By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
“There’s wide, bipartisan consensus on the importance of the Chesapeake Bay to our state’s culture, history and economy. We all see the importance of menhaden in that ecosystem.” - Del. Dylan Behler (D-Anne Arundel), on a bipartisan letter asking for new restrictions on the harvesting of menhaden, a fish at the base of the bay’s food chain whose struggles are affecting other fish and birds in the bay.
Campaigns are kicking into high gear, Maryland lawmakers are going to bat for a little fish and, as if that’s not a strange enough mix, we get to write about Parliament Funkadelic’s George Clinton in what we are certain is a first for Maryland Matters. Welcome to the weekend.
The little fish is the menhaden, a food source for many other species in the Chesapeake Bay. Its plummeting numbers are now threatening the ecosystem. A bipartisan group of Maryland lawmakers is calling for new restrictions on menhaden harvesting, likely setting up a clash with Virginia where menhaden are an important economic fish. Christine Condon has that story.
With a month until the election, President Donald Trump has launched a monthlong campaign tour of red states that should be safe for the GOP. But Trump appears to be out to energize the base, not win blue state converts, in what is shaping up to be a rough election for the GOP, as Jacob Fischler reports.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th), meanwhile, is calling Trump out over taxpayer-funded ads. And in political notes, we revisit Eric Carpenter-Grantham a year after passage of the “Eric’s ID Law,” which has drawn thousands of supporters — including George Clinton and Faith Evans. Those stories and a roundup of headlines from the past week are below for your weekend reading. Enjoy!
A menhaden pulled from the Chesapeake Bay in the area of Jordan Point Marina. (Photo by Charlie Paullin/Virginia Mercury)
By Christine Condon
A bipartisan group of Maryland legislators is pushing for fishery managers to institute further restrictions on the harvest of Atlantic menhaden, a small fish that sits at the base of the Chesapeake Bay food chain.
In their letter, the 29 Maryland senators and delegates endorsed a suite of policies that would set new rules for harvesting the silvery forage fish, a key food group for species including striped bass and osprey.
The policies would limit the Chesapeake Bay harvest of menhaden to 13.6% of the total coastwide cap. They would also establish three even-length fishing periods to spread out the catch, and require that fishery managers at the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission reevaluate the menhaden regulations every three years. In their letter, the lawmakers cited worrying signs about the bay’s menhaden population, and possible impacts to other species that call the estuary home.
President Donald Trump addresses the crowd during a midterm election campaign rally Thursday at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant, Oklahoma, the first stop in a monthlong campaign tour of red states. (Photo by Jessica Tobias/For Oklahoma Voice)
By Jacob Fischler
President Donald Trump kicked off a month-long blitz of campaign stops with a Thursday rally in deep-red Oklahoma before heading to other states with strong Republican leanings.
The first events in the closing stretch of the midterm election campaign suggest his strength with swing voters is limited, as even some Republican candidates seek distance, political analysts said. Trump’s low approval ratings amid growing consumer costs, spiraling gas prices and an unpopular war in Iran have put U.S. Senate races in typically GOP-leaning states like Alaska and Iowa in play.
After the Oklahoma rally, the president will travel to Alabama and Ohio through the weekend. On Monday, he will be in Nebraska. He has vowed he would make another stop in Texas soon as part of 32 days of travel before the Nov. 3 elections that will determine control of Congress. Vice President JD Vance also rallied voters in Texas on Wednesday before a planned event in Florida on Thursday.
IN OTHER NEWS
Raskin calls out Trump over tax-funded ads: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-8th) is calling for a federal investigation of taxpayer-funded television spots that heavily promote President Donald Trump, which are airing just weeks before the midterm elections.
Curtis Bay Energy to shut down: State officials hailed news that the troubled Curtis Bay Energy facility will stop burning medical waste at its South Baltimore site in order to settle a state lawsuit charging the company with repeated air pollution violations.
Job creation anemic in September: Jobs across the United States rose by 29,000 in September, a disappointing result as recent growth was also revised down in Friday’s monthly jobs report, the last one before midterm elections.
Political notes: "Eric's ID Law" is popular, but you've arrived when Faith Evans and P-Funk's George Clinton are in your corner, Gov. Wes Moore names enough judges to form a softball team and Montgomery County fills a police advisory panel, in political notes.
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Feds sue over mask ban: The Trump administration wasted no time challenging Maryland's new law that prohibits masks on police, suing the state the same day the law took effect. It also sued Montgomery and Prince George's counties over similar laws.
Youth sentencing win: It took more than a decade to get this far, but lawmakers and advocates who gathered Thursday at the Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center to celebrate the new youth sentencing act were reminded that they are not finished yet.
Help for housing: Gov. Wes Moore continued a statewide push against administrative barriers to new housing development, signing executive orders to identify administrative bottlenecks that delay project permit approvals and to speed construction of those units.
PJM plan not AOK: Leaders in the states overseen by regional power grid operator PJM Interconnection have long called for a greater voice in grid decision-making, but governance reforms advanced this week by PJM left advocates feeling disappointed.
THE WEEK IN REVIEW
Thanks for reading Maryland Matters Memo. Did you know our daily morning newsletter is also free? Sign up here. And if you enjoyed today’s edition, please forward to a friend. Increasing our readership helps us cover more news.