Maryland General Assembly

This is something that's been tried before and currently, primarily across Pennsylvania.

We're seeing some growing interest in it with the Maryland General Assembly.

And I also recently introduced legislation to hold a hearing over this on the Baltimore City Council level.

A couple weeks ago, we'll hopefully have that hearing in the fall.

And I was able to get the keys from-

A Maryland state senator's car parked on a tree amid the Maryland General Assembly special session last month resulted in viral social media posts.

Why did he not drive his own car? And sparked Spotlight on Maryland's relentless investigation into the facts.

During the past month, we fought for Annapolis police records of the incident involving Senator C. Anthony Muse.

That's the funding committee there.

And then let's move over to the state Senate of Maryland, where Frederick County Democrat, State Senator Karen Lewis Young said, "Yeah, we're considering amending Maryland law to allow local governments to introduce or raise taxes without [laughs] without the approval of the Maryland General Assembly." Look, these are the most recent comments coming out, Brian, now that, you know, we've gotten through the primaries and looks like Democrats are firmly in control of stuff again in Maryland to take over i- in November, that they are now openly saying what Governor Wes Moore, you know, kind of alluded to.

That is, "Yeah, we're facing a big deficit next year, Brian, and guess what? We're coming after you."

All right.

Well, I was raised in Annapolis, Maryland.

And after high school, I got a job with the Maryland General Assembly.

And I worked my way up there to being an officer for the Maryland House of Delegates.

And I wrote a book that was the official record.

And they prevailed.

The most bothersome one was that both agreed that the wording was deceptive, that the Democrat-controlled Maryland General Assembly intentionally wrote deceptive wording for that amendment and then didn't allow any public comment period or revision of that wording.

The judges found that particularly bothersome, but they also found it bothersome that the General Assembly passed a law in April that said you have to have 90 days to look over an amendment and 15 days to comment on it, and then they promptly didn't follow their own law.

Whereas if you or I were going to bring a referendum, we had to follow the law.

So she's really energized by it and is so delighted anytime there's any shift for the good, and she becomes really enraged, understandably, anytime there's a setback.

For example, in Maryland, last spring, the Maryland Assembly shut down a bill that would have allowed Maryland adoptees access to their original birth certificates.

And she just throws up her hands and says, "How could this be? Why are people still arguing about this? It's twenty twenty-one."

I could see that it still kinda gets you angry, and I remember reading an interview of yours where you explained how angry you were at times writing the book, and it was understandably so the more that we are learning about the history of adoption practices in America.

... adopted by and large.

There are some nuances here and there, but that's kind of by and large what's been a- uh, adopted by the Maryland General Assembly.

Yeah.

I guess not surprisingly, uh, ICE is a major focus here.

It, it's, it's pierced the news cycle.

It's something that people are, are talking about.

And I think the Maryland General Assembly, even if they haven't honed the perfect legislation to address that problem, uh, are very, uh...

Members of the General Assembly are very proactive about proposing legislation to rein in things like Flock Safety cameras or data purchasing.