship is welcome in our state capital as legislators return for the 90-day session, even if there is sure to be heated debates and occasional finger-pointing among our representatives.

Longtime Maryland state Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller is expected to announce Thursday that he is undergoing treatment for prostate cancer, according to two sources.

Though the session opened at about noon, lawmakers representing Carroll County had been coming up with legislative agendas and crafting bills for months in preparation. Many have refined bills they introduced in the past that failed to make it and plan to reintroduce the legislation.

With spouses and children by their sides, Maryland's 188 lawmakers were sworn into office. While lawmakers are expected to hash out tricky issues over the next 90 days, the first day was largely reserved for celebration and optimism.

The Sun editorial board's run-down of what needs to happen during this year's General Assembly session and what can wait for another year.

Everyone deserves to be paid equitably but collecting two government salaries at the same time isn't appropriate.

Should Maryland raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour?

State Sen. Guy Guzzone took his seat as senate majority leader and several new members of the Howard County delegation took the oath of office on Wednesday’s opening day of the Maryland General Assembly.

Key dates for the 2019 Maryland General Assembly session, which begins Wednesday at the State House in Annapolis.

The Maryland General Assembly session: 188 members, more than 2,500 pieces of legislation, 90 days of government and politics in the nation's oldest statehouse still in active use as a seat of government.

Calling the level of violence in Baltimore “completely unacceptable,” Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is describing a crackdown — one that has 200 officers in a “strike force” to fight crime and expanding a program in which city criminal cases are charged federally.

Maryland's Republican lawmakers will arrive in Annapolis Wednesday for the start of the 2019 legislative session to find a bigger Democrat majority in the General Assembly. Carroll County's lawmakers see speaking out on the floor, picking apart bills and finding common ground as keys for success.

As Maryland’s 188 lawmakers prepare to head into their annual 90-day session, political party leaders gave them conflicting messages about bipartisanship.

Harford County's 11-member legislative delegation, with one new senator and two new delegates, expects to tackle a range of issues, from education funding to health care, even legal hemp cultivation, when they return to Annapolis Wednesday for the 2019 Maryland General Assembly session.

Let's hope Gov. Larry Hogan and members of the General Assembly engage in civil debate, unlike the politicians at the federal level.

Let’s focus some outrage on Baltimore’s water policies. Go to the Board of Estimates on Wednesday morning. Contact Council President Jack Young, who is working on finding relief. Encourage the City Council to throw its support behind the Water Taxpayer Protection Act.

Active assailant training includes more than just learning what to do in response to an incident, as school system officials are finding out as they begin state-mandated training.

A poll of Maryland voters found strong support for a referendum on whether to legalize sports betting in the state. Registered voters polled by Gonzales Research & Media Services supported the referendum, which is expected to be considered by the General Assembly, by 83 percent.

Joel Fitzgerald, Mayor Catherine Pugh’s choice to become Baltimore’s next police commissioner, has withdrawn from consideration for the job, a decision that spells more uncertainty for a department that has now been with permanent leadership for more than seven months.

Two Baltimore lawmakers will introduce legislation in the General Assembly to ban city government from placing liens against properties over water bill debt. State Sen. Mary Washington and Delegate Nick Mosby want to block the city from foreclosing on properties because of unpaid water bills.

Maryland’s top political leaders are supporting a plan to rename the State House’s main press work area in honor of the five employees who were killed at The Capital newspaper office last year.

Lawmakers can upgrade Maryland schools by cutting back on testing days.

Maryland's governor may be a moving target on energy policy but he's moving in the right direction.

Local legislators discuss their priorities for 2019.

Under a proposed bill, Baltimore could offer ranked choice voting. Voters would list their favored candidates in order. If a candidate doesn't receive a majority of support overall, officials would count voters' second choices and then the third choices, until a winning candidate breaks 50 percent.

Nina Harper was a retired AT&T manager and longtime East Baltimore community activist.

When the General Assembly reconvenes for the 90-day session on Wednesday, one of the matters it is expected to debate is sports gambling. Making sure Maryland’s casinos are keeping up with those in surrounding states ensures other gambling revenues for education don’t dry up.

Wanda Draper is retiring as the executive director of Baltimore's Reginald F. Lewis Museum to spend more time with her family; her last day will be Feb. 12.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a high-profile case in March alleging unconstitutional, partisan gerrymandering in Maryland’s redistricting process. State Attorney General Brian Frosh appealed the case to the high court in November after a panel of federal judges threw out the 6th District map.

When the Maryland General Assembly convenes for its 2019 session next week, Howard County’s delegation will tackle an agenda that’s been forming for the past several months — and will have a few new faces to help carry it out.

A special account to allow individuals with disabilities to save money without putting their government benefits in jeopardy has drawn nearly $4 million in investment in its first year. About 1,000 people have opened accounts using the Maryland ABLE savings program.

Del. Christian Miele of Baltimore County, who lost a tight race for the state Senate, has landed a position with the Hogan administration as a deputy secretary for the Department of Disabilities.

County Executive Calvin Ball, stood with local leaders Thursday, to show his support of proposed legislation to make prescription drugs cost more affordable for not only Howard County residents, but all Marylanders.

It’s time, Maryland, to address the wage gap where white women make 84 percent of their male counterparts, which averages out to $10,074 less in annual earnings. Black women make an average of $22,054 less per year than white men. Passing a Pay Equity for All Act is the first step.

The time may be right to expand incentives for Maryland's college savers.

Leaders of the Maryland General Assembly's five caucuses are busy planning and organizing their agendas for the upcoming session, including several progressive initiatives on health care and the minimum hourly wage. The caucuses represent legislators of various backgrounds.