Everybody's in between in News You Can Use this week. The Prez is torn between getting praise and cuddles from Saudi oil barons (and even democratic socialist Mayor-to-be Mamdani!) and getting ripped up by his own base over the Epstein Files (led by the mercurial Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is leaving her House seat for -- where?) Here in the region, fusses over data centers, electric bills and where's the power coming from kind of muddy the waters as many nervously watch the AI bubble to see if it pops, leaving real-estate speculators with big data-center buildings that have no customers, even in the Cloud. In Maryland, the Blueprint for school improvement trudges on while the school population seems to be shrinking. The power bills, on the other hand, are NOT shrinking and it may not be just data center demand but, hmm, greed, incompetence and a still-spineless Public Service Commission. It's all News You Can Use, including lots from the region, the rest of the nation's states, and even some nationwide stuff that is not all about Trump shenanigans. Imagine that.
HERE IN MARYLAND
Summaries from Maryland Reporter as noted
Legislation to end MD law enforcement team-up with ICE gets new support
“Maryland law enforcement should not be an arm of Trump’s extreme agenda,” Democratic delegates in the state General Assembly declared in a social media post accompanied by videos of brutal and illegal behavior by ICE agents. Prince George’s Del. Nicole Williams’ bill to forbid state and local collaboration with ICE under the federal 287(g) program has serious new backing -- from Senate President Bill Ferguson, who said “ICE and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are operating with impunity, violating constitutional rights of American citizens and immigrants alike” on social media. Five county sheriffs’ offices have signed 287(g) pacts with ICE this year, joining three that already had. Maryland Matters >> Sheriffs in Maryland are assisting President Donald Trump’s administration in carrying out his immigration policy at a faster clip than almost every other part of the country. Maryland sheriffs have transferred at least 119 people from their local jails to Immigration and Customs Enforcement since Trump’s inauguration back in January.Capital News Service via Maryland Reporter
MdRep 11/21 Multi State Chesapeake Bay Deal On Track Despite Uncertain Funding: Maryland lawmakers say a revised plan to restore the Chesapeake Bay is on track for final approval Dec. 2, even as questions linger about whether the Trump administration will support long-term environmental work. Baltimore Sun.
MdRep 11/21 Constellation Ceo Says: Don’t Let Exelon Build Power Plant: Constellation Energy wants to build new power plants for Maryland — and it’s willing to rough up a sibling to make its case. Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez argued to state lawmakers Thursday that the Baltimore-based company would be better than Exelon at building the power generation the state wants. Dominguez also pointed out it would override Maryland’s longtime regulatory split between generators of power and firms that bring it to customers. Baltimore Banner
MdRep 11/21 Legislators Warn Data Centers Could Lead To Electric Bill Increase, Rolling Blackouts: A bipartisan group of legislators is warning that electric bills could increase by $70 per month and there could be rolling blackouts due to data centers. WBAL News.
Blueprint Board Approves Legislative Recommendations For 2026 Session
The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future Accountability and Implementation Board approved several legislative recommendations November 20 that include consolidating the number of reports from local school districts, modifying and expanding options for teacher programs and “permanently” authorizing eligible schools that receive concentration of poverty grants to get funding for fine arts programs such as music, arts and dance. The chosen recommendations highlighted in the 15-page document are in bold type and focus on the Blueprint’s five pillars, or priorities, that deal with early childhood education, high-quality and diverse teachers and leaders, college and career readiness, more resources for students to be successful, and governance and accountability. Maryland Matters
Maryland Schools Lost Students This Year, Early Estimates Show. What’s the Cause? -- A significant drop in immigrant students and declining birth rates could be involved
Maryland’s public school enrollment appears to have dipped this year, an unexpected turn in a state that predicted an overall increase in the number of students in the next decade. Though the state education department won’t release official numbers until December, Maryland’s superintendents are already anticipating that budgets will be squeezed next year, as the money they get from the state declines as enrollment falls. Baltimore Banner
NASA moves quickly on plan to shrink Goddard campus by 25% -- Buildings marked for closure to be emptied by March 2026, says one group; administrators say long-planned cuts will save tens of millions:
NASA is moving quickly to consolidate up to a quarter of its suburban Maryland campus, a pace that some lawmakers worry could set back research projects across the campus. The International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers told its members in a recent issue brief that the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt is embarking on plans to close 13 buildings on the west side of its campus. It said building closures began Sept. 23 and continued through the recent government shutdown. The federation said the consolidation of NASA Goddard’s campus includes plans to “empty” or “displace” nearly 100 laboratories — and in some cases, “discard unique and valuable labs, equipment, and materials.” Federal News Network via Maryland Matters
MdRep 11/24 Congressfolk Seek Home Heating Funds As First Md Cold-Related Death Confirmed: Maryland lawmakers have joined more than 100 members of Congress pushing for the release of federal home heating assistance funds, just days before state health officials announced the first cold-related death of the season. The Maryland Department of Health reported Friday that a man was found dead outdoors in Frederick County of weather-related causes, the first cold-related illness death of the 2025-2026 winter weather season. Last year, the state recorded 75 such deaths over the winter, the most in five years. Maryland Matters.
