The hottest news in Maryland today (Monday) is Senator Ben Cardin’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election next year, after 58 consecutive years in elected office and three terms in the Senate. His departure enlivens Maryland’s previously sleepy electoral calendar for 2023-4 and thrusts forward a flock of potential Democratic candidates, some more likely than others. If former Gov. Larry Hogan decides to enter the GOP side of the race it could be a contest. But Cardin told the Baltimore Sun after his announcement “ ‘I am extremely confident we will hold the seat,’ he said of Democrats.”

But there is lots more to be amazed by, as true-blue Maryland still has some 'splaining to do. A two-year-old law requiring Police Accountability Boards in local and county-level jurisdictions is slow to develop. How will the federal infrastructure money flow, and can local governments avoid being sent to the back of the line? An incinerator is kept polluting by contract law. And our state's first-in-the-nation Prescription Drug Affordability Board, at nearly four years old, is only now getting prepped to actually save money for prescription customers.

Stop grinding your teeth; your dentist would not approve. And read all these just-gettin-around-to-it sagas in News You Can Use.

The hottest news in Maryland today (Monday) is Senator Ben Cardin’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election next year, after 58 consecutive years in elected office and three terms in the Senate. His departure enlivens Maryland’s previously sleepy electoral calendar for 2023-4 and thrusts forward a flock of potential Democratic candidates, some more likely than others. If former Gov. Larry Hogan decides to enter the GOP side of the race it could be a contest. But Cardin told the Baltimore Sun after his announcement “ ‘I am extremely confident we will hold the seat,’ he said of Democrats.”

5/1 The Chesapeake Bay Journal rounds up environmental legislative successes for the 2023 session: Following up on their decision in 2022 to set one of the nation’s most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals, Maryland lawmakers doubled down on the state’s commitment to develop offshore wind and solar energy while joining a coalition of other states to continue boosting sales of electric trucks, buses and delivery vans. They also broke a years-long stalemate over how or even whether to reform the state’s 1991 forest conservation law, set a goal of protecting a growing share of Maryland’s landscape from development, and acted to increase green space in underserved and overburdened communities.

A 2021 Law Requires Maryland Counties To Create Police Accountability Boards but the implementation has had an uneven start, as Maryland Matters reports.

Federal Infrastructure Bill Pours $2.6b Into Maryland: President Joe Biden’s infrastructure program so far has funneled $2.6 billion over the last two years to projects in Maryland, according to White House data. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has been touted as a once-in-a-generation piece of legislation and the president is highlighting it as one of his key accomplishments as he makes his bid for reelection. Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.

But… but, Who Are The Experts on This? Smaller governments, like counties, are short on the skills needed to jump in line for federal transportation money, as this BlogSpace has often warned. Route Fifty has an update, warning that “to take advantage of the federal government’s $2 trillion in investments, municipalities must think big, start small and scale fast.” Circulated in Streetsblog. Best bet is the state's expertise should be lent to counties and mid-sized cities like Hagerstown, Cumberland and Frederick.

4/28 Incinerator Pollution Likely To Continue For Years, Report Says: While Mayor Brandon Scott pledges to end municipal trash burning at the polluting BRESCO incinerator, his administration is telling state officials why Baltimore’s biggest source of industrial pollution will stay in business for the next decade. BRESCO will “likely continue to operate at or near its current throughput” beyond 2033 because it will still burn trash from the surrounding counties and from private contracts. That is the concluding sentence of the 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan, a 192-page report that was previewed at a public meeting this week. Baltimore Brew

4/25 Families In Need Grew 8% During Pandemic: The number of Maryland families who couldn’t afford basic needs grew 8% in the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report from the United Ways of Maryland. The report showed the increase in financially insecure families, but also how pandemic support helped blunt a potentially “deeper financial crisis.” Frederick News Post.

Drug Affordability Board Ready To Assess Pricing: Maryland will soon be the first state in the country with a functional Prescription Drug Affordability Board, aimed at bringing down the high prices of some prescription drugs. The state established the board in 2019 and it’s since been figuring out how exactly it will push back against pharmaceutical companies on cost. Scott Maucione/WYPR-FM.

ON THE FEDERAL TRACK – Our DC-watcher extraordinaire from People’s Action, Megan Essaheb, has a terse roundup on the new depths of shame that the House Republican caucus achieved last week:

Last week, House Republicans passed a bill along party lines that would lift the debt ceiling for a year, repeal many climate investments in the Inflation Reduction Act, fast track fossil fuel and mining permitting, slash social safety net programs and other government investments and create increased work requirements for Medicaid and food stamps, in an effort to kick people out of those programs. From CNN: “As part of the 320-page bill, the GOP is also proposing to block Biden’s plan to grant student loan forgiveness, repeal green energy tax credits and kill new Internal Revenue Service funding enacted as part of the Inflation Reduction Act last year.” House Democrats across the caucus sent a letter to Speaker McCarthy last week calling on him to pass a clean debt ceiling. Senate Majority Leader Schumer announced that the Senate would begin hearings this week “to expose the true impact of this reckless legislation on everyday Americans.” Meanwhile, the House is off this week.

And Megan adds…

The banks are all right. Not. There was another bank failure last night [Sunday night and Monday morning, actually]. First Republic Bank was taken over by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and sold to JPMorgan. This is the third bank to fail this year and the second largest bank to fail in history. The bank failures are a result of a combination of risky behavior by the banks, deregulation of banking by Congress and the interest rate hikes that the Federal Reserve continues to make. The resulting consolidation of banks is not going to be good for people or our economy either. Last week, the Washington Post reported on how the CEO’s of these banks are incentivized to take risks and drive up stock for their own personal gain. Silicon Valley Banks’ former “chief executive Greg Becker made roughly $34.6 million selling his bank’s stock in the past five years… including $2.3 million just days before the bank imploded on his watch. Insiders at Signature sold more than $100 million of stock from 2020 through 2022.” The New York Times reported today that “last week the Fed and the F.D.I.C. published reports criticizing themselves for failing to adequately regulate” banks in their risky behavior, now including First Republic.