Maryland officials are busily leveraging new funds to attack the housing shortage in Baltimore through an "acquire and repurpose" program for the inventory of vacant or abandoned dwellings.  Officials are also planning to forgive debts on parole tabs formerly owed by state inmates, now made illegal by a new law. And they have to be basking in the news that many thousands of Maryland's children have been helped to get more nutritious food through a family grocery program this past summer. All that and more about Maryland, plus (sometimes startling) news from the other 49 states and in areas that affect the entire nation (no news from the Feds, of course; Congress is out for election campaigning after doing about as close to nothing as any session since Harry Truman). It's all in this week's News You Can Use.

HERE IN MARYLAND

86,266 Low-Income Kids Benefited From Summer Food Assistance: Sarah Moorefield, 40, a single mother of two teenagers, was pleasantly surprised to learn in June that her daughters had been automatically enrolled in Sun Bucks, a new federally funded grocery benefit that gave the family an additional $40 per child per month throughout the summer. Maryland Matters. 

Corrections Dept To Forgive $13m In Parole Debt: Gov. Wes Moore on Friday announced that the state corrections department is forgiving about $13 million in unpaid parole debts owed by more than 6,700 formerly incarcerated people. The move coincides with a new law that took effect at the beginning of the month, House Bill 531, which eliminates the $40 to $50 monthly “supervision fees” and associated drug-testing fees paid by people released on parole from Maryland prisons. Baltimore Banner. May be paywalled

Automation The Next Hurdle For Dockworkers: As they picketed during a three-day strike, some U.S. dockworkers carried signs reading “Automation Hurts Families” and “Machines Don’t Feed Families.” The union representing 45,000 striking U.S. dockworkers at Gulf Coast and East Coast ports, including the Port of Baltimore, reached a deal Thursday to suspend the strike until Jan. 15 to provide time for further contract negotiations. But the picket signs forecast a looming issue — automation. Baltimore Sun via Maryland Reporter

State Near To Awarding New BWI Concessions Contract: The state is moving closer to awarding a lucrative 20-year contract to run the concessions operations at BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport — a year and a half after Gov. Wes Moore (D) pulled the plug on the initial procurement process, which was laden with controversy. Maryland Matters via Maryland Reporter

Baltimore, State Leaders Ramp Up Efforts Toward Affordable Housing: The major players in the $3 billion effort to acquire and repurpose thousands of vacant homes across the city met in a West Baltimore church Sunday afternoon. With the state pledging north of $75 million per year and the city pushing creative ways to buy up blight, the packed pews of Macedonia Baptist Church in the Upton neighborhood flickered with tension over the size of the task at hand and newfound optimism.  Baltimore Sun via Maryland Reporter

THE OTHER 49

TAXES: Easier Filing More than 30 million Americans in 24 states will have access to the federal Direct File program to report their taxes for free next year, the Treasury Department said Thursday. A dozen new states will join the dozen that piloted the free-file program last year, and Colorado will add on in 2026. The program is available to citizens who file simple income taxes. (Pluribus News)

AGRICULTURE: Animal Rights-- Twenty-two Republican attorneys general are appealing a federal district court ruling that upheld a 2016 Massachusetts ballot measure prohibiting the sale of pork, poultry and veal that were “confined in a cruel manner.” The states challenging the law say it imposes unfair restrictions on farmers. (Louisiana Illuminator)

ABORTION: Big Money Backs Rights Ballots Abortion rights backers have raised about eight times as much as abortion rights opponents in the ten states where initiatives and amendments will appear on the ballot. Supporters have raised about $108 million for their initiatives, leveraging their advantage to swamp rivals with television ads. (Associated Press) via Pluribus

Right Next Door: MAIL-IN BALLOTS: Pennsylvania’s highest court said that it will decide whether county election officials must inform voters if their mail-in ballots are disqualified so that voters can challenge the decision, the Pennsylvania Capital-Star reports. The number of mail-in ballots that have been disqualified for errors on ballot envelopes is not trivial, and the state could be the difference in the presidential election. States Newsroom

Near Neighbors Consider Redistricting Commission: OHIO: A YouGov survey conducted for Bowling Green State University found Issue 1, a ballot measure to create a bipartisan citizen’s commission to redraw district boundaries, passing with 60% of the vote. Just 20% said they opposed the ballot question. (Pluribus News) paywalled

CRIME BLOTTER: Former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D) faces trial beginning tomorrow on charges that he used his influence to run a criminal enterprise. Madigan is charged in a racketeering and bribery scheme involving ComEd, Illinois’s largest utility. (Chicago Tribune, Associated Press) via Pluribus [ComEd is an Exelon company, like many of the DMV’s power companies. ]

Pluribus “Off the Wall”-- Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters (R) has issued a request for bids for 55,000 Bibles that will be placed in public schools across the state. To qualify, the Bibles must include the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and must be bound in leather or leather-like material. What a coincidence, the only version of the Bible on the market that satisfies those requirements are endorsed by former President Donald Trump, who gets a commission on sales. (Oklahoma Watch) 

Bonus: Walters’s office wants to buy 55,000 copies, but there are only 43,000 classroom teachers in the state.

VOTING RIGHTS: Many state prison inmates in Texas, including people on death row, are eligible to vote — and may not even know it, according to The Texas Tribune. Under a little-known section of state elections law, felons who are actively appealing their convictions can legally cast a ballot, even if they’re currently behind bars. Via Pluribus

NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

Early Planning Can Curb Costs, Climate Stress on Neglected Infrastructure

New framework can help policymakers assess vulnerabilities and manage adaptation needs and priorities – A Pew Trusts study outlines how state and local officials can cut costs and reduce climate stress by adapting critical infrastructure with the help of a new framework to assess vulnerabilities and manage adaptation needs. Proper adaptation—implementing green solutions like rain gardens and permeable pavement or relocating vulnerable assets, for example—could reduce damage from extreme weather by up to a third, some estimates show.

Project 2025 explained. A panel of historians talks about the way think tanks like the Heritage Foundation have for years kept roadmaps for the Right prepared for their presidential favorites.

States Reckon with Lapse of the Broadband Affordable Connectivity Program

End of federal funding has range of effects on policymakers’ plans to expand high-speed internet access. Pew Trust

Election-year politics color hurricane recovery efforts

A week after Hurricane Helene struck the Southeast, some elected officials have been reluctant to put on a united front. And FEMA has had to struggle against misinformation. Route Fifty

Crime is down, FBI says, but politicians still choose statistics to fit their narratives

 Murder in the United States fell nearly 12% in 2023 compared with 2022. Violent crime and property crime fell significantly in 2023, continuing a trend. But because these data are counted different ways by different public agencies, These differences, which are often unknown or misunderstood, make it easier for anyone—including politicians—to manipulate findings to support their agendas. Route Fifty/Stateline

Skills gap looms for energy efficiency jobs tied to net-zero emission goals: IEA