MdRep 11/24 Costa Rica Says It Will Accept Abrego Garcia: A high-ranking Costa Rican official said late Friday that the country remains willing to accept the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, rebutting the Trump administration’s claims that the only possible destination for the Salvadoran immigrant is the West African nation of Liberia. WaPo
THE REGION AND THE OTHER 49
Rising layoffs in Maryland and U.S. linked to rise of artificial intelligence
Layoffs in Maryland are up nearly 30%, with about 2,000 more jobs being cut than this time last year. Nationally, this year has seen over one million layoffs — the highest amount for this time of year since the Covid-19 pandemic and the Great Recession. This year, artificial intelligence is among the top ten reasons given by employers for job cuts, alongside cost-cutting, federal cuts and economic conditions, according to the October 2025 Challenger Report, a monthly job cut announcement report published by Challenger, Gray and Christmas Inc., a business consulting firm. “We have to treat this as a transition period,” said Balaji Padmanabhan, the director of the Center for Artificial Intelligence in Business at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. “We are figuring out what AI can do.” Looking at the first three quarters of the year, job cuts are up 55% from 2024. Capital News Service
Jefferson’s University: VA governor Youngkin and his successor, Abigail Spanberger, squabble over U of VA governance and the search for new president; ousted leader chimes in with tough letter.
Housing shortage: States Advance Single-Stairway Reforms to Expand Housing New laws in Colorado, Montana, New Hampshire, and Texas modernize building codes to improve housing supply, affordability – permitting a single stairway (most states still require two) in a multifamily building cuts costs so much it is expected to boost much-needed multifamily units in these states. Pew Reports via Stateline Daily
DATA CENTERS: Proposals for data centers will be subject to state review under new rules adopted by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, the Georgia Recorder reports. The board unanimously expanded what constitutes a “development of regional impact” to explicitly include data centers. Stateline Daily
MASK BILL: New Jersey lawmakers want to ban federal and local law enforcement from wearing masks on the job, a move Democratic Gov.-elect Mikie Sherrill has said she supports, the New Jersey Monitor reports. The measure would bar any law enforcement officer who is interacting with the public from wearing a mask or disguise. Stateline Daily
PLURIBUS BY THE NUMBERS -- 33%: The share of Oregon school children who are chronically absent from school, one of the highest rates in the nation. The average among the 27 states that have posted attendance data is 21%, higher than the 15% rate before the coronavirus pandemic. (Oregonian)
GLOBAL, NATIONAL AND THE FEDS
The Chill – is gone? Reuters reports : “U.S. President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency has disbanded with eight months left to its mandate, ending an initiative launched with fanfare as a symbol of Trump's pledge to slash the government's size but which critics say delivered few measurable savings. "That doesn't exist," Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told Reuters earlier this month when asked about DOGE's status. Via Semafor
Beyond the ACA premium crisis, deeper threats: Community health centers provide care for 1 in 10 Americans, but funding cuts threaten their survival -- Many people who lack or have insufficient health insurance seek health care from a network of safety net clinics called community health centers. Even though community health centers provide care for 1 in 10 people in the U.S. – and 1 in 5 in rural areas – many people are unaware of their role in the country’s medical system. These clinics often operate on razor-thin margins and already function under continual demands to do more with less. Slated cuts to health care spending from the tax and spending bill and funding uncertainties that were driven by the shutdown threaten to destabilize them further. The Conversation
More Americans are getting their power shut off, as unpaid bills pile up
Average electricity costs have risen 11 percent since January, more than three times the rate of inflation. “For the first time, we’re behind on all of our utilities," one Ohioan said. Soaring electricity prices are triggering a wave of power shutoffs nationwide, leaving more Americans in the dark as unpaid bills pile up. Although there is no national count of electricity shutoffs, data from select utilities in 11 states show that disconnections have risen in at least eight of them since last year. WaPo
