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Maryland, like many other Blue states, is feeling increasingly embattled as Trump continues his EO-fueled assault on peoples' everyday liberties and rights to free speech. Most of the Mad King's Executive Orders, being of dubious legality, are in court somewhere and may even get turned down by the conservative-ridden Supreme Court if they suddenly find their mislaid copies of the US Constitution. Maryland is currently escaping occupation along the lines of D.C., but facing a worst-case scenario from any shutdown because more attrition of federal workers appears nearly guaranteed even without such a disruption.  But in the meantime, many Blue cities ARE putting up with uniformed military presence, where "is THIS what you signed up for?" should be the welcome on everyone's lips. The troops look forbidding in their riot gear but they are us, and we shouldn't let the fear Trump is hoping for allow us to forget that. Note that Oregon is pushing back. 

Trump will be talking shutdown (or not) with Congressional bigwigs today and (more ominously) with a captive audience of high-ranking military tomorrow, as Megan E details in our Global/National/Feds section below. It's all News You Can Use

Marylanders are getting exercised about the wacky thinking tolerated in the Department of Health and Human Services by its equally wacky agency head, RFK Jr. More to come; an announcement from Trump is expected today on Kennedy's odd obsession with autism and its causes. Meanwhile, Marylanders are also getting exercised about data centers, which have the appearance of boosting employment and revenue but (as seen in Virginia, where they are numerous) also overstrain electric power resources and raise rates for residents. How to manage these companions to the AI revolution (maybe by requiring on-site clean-power facilities) is a concern nationwide.

It's fair to ask how much we in Maryland will notice if the federal government has a shutdown. How much of the federal government is left operating, after the depredations of DOGE and Trump's cabinet-level minions? And since Maryland has already taken the biggest hit from federal employees' willing or unwilling exits, how much more hassle can a shutdown bring? It looks like we are going to find out; Dems are so far holding fast on their demand that Affordable Care Act subsidies get extended and Medicaid work requirements be eased (and the Dems actually proposed an alternative bill, rather than just saying "No"!) If spines stay stiffened, we'll see which states throw in the towel first. Red states generally depend on federal funds more than Blue states. It's News You Can Use, where we don't shut up about the shutdown.

Gov. Wes Moore, doing his best to focus on the care and feeding of new housing units, no doubt keeps getting distracted by the blowback on the shooting of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk (such as bomb threats to legislative leaders). Then, too, the state highway department appears to be in trouble about accounting (or is it accountability), a chronic issue for them over the years. Nor is the state's hospital system exempt from error, with even more deadly consequences. So even while National Guard troops police the District of Columbia (veterans will recall that "police" means "pick up litter" in military parlance), the state scuffles on. We move on to our coverage of other states, where good and bad examples abound for comparison, plus our weekly report from the lair of Congress as they scuffle too, trying to decide how to avoid a government shutdown for lack of a budget and who to blame if it happens. Congress members and Senators want more of the vacation that... they just got back from. It's all News You Can Use.

Gov. Wes Moore has (without the ALL-CAPS social media posts) become the East Coast bookend to California Gov. Gavin Newsom in pushing back against the bellicose Prez. As many news outlets have noted, city leaders like DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (whose city is uniquely in the feds' grasp) have found it expedient to give Trump some room to gloat, BUT grand juries in DC and around the country are declining to indict those spuriously charged by Trump or his minions as a mode of intimidation. As also noted, states are banding together to provide what the Trump regime, as long as it lasts, is refusing to provide as the federal share, prompting edgy thoughts about even more state-level consolidation.

As our People's Action fed specialist Megan E points out below, as much as the chilling sight of uniformed soldiers patrolling the Capital's streets (or picking up trash in the parks, less chilling) troubles us, the long-range plans for health care are even more blood-freezing. This is a sneak attack that might get past most people, at least until the midterm elections are behind us. Don't let that happen.

It's News You Can Use -- meaning, most of the time, news soon enough so you can take action. Snooze, you can't use it as intended.

Sharing a state line with the occupied District of Columbia is uncomfortable enough, but (as Governor Wes Moore knows) being in an extra-inning social media duel with the King of Calumny -- who also doubles as US president -- is even tougher.

Plus the state is battling the loss of jobs and income from implementation of Project 25 and resulting paralysis of a great many reforms that Moore campaigned on.

And school has begun, with the battle to reduce absenteeism (aggravated since the Pandemic) and cope with Artificial Intelligence, a tool for both education reform and serious escalations of cheating. It's all News You Can Use, from our state, the Other 49, and the woeful federal government with separation of powers in the authoritarian blender becoming a not-so-smoothie. And our guide to the feds, Megan E from People's Action, is back with a rundown on how an occupied, uniform-riddled Washington DC feels. Read on.

