Steve Crane

Annapolis

Editor-in-chief at Maryland Matters

Editor-in-chief, Maryland Matters (@marylandmatters); word geek; coffee, politics and JellyBelly junkie, in that order.

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Articles

Annapolis policymakers must be more class conscious

3 weeks ago | marylandmatters.org | Kalman R. Hettleman |Steve Crane

Here’s an oddity. For all that has been said about the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, there has been hardly a word about class size. The subject has not even been debated. That’s a shocker. Common sense supports lower class sizes: The fewer the students in class, the more attention teachers can pay to individual student needs. Teachers almost unanimously think “smaller classes would strongly boost student learning.”So why the omission in the Blueprint?
Banker, Blast owner Ed Hale preparing a 2026 challenge to Wes Moore

1 month ago | marylandmatters.org | Bryan P. Sears |Steve Crane

As far as Ed Hale is concerned, it’s all over but the paperwork. Hale, the current owner of the Baltimore Blast indoor soccer team and a longtime city banker and business owner, said he is committed to mounting a Democratic primary challenge in 2026 to Gov. Wes Moore (D), at the urging of friends who he said are worried about the future of the state.
Maryland leads 25 states in suit to block Trump administration efforts 'gutting' AmeriCorps

1 month ago | marylandmatters.org | Steve Crane

Maryland was one of the lead states in a coalition of 24 states and the District of Columbia that sued the Trump administration Tuesday in an effort to block its push to “dismantle” AmeriCorps, the domestic volunteer service agency.
These aid workers are still trying to get Afghan allies to safety

1 month ago | marylandmatters.org | Steve Crane

By Robert StewartSophia Wilcox’s work to bring her Afghan team to the U.S. has always been difficult. Now, the pressure is mounting even more. The Taliban is targeting Afghans who worked with the U.S., including those who worked with the University of Maryland. Neighboring countries like Pakistan and Iran are cracking down on harboring Afghan refugees. At the same time, President Donald Trump is imposing a freeze on admitting refugees to the U.S.It’s a humanitarian disaster, and the stakes are high.
Criminal record expungement, parole reform measures signed into law

1 month ago | marylandmatters.org | Steve Crane

Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed a suite of justice reform bills into law Tuesday that will make it easier for long-serving inmates to apply for parole, make age and illness a factor in parole considerations and streamline the process for people seeking to expunge their records after serving their time.
College isn’t for everyone. Good pathways to good jobs are good options

1 month ago | marylandmatters.org | Kalman R. Hettleman |Steve Crane

WARNING: This column may be hazardous to the comfort level of many readers. It’s easy to get lost in the bureaucratic weeds of the many agencies at the center of the world of Career and Technical Education (CTE), as I have in my research. Still, please give the column a try. We must struggle to understand the serious growing pains that threaten CTE’s success.
Lawmakers fear AI data centers will drive up residents’ power bills

1 month ago | marylandmatters.org | Alex Brown |Steve Crane

This is the second of two States Newsroom stories examining the implications of the growing need for electricity largely from artificial intelligence and data centers. Read the first here. For the first time in decades, America needs to produce more electricity. In many places, a sharp uptick in power demand has been driven by data centers, the industrial buildings that house huge banks of computer servers and support our increasingly digital society.
Chesterfield coming, Simonaire going, a list of our favorite things, more notes

2 months ago | marylandmatters.org | Bryan P. Sears |William Ford |Steve Crane

A five-time elected Republican state senator is calling it a career at the end of his current term. Sen. Bryan W. Simonaire (R-Anne Arundel) announced in an email Tuesday morning that he would not run for reelection in 2026. “It’s time for the next chapter in my life and I cherish the opportunity to spend more time with my growing family,” Simonaire said in a statement. Simonaire, 61, was the first Republican elected to the Senate from District 31. He succeeded Sen.
Thousands are suing states over sexual abuse in juvenile detention facilities

2 months ago | marylandmatters.org | Amanda Hernandez |Steve Crane

Avery Fauntleroy was 16 years old in 2008 when he entered the Charles H. Hickey Jr. School, a juvenile detention center in Baltimore County. What was meant to be a place of rehabilitation for him became something far worse.
Sydnor gives a history lesson, Perry Jacobson gets a geography lesson

2 months ago | marylandmatters.org | Bryan P. Sears |Steve Crane

President Donald Trump’s social media posts — with their random capitalization, inventive grammar and heavy use of exclamation points and insults — draw a lot of different reactions, but it’s a safe bet that a history lesson is not at top of the list. Much less a history lesson that invoked a Founding Father from Maryland and led to a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday. But that’s where Sen.