A joint General Assembly committee is poking Gov. Moore about a package of new regulations for buildings that seems to edge away from full alignment with federal standards.  Members have put a hold on approving them until answers are provided. Meanwhile, the divide between local police and ICE raiders appears to make the police helpless as ICE terrorizes locals and appears to be frightening many away from court appearances. We note in our national section that ICE, as promised by the new DHS brass,  is staying out of the headlines but amping up its seizures of folks both subject to their jurisdiction and not.

There's a heap of news from neighbor states, including hemp licensing in Virginia, voting rights protection in Delaware and education funding (or maybe not) in West Virginia.

Is cryptospora making its way to your food through the local sewer system? Check our national section, where you'll also find the D.C. roundup from our activist colleague Megan E, including the probable war crime of blocking oil shipments to Cuba, where folks are taking a  bigger hit than Iran, maybe. Guess it all depends on whom you think you can safely push around.

HERE IN MARYLAND

Legislative Committee Puts New Maryland Building Code on Hold Amid Environmental Concerns: A Maryland legislative committee is holding up a new building code regulation amid concerns that it is less environmentally stringent than the national code, which Maryland is supposed to adhere to. In a letter last Tuesday to Gov. Wes Moore (D), the joint House/Senate committee signaled their intent to “conduct a more detailed study of this regulation” and to ask that the administration delay final adoption. During a July public hearing about the regulation, environmental organizations and energy think tanks complained that Maryland’s version of the code for large commercial buildings allowed far more flexibility on energy efficiency measures than the International Energy Conservation Code, or IECC. Maryland Matters

ICE Fears Are Keeping Some Witnesses Out Of Court, Prosecutors Say: Some Maryland prosecutors say heightened federal immigration enforcement is making it harder to hold offenders accountable, as fears of possible immigration arrests leave witnesses reluctant to report crimes or testify in court. Baltimore Sun. (7/7)

THE REGION AND THE OTHER 49

Judge orders Pentagon to resume wind energy project reviews A federal judge has ordered the Department of Defense to lift its blockade of wind energy projects and resume the permitting process that has ground to a halt during President Donald Trump’s second term. Under Trump, the Pentagon has stopped conducting the national security reviews that are required for wind turbines over 200 feet tall. Renewable energy companies and Democratic attorneys general sued the administration, saying the refusal to conduct the once-routine reviews has stalled more than 155 onshore wind projects. On Thursday, Judge Karin Immergut of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon issued a preliminary injunction, ordering the Pentagon to resume the review process while the case proceeds. More at State AGs join legal fight against Trump’s wind farm freeze

West Virginia: The state Department of Human Services — the agency overseeing the Legislature’s hallmark childcare legislation — has yet to implement the law’s requirements after it went into effect July 1. The delayed implementation is worrisome for childcare providers, since the measure mandated changes meant to stabilize childcare services. News from the States

Delaware: Democratic Gov. Matt Meyer signed legislation that ensures key protections under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be retained in the state, regardless of what may happen in the future. News from the States

Morrisey: WV public school funding formula needs work, spending may not be the answer -- Gov. Patrick Morrisey’s team laid out his office’s ideas for revamping West Virginia’s school funding formula, a decades-old equation that has been linked to public schools’ dire financial situation. Debate over the funding formula is expected to be a leading topic in the 2027 legislative session. Morrisey’s office wants to see the formula simplified and more money directed to classrooms, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a hefty financial investment into public schools. News from the States

Virginia: Seven hemp businesses are asking a federal judge to block new restrictions on consumable hemp products, arguing the changes will wipe out much of their inventory, trigger layoffs and force some companies to close when they take effect on Aug. 15.

West Virginia: The state is using nearly $8 million in federal anti-poverty dollars to pay for its long-troubled and broken online database system. It’s the same pot of federal funding — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money — that Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey said is running out, prompting an abrupt closure of the school clothing allowance application window for low-income kids. News from the States

Louisiana: Heat deaths drop dramatically in Louisiana, but health officials still urge caution News from the States

WATER: Lawmakers and officials in the Colorado River Basin’s lower basin states are pushing back against a Bureau of Reclamation plan that would reduce their share of water by 3 million acre-feet per year through 2036. Arizona, California and Nevada couldn’t reach a deal with Upper Basin states over a water-sharing agreement. Federal plans could still change, but just about every Colorado River state is bracing for cuts to some degree. (Pluribus News) (paywalled) For more, here and here

GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS

Does Cyclospora get to your food through sewage? The expanding scope of the nationwide cyclospora outbreak – the protozoan parasite that causes explosive diarrhea – continues to worry consumers and health officials alike. The parasite is transmitted through human feces, which means some of that got on the food eaten by a lot of people. Water-quality researcher Joan Rose, at Michigan State University, explains the role human sewage plays in growing food. (Spoiler alert: You aren’t going to like it.) Rose says there’s a lot that scientists have learned about it since, but many key questions remain. For instance: Standard sewage treatment processes kill most yclospora that come into the systems, but not all of it. And there’s not yet a reliable way to detect extremely low levels of cyclospora to be sure that treated sewage is protozoa-free. The Conversation

Federal immigration agents are employing new tactics — from arresting academics at airports to setting up a checkpoint at a popular creek in a National Forest — to boost their arrest numbers, leading to more arrests in July than in any previous month of the Trump administration, Stateline reports. Though it is striving to fulfill the White House’s demand for more arrests, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still falling short of the Trump administration’s announced goal of 2,000 arrests per day. And more arrests won’t necessarily translate into more deportations, said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, an associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. “The focus is so much on the arrest numbers that the mission seems a little confused to the general public,” Putzel-Kavanaugh said. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, told Stateline it arrested about 51,000 immigrants in July, up from 43,000 in June and the highest number recorded by the Trump administration. The administration did not release state-specific numbers. Arrests based on expired visas are likely to continue and will accelerate in September when a new rule takes effect that sets stricter time limits on visas for students, exchange visitors and foreign media.

State Action Is Accelerating Distributed Energy to Build the Electric Grid of the Future Policies in Colorado, Illinois, and other states advance untapped energy potential

With rapidly growing demand, an aging grid infrastructure, and threats from increasingly severe weather, the U.S. electricity system is facing challenges on a scale not seen in decades. The demand for electricity—driven in large part by data centers, new manufacturing, and the electrification of buildings and transportation—is expected to continue growing for many years. These challenges put the availability of affordable and reliable power at risk, and state policymakers are at the forefront of the response. Pew Center Report.

AND HERE IS MEGAN E.'S REPORT ON DC GOINGS-ON.  SHE IS  FEDERAL AFFAIRS DIRECTOR AT PROGRESSIVE MARYLAND'S NATIONAL AFFILIATE, PEOPLE'S ACTION: