Maryland Spent $450 Million. Churchill Downs Bought the Crown Jewel. Moore Wasn’t Invited.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews This Saturday, as the 152nd Kentucky Derby runs at Churchill Downs, Democratic governors...
Month: April 2026
Maryland Supreme Court Dismantles Montgomery County’s Gun Carry Ban, Citing Burden on Statewide Travel
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — The Supreme Court of Maryland issued a sweeping but carefully drawn ruling...
Maryland Ranks Among the Most Expensive States for Groceries — And a New Law Probably Won’t Fix That
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland families already know what the data confirm: buying groceries here costs more than...
High Court’s VRA Ruling Exposes Maryland’s Racial Gerrymander — and Democrats’ Hubris
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A landmark Supreme Court ruling handed down Wednesday could reshape Maryland's political...
Maryland’s Officials Keep Jet-Setting Abroad. Where Are the Results?
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland taxpayers have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars bankrolling international...
NFL Draft Coming to the National Mall — A Win for DC’s Suburbs, Another Missed Moment for Baltimore
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Washington, D.C., is set to host the 2027 NFL Draft on the National Mall, with the event...
Congress Demands D.C. Crime Data Records — And Maryland Should Be Asking the Same Questions
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is demanding records from the...
Eight Weeks, Three Candidates, One Question: Who Can Actually Challenge Wes Moore?
The Maryland Republican primary for governor is June 23. Hale, Cox, and Myrick are competing for the nomination — but in...
Maryland Prisons Hit a Decade High in Homicides. The State Just Moved 700 More Inmates In.
Inmate killings surged 75 percent last year — the worst in ten years. The Moore administration's response was to close a...
Where Do You Host a Dinner That Someone Just Tried to Kill the President At?
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Nobody who attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday night expected to...
They Knew — And Didn’t: The Warning That Came Too Late, and the Sister Who Was Already in Maryland
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews WASHINGTON — Cole Tomas Allen sent his family a manifesto minutes before he charged a...
The Dinner Was Over When the Perimeter Broke: A Security Autopsy of the WHCD Shooting
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews WASHINGTON — At approximately 8:40 p.m. Saturday, a gunman was confronted by security...
LaPin Challenges Ferguson to Debate, Discovers Instagram Is Now a Policy Venue
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Baltimore, MD — In what may be the most on-brand political moment of 2026, District 46...
Maryland Paid the Lobbyists Who Wrote the Law That Could Cost Maryland Millions
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland is staring down a $1.4 billion structural deficit. It's cutting $150 million from...
The $150 They’re Bragging About May Be Built on Fraud
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Every month, quietly tucked into your utility bill, there's a charge you probably didn't...
Maryland’s Cyber Problem Is Bigger Than One Offline Database
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland's official property records database has been offline for ten days following a...
They Came for the Watchdog
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming made a mistake last weekend. She shared...
Maryland Refused to Act When the Potomac Was Drowning in Sewage. Now It Wants to Sue.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews When 240 million gallons of raw sewage began pouring into the Potomac River on January 19,...
MARYLAND’S PORTS FEEL THE SHOCK OF A DISTANT WAR — AND RELIEF ISN’T COMING SOON
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews The Strait of Hormuz is roughly 7,000 miles from the Port of Baltimore. But the economic...
Maryland’s Water Is Running Out. Virginia’s Data Centers Are Part of Why.
The Potomac hasn't been this low in recorded history. Millions of Marylanders depend on it. And a sprawling industry...
Maryland Owns the Racetrack. Churchill Downs Owns the Race.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews — Maryland on the Map, Part 7 On Monday, Governor Wes Moore announced that Maryland had...
Who Governs Maryland?
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — Every year, for 90 days, Maryland's General Assembly convenes, passes several...
Hangar Deal: Construction Firm with Airpark Lease Has Donated $11,000 to the Luedtkes While Expansion Bypassed Council Review
W.M. Rickman Construction holds a 'Through the Fence' agreement at KGAI. State campaign finance records show six straight...
Where Is June? Sources Say Trone’s Marriage Is Over — and a New Jersey Widow Has Emerged as His Companion
David Trone has built his congressional brand on his family. Since re-entering the MD-6 race in December 2025, his wife and...
Wes Moore’s Missing Year
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — Wes Moore has had a busy year. In the spring of 2025, he delivered a...
Maryland Was Building a World-Class Racetrack. Nobody Was Checking Who Worked There.
A broken fingerprinting machine went unreplaced for seven years. In the meantime, Maryland's Division of Racing issued...
Moore raised $7 million — but that may be the smallest number in the story
A line-by-line review of Maryland’s campaign finance database shows a sophisticated, nationally connected fundraising...
Ferguson’s Chamber, Ferguson’s Rules
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — At 11:59 p.m. on April 13, as the Maryland General Assembly's 2026 session...
In Park Heights, the Preakness Has Always Been Nearby. The Question Is Whether It’s Ever Been For Them.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews — Maryland on the Map, Part 5 On race day, the bow-tied fans arrive. They fill the...
Trone Spending Machine: The Billionaire’s Bid to Buy His Way Back to Congress
Federal filings show David Trone has pumped more than $15 million of his own money into his 2026 House race — and is...
The Signing Ceremony State
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — There is a version of Maryland governance that lives in press releases and...
Maryland’s Raskin Leads 25th Amendment Push — But His Own Record Undermines the Case
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Rep. Jamie Raskin introduced legislation this week to establish a congressional commission...
The Supermajority’s Session: One Party, No Brakes
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland's 2026 legislative session ended Monday with sine die adjournment, closing a...
POLL WARFARE: Two Rich Democrats Fight Over a District Nobody Asked Them to Represent
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Data Desk Welcome to Maryland's 6th Congressional District, where the mountains meet the...
If the Preakness Bet Fails, What’s Maryland’s Plan B?
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews — Maryland on the Map, Part 4 Maryland does not have a Plan B. That is not an accusation....
The 50 Most Controversial Bills of the 2026 Maryland General Assembly: #10–1
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews — SPECIAL SERIES: 2026 Maryland General Assembly Scorecard — Part 3 of 3 | The Top 10...
Moore’s Victory Lap Can’t Outrun Maryland’s Fiscal Reality
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — Governor Wes Moore emerged from the 2026 Maryland General Assembly session...
Maryland Senate Unanimously Passes Kanaiyah’s Law on Final Day of Session
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Senate voted unanimously on Monday to pass House Bill 980, known...
What $400 Million Bought: Mapping the Prestige Gap Between the Masters, the Derby, and the Preakness
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews | Maryland on the Map, Part 3 The numbers are not flattering, and they are worth sitting...
The 50 Most Controversial Bills of the 2026 Maryland General Assembly: #25–11
SPECIAL SERIES: 2026 Maryland General Assembly Scorecard — Part 2 of 3 By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews From the...