That’s more like it: sunny, with low humidity and highs in the mid 80s. Same thing tomorrow.
Meeting with state lawmakers, Pete Rahn, Maryland’s Transportation Secretary, says there’s no money left for transit improvements in Baltimore after canceling the Red Line. Over $700 million in state funds saved by killing the light rail project are headed to recently-announced highway projects around the state, none of which are in Baltimore city (and less that 1% of the overall funds will be used in Baltimore county). The state will also miss out on any federal funding the Red Line would’ve received. Rahn claims that the state is still invested in new transit solutions for Baltimore, but offered few details on alternatives.
The state will recover $45 million from Noridian Healthcare Solutions, the company blamed for building Maryland’s first, totally broken, healthcare exchange website that launched in 2013. That’s about 60% of what MD paid for the project. In 2014, the state replaced the Noridian-built site for a copy of Connecticut’s system.
Three were shot in Baltimore on Tuesday. Yesterday morning, a man died after being shot in the head in the Yale Heights neighborhood of southwest Baltimore. Last night, a man and a woman were shot and wounded along York Road in north Baltimore.
At a public safety committee hearing, city council member Warren Branch called on State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby to re-open cases on three police-related deaths: Tyrone West, Anthony Anderson and Maurice Donald Johnson, citing the ongoing prosecution of six officers for the death of Freddie Gray. The previous SA, Gregg Bernstein chose not to bring charges in any of the deaths.
A trio of creative services workers announced plans to launch Black Label, a co-op for local digital freelancers. The worker-owned organization hopes to give freelancers some of the benefits of traditional employment (401k, group healthcare), and easy collaboration with other experts.