The recent trip by four Maryland legislators to Israel is facing an ethics complaint. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, has filed a complaint with the Maryland General Assembly’s Committee on Legislative Ethics, saying the “50 States-One Israel” trip happened while Israel was committing genocide in its war with Hamas. Senator Mike McKay is one of the four cited in the complaint, but he tells WCBC the entire trip was looked at and approved beforehand…     “This trip was actually vetted from ethics. As a matter of fact, there was a delegate there who’s on the ethics board….

Maryland Governor Wes Moore announced this week that MCI-J, the correctional institution located in Jessup, Maryland would close by June of next year.  The Anne Arundel County facility currently houses over 700 prisoners and employs 300 staff. Closing the prison is estimated to save the state around $21 million dollars.  Inmates and staff at the medium security prison would be transferred to other state prisons including those in Allegany and Washington Counties.

The long-awaited reopening of the Howard Street train tunnel in Baltimore occurred last Friday. The two-hundred year old rail tunnel was closed in February for reconstruction work allowing double-stack intermodal service along the I-95 rail corridor.  Speaking at the tunnel’s reopening ceremony, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen said the improvements mean more business and jobs for the state’s transportation and port industries…     “We are going to be able to  increase the number of containers through the Port of Baltimore by 160,000 per year. And boost jobs by 7,300 workers. That is a very big deal.”

The threat of a government shutdown in the coming days has Maryland leaders on Capitol Hill concerned for the state’s residents. On top of the loss of 15,000 federal jobs since January, many believe President Trump wants the shutdown to occur so more jobs could be cut.  Senator Angela Alsobrooks said this is not the kind of governing people voted for…     “Ask people right now – has it gotten better yet? Have the costs gone down, have your groceries gone down? Now we’re going to see insurance rates increase – has it gotten better yet? And the answer…

Members of the Maryland General Assembly who attended the recent “50 States – One Israel” conference had the opportunity to sit in on a session of the Israeli parliament. Senator Mike McKay said that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of the special partnership shared by the United States and Israel…    “It really is a symbiotic relationship and unfortunately, with this global terror that they are experiencing, it’s just a matter of time before it comes and hits us in the United States. It was an education so we could understand exactly how important our partnership is.”

NextEra Energy announced the route of the107-mile transmission line carrying 500 kilovolts of power to Virginia late last week. The line would stretch from Greene County in Pennsylvania to Gore, Virginia, cutting across areas of Western Maryland and West Virginia. The project is a bidirectional line designed to push power to the many data centers springing up in Virginia. The announced route is being referred to as “preferred” and may change before any approval from the Maryland or West Virginia Public Service Commissions. Several groups are opposed to the transmission line.

West Virginia’s Investment Management Board voted to enact a divestment plan from companies owned or controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. Earlier this year, the IMB approved a resolution made on behalf of Governor Patrick Morrisey to begin this divestment plan. State Treasurer Larry Pack applauded the efforts to protect American dollars. “This is an issue we’ve been talking about at the Investment and Management Board for over a year. We’ve also done that previously at the Bureau of Treasury Investments so we’re going to do everything we can to protect the investments for West Virginians and make sure that…

CSX Transportation announced on Monday a change in leadership for the company. Steve Angel was named by the CSX Board of Directors to succeed Joe Hinrichs who had been with the company since 2022. The change is believed to be the result of activist investors Ancora wanting to explore mergers involving CSX, a move Hinrichs said was unnecessary.  Hinrichs had celebrated his tenure just last Friday…     “The progress we’ve made in terms of culture, customer service, efficiency of our network, how we work together. There’s a lot going on in the industry these days, but CSX is right…

Maryland Governor Wes Moore continued the war of words between himself and President Trump over the weekend, making remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Dinner. Moore said that states redrawing districts to obtain votes amounts to redlining, gerrymandering black leaders out of office…     “Donald Trump does not get to pick and choose which states have fair maps and which other states should sit on their hands. I want to be very clear and say it loud enough for the people in the back – while these other states are determining whether or not they have fair maps,…

Maryland’s workforce decreased by 3,200 jobs in August according to estimates released by the U.S. Department of Labor. Although there was a slight increase in state and local public sector jobs, an additional 2,500 federal jobs were eliminated in as well as a decline of 2,000 private sector jobs. The state’s current unemployment rate is 3.6%