A federal judge has ruled that Catholic Relief Services, an international humanitarian aid organization based in Baltimore, has been discriminating against a gay employee by denying his husband health insurance.
Gov. Larry Hogan has signed off on a law that repeals Maryland’s state song because it is a “relic of the Confederacy.”
The song repeal was among 226 bills signed into law this week, and includes another which allows sports betting in Maryland.
At the ceremonial bill signing with the legislative leaders, Hogan called the state song “a relic of the Confederacy that is clearly outdated and out of touch.”
The lyrics to “Maryland, My Maryland” come from an 1861 poem by James Ryder Randall that celebrates the Confederacy. The General Assembly made it the state song in 1939, at the height of the Jim Crow era. The legislature considered many proposals to replace the state song over the last several years, but none succeeded. The bill signed by Hogan repeals the song but does not replace it.
Among the other bills Hogan highlighted in his opening remarks was the “Jordan McNair Safe and Fair Play Act.” Named for a University of Maryland football player who died of heatstroke in 2018, the bill creates new health and safety rules for student athletes. It also allows student athletes to receive compensation for the use of their name and image.
One bill signed this week extends pandemic-era rules allowing bars and restaurants to offer carry-out and delivery of alcohol. Another creates a framework for sports betting after voters opted to legalize it during the last election.
To hear more about the new laws, listen to the WYPR report.
A debate over whether to expand an anti-poverty tax measure to immigrants is breaking down along party lines in the Maryland General Assembly, with Republicans vehemently opposing the move. The bill cleared an initial vote in the Senate Wednesday, with just one Democrat voting with the Republicans.
State lawmakers heard hours of testimony Tuesday about a slate of Democratic proposals to reform policing in Maryland, in the first of three straight days of hearings on the topic. In addition to civil rights advocates, law enforcement leaders and elected officials, the state Senate Judicial Proceedings committee heard from several residents who spoke about fathers, sons and other family members killed by police in Maryland.
