Maryland

With Minimum Wage Debate Set to Take Center Stage, Some Believe the County Makes the Difference

Maryland is primed for a battle between lawmakers who are pushing a statewide increase of the minimum wage and others who believe that one comprehensive hike doesn’t make sense.

Health Insurance and Medical Special Interests Make Significant Contributions to Brown-Ulman Campaign

Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown has received numerous contributions to his campaign from donors in the health care field, including companies with ties to the state’s online health exchange.

Lawmakers Seek Tighter Regulations On Cash-For-Phone Kiosks

A number of mall kiosks throughout the state offer instant cash for recycling old phones; some say it’s too alluring for phone thieves to pass up.

King’s Words Still Inspire After Half a Century

More than 200,000 people participated in the march held on the National Mall. It was during that rally that King delivered his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech.

County Drug Task Forces Now Led By Local Police, Not Troopers

Maryland State Police have transferred the administration of county-wide drug task forces to local police, but some lawmakers are concerned.

Circulator and Campus Shuttles Alternative to MTA Buses

While the state’s MTA buses labor along their old routes, Baltimoreans at City Hall and on college campuses became so dissatisfied with the service that they created their own expensive transit systems to carry riders for free around downtown and from campus to campus.

Obama Orders Changes to NSA Telephone Data Collection

President Barack Obama ordered changes to the controversial NSA telephone data collection program.

Tech Community Sees Smartphone as Transit Improvement Path

When Elliott Plack, a geographic information systems specialist, began riding the Baltimore bus system, the bus would regularly fail to show up on time. Plack would wait at the stop without any way of determining when the next bus would arrive.

In Nod to History, Some Call for Return of Streetcars

The last streetcar made its way over Baltimore streets in 1963, done in, partly, by the rise of the automobile and the growth of the suburbs — all coming atop an antitrust scandal.

More Jobs in Suburbs, but Mass Transit Commute from Baltimore Difficult

For decades, the jobs that many Baltimoreans rely on have been moving to the suburbs. But most of the region’s transit routes haven’t been changed since before the Maryland Transit Administration took over local bus service in 1971.