But without newspapers’ digging, how would we know about, for instance, electric shutoffs? The US government is enumerating less and less about our daily lives and tribulations, as Katherine Rampell (another refugee from the WaPo), notes in The Bulwark: “How do you eradicate hunger, STDs, illiteracy, poverty? It’s actually quite simple. You stop measuring them. The government shutdown that just concluded left the country in something of a data blackout. This has made it unusually difficult for U.S. businesses and the Federal Reserve to assess how well the economy is doing. But if you assume the reopening of the government has put an end to these challenges, think again. The real threat to our understanding of the U.S. economy, and the country’s health writ large, is … the fact that the Trump administration has been quietly snuffing out [by defunding] thousands of other data series, particularly those that might produce politically inconvenient results. “ [Those with overlong memories will recall that the Reagan administration also snuffed out crime, poverty and other ills by not counting them. It’s a venerable trick].
And here is the D.C. report from People’s Action, penned by Megan E, federal affairs director:
Hello, People's Action!
Trump had a bad week last week. His polls are in the toilet as Americans blame him for failing to keep his campaign promise and make any effort to lower costs for the American people. Trump was forced by his base and Members of his own party along with Democrats (Rep. Ro Khanna deserves a lot of credit and argues the files are about people’s frustration with the system being rigged for elites) to sign a bill forcing the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files. In an attempt to take back the narrative, on Friday Trump took a meeting with Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani and then held a jaw dropping press conference with Mamdani embracing Mamdani and his affordability agenda and brushing off attempts by the press to divide the pair. At one point, a member of the press asked Mamdani about remarks that he’d called Trump a fascist and Trump told him to just say yes. Trump often shows respect for people who have their own power and he seemingly understands that he’s in trouble on the cost of living crisis. Plus, Mamdani played to his love of New York and his interest in real estate development.
The Trump coalition seems confused as many Republicans in Congress were planning on making Mamdani the Democratic villain in the midterms and the white nationalist wing of the party using racist tropes in describing the Mayor-elect.
Also, on Friday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene announced in a video that she’s retiring from Congress in January. The announcement is surprising, though it comes after Trump called her a traitor over her work to release the Epstein files. In her video she states, "I refuse to be a 'battered wife' hoping it all goes away and gets better," and she said in her resignation statement”… If I am cast aside by Maga Inc and replaced by Neocons, Big Pharma, Big Tech, Military Industrial War Complex, foreign leaders, and the elite donor class that can't even relate to real Americans, then many common Americans have been cast aside and replaced as well." Though she has told the press she is not running for President, there is also speculation that she may run for Governor of Georgia.
Also, last week, six Members of Congress who are veterans of the military or intelligence agencies released a video, directed at the troops, saying that our laws are clear and that members of the military do not need to follow orders that violate the law or the U.S. Constitution. Trump took to Truth Social, “writing that the lawmakers should be arrested and tried for ‘seditious behavior’. In another post, he declared ‘SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!’ and reposted a message saying ‘HANG THEM, GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!’”
The Trump administration is also moving forward on its plan to dismantle the Education Department by transferring critical responsibilities to other federal agencies. Education Secretary Linda McMahon flippantly told the press she doesn’t remember what the the IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) stands for. I personally know more than one family that has had to sue their kid’s school district in order to get their kids the special education services that they need. The Federal government has stepped in when school districts have failed to ensure that millions of children are receiving the special education services that they need to successfully learn.
There’s a special Congressional election in Tennessee next week, that is a long-shot for Democrats but there is a possibility that they win. Democrat Aftyn Behn is a progressive organizer in the state legislature.
I hope that everyone gets some quality time off with friends or family this week!
In solidarity, Megan