Sparring between Governor Wes Moore and President Trump got friskier this week as Moore made a Sunday TV appearance and Trump threatened to cancel plans to repair the Key Bridge. Just another day at the office. When he's not canceling nearly-completed offshore wind projects (plus our just-starting one off OC) he's OKing guns for the long-suffering National Guard members walking around DC monuments. In the meantime ICE agents are imagining deportable folks on every street corner, showing that AI hallucinates less than they do. The battle over deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia continues -- he was detained during a mandatory ICE check-in in Baltimore, even though accompanied by hundreds of supporters. But that's just Monday morning. The legal process is grinding and Tuesday's news may be altogether different. It's News You Can Use, for the moment and the week. 

One of Maryland's intractable problems -- the shortage of affordable housing and the (therefore) increasing rental hikes across the state -- got tackled by Gov. Moore in his keynote speech at the Maryland Association of Counties meeting last week. It'll be a heavy lift for the state government and private sources to provide more "social housing" but that is emphatically what is needed, and our regular readers should not let him or others off the hook. The private sector is not going to pull this load by itself -- it is not actually in its interest.

Maryland (with the help of its judiciary, which Trump has come to hate) is fending off some of the worst of Trump's assault on human freedoms -- but it's a constant battle, also being fought by some other states.

It's all News You Can Use.

As we rouse ourselves this week we find that we are not alone in suffering under escalating power bills -- and that there seems to be a pattern in the ways mega-corporate power companies keep their ratepayers struggling. Their fellow big tech corporations' data centers, however, get kid-gloves treatment by utilities and by the job-hungry states where they might land.

Meanwhile, Maryland's well-intentioned tax break attempting to get every school kid in appropriate clothes and with needed supplies may have a downside. But just a temporary one, like the tax break. More serious would be the permanent loss of the Beltsville Agricultural Research center as a result of another brainless reorganization-for-its-own-sake move by the Trump gang, all chosen to be as brainless (and compliant to the Big Boss) as his own self. Those with a brain are rallying to keep it here.

Meanwhile, another episode of brainlessness, Trump has taken over law enforcement in DC, his latest attempt to distract attention from the Epstein Mystery. Even with Congress on vacation, it's News You Can Use.

Dear Friend, 

We have a short memo today we we'll get right to the point – Trump’s latest actions in Washington, D.C., are a chilling escalation of his authoritarian agenda. Deploying the National Guard and federal law enforcement under the guise of addressing ‘crime’ is a direct attack on immigrants, unhoused individuals, and those exercising their right to protest. This is a full-on assault on DC residents, businesses, communities, and a violation of its fundamental rights as a city to govern and run itself. Read our full statement on this dangerous overreach and what we’re calling on Congress to do. Let’s stand together to protect our communities and our democracy.

In some better news – yesterday, we were proud to be part of the Renters United Maryland Housing Justice Summit, a powerful and transformative gathering where renters and advocates from across Maryland came together to set the housing agenda for 2026. The energy in the room was inspiring, and the vision we built together will help drive real change for communities across the state.

Read on for more updates and ways to get involved.

In solidarity,

The Progressive Maryland Team

People in the DC suburbs  -- northern Prince George's, specifically -- are breathing a sigh of relief because a pretty unnecessary but locally disruptive sorta-rail pilot project has had its federal funds pulled. It would have meant a VERY expensive 15-minute ride from DC to Baltimore at a construction price ticket of $20 billion; in the sweet buy and buy a one-hour trip DC-NYC for a sum (and a ticket price) one can only imagine. Gov. Moore was a "magnetic levitation" fan, having seen such a wonder in everyday use in Japan, where they know how to do this stuff. Perhaps some improvements to the existing Amtrak right-of-way to NYC and Boston would allow Amtrak's trains to go as fast as they are actually able to. That would be a start.

Also in Maryland: superhot weather, superthunderstorms and flooding (and don't swim in that water); the state's plan to hire laid-off federal workers is crosswise with a state hiring freeze and buyout offers; the race to build solar renewable power while extremely dirty backup generator plants have to be turned on in the hottest of high-demand weather. 

Maryland, like many states, avoiding losing population because of immigration, but the fastest-growing states are in a battle to redistrict House seats to improve their chances in 2026. It is more exciting than baseball (some consider that a low bar).

And speaking of Congress, they have gone home exasperated, having been blocked from mass-appointing Trump Chumps to the federal bench. GOP warriors aim to change the Senate rules to make those appointments debate-free; that sword cuts two ways, election to election, so stay tuned. 

It's News You Can Use, as always. 

TrumpWorld has more and more ways of poking at our sore spots in pursuit of retribution for his imagined insults and injustices: refusal to provide disaster aid to flooded Western MD communities; grasping attacks from public and private right-wing minions on states' lists of registered voters; hyper-aggressive ICE tactics right here in Maryland; two years and out for the housing-threatened; cuts in workplace safety and wage theft enforcement. Whew And EPA is working on a plan to pretend carbon dioxide has no effect on our climate (ask flood victims in Westernport). Plus, as you will see, everyday people in working families pushing back. The beat goes on, and so does the weekly News You Can Use...