“The 16-year-old who committed this crime, he’s going to live his life, he’s being charged as an adult, he’s going to be going through the judicial process as an adult,” Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler said Monday in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. “He made a very adult decision, he should be allowed to make this decision to talk to the police, in my opinion.”

On Saturday, Jaylen Rushawn Prince, 16, of Edgewood was charged and arrested in the shooting death of 15-year-old Warren Curtis Grant during an altercation in a first-floor bathroom at Joppatowne High School on Friday.

Police are still searching for the weapon, with Gahler pointing to the Maryland Child Interrogation Protection Act as the reason for the missing firearm.

“I hope my frustration is clear that the legislature has handcuffed police,” he said at a news conference Friday. “There are families … and the parents of the shooter, who have a right to know why we stand here today why we all stand here today and why there’s a person who has been shot in one of our schools, and we are not allowed to ask the person who committed that act because of this crazy legislature we have in this state.”

The Child Interrogation Protection Act, passed in 2022, mandates that law enforcement immediately alert a child’s parent or guardian when they are taken into custody and provide minors with the opportunity to speak with an attorney who uses age-appropriate terms to explain their civil rights before they are interrogated.

If police willfully do not follow the parameters of the law, any statement made by the child in question would be inadmissible in court.

In a January opinion, Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said the Child Interrogation Protection Act was constitutional.

There were several failed attempts — largely on the part of Republican lawmakers — to reform the policy during the 2024 legislative session.

Among the cohort of Maryland Republicans who have consistently opposed the law in the past, Del. Kathy Szeliga, a Baltimore County Republican who used to represent Joppatowne in the State House, said Gahler’s frustrations are warranted. Even though the suspect is in custody, the missing weapon “is extremely troubling,” Szeliga said.

“This is a very family friendly community — lots of kids around. You just would hate for this gun to fall into the hands of a child or a criminal,” Szeliga said. “This is a perfect example of bad policy having unintended consequences.”

Szeliga said she’s hoping law enforcement officials who have lobbied in the past to repeal the interrogation law will do so again during the annual 90-day session that will begin Jan. 8 in Annapolis.

The Child Interrogation Protection Act does not prohibit law enforcement from speaking with children during the fact-finding phase of an investigation — only if the child is taken into police custody.

An investigation by The Baltimore Sun last September found that, of 77 juvenile arrests made by Baltimore police in July 2023, only one child called the Maryland Office of the Public Defender’s 24/7 Youth Access to Counsel Hotline.

By legal precedent, minors do not have the ability to waive their right to a lawyer or their right to remain silent.

David Jaros, a law professor and faculty director of the University of Baltimore School of Law’s Center for Criminal Justice Reform, said that the state law may make it more difficult for police to “persuade or inadvertently waive” constitutional rights, but nothing stops minors from talking to police after they speak with their attorney.

“All this requires is that the juvenile make an informed decision about invoking or waiving constitutional rights,” Jaros said. “Our system is built on the belief that we can have effective law enforcement and respect fundamental constitutional rights, and the right to remain silent is an essential part of the protections of the constitution.”

Gahler said he needed to consult with his detectives regarding the number of instances in which children waive or invoke their rights to remain silent, but offered that “there’s no attorney” who will tell their client to speak with the police, “and, in this instance, we have a gun that remains on the street.”

He also was unaware whether the child charged in last week’s shooting invoked his right to remain silent, because officers had “sufficient information” to charge him without interrogation.

“The big question in everyone’s mind — and I’m sure in the parents’ minds, the students who will be going back to school later this week — is where is the gun?” Gahler said. “We know we have the violator in custody, but we don’t want this weapon out there. It could be used in another crime. We searched for it. It could have been dropped. It could have been passed. But until we recover that, I won’t feel comfortable.”

State Senate Judiciary Committee Vice Chair Jeff Waldstreicher, a Montgomery County Democrat, said the law should be revisited to make sure it’s serving its proper purpose, but that there is a public safety exception in the law that allows police to interrogate children if they are seeking information to protect against a public safety threat.

“How do I know? Because I’m the one who authored the public safety exception and included it in the law,” he said Monday.

The public safety exception follows the 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case New York v. Quarles, which ruled that there is an exception to the requirement that officers issue Miranda Rights warnings to people suspected of crime in the interest of public safety.

Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, a Democrat who has testified against the Child Interrogation Protection Act before the General Assembly, said the Supreme Court case is “fine and good” regarding constitutional standards, but Maryland’s Child Interrogation Protection Act “overrides constitutional rights because it’s more strict.”

He said he “would love” if Waldstreicher were able to incorporate a clearer public safety standard into a revised law, but, “at the moment, that’s not the way that’s being read.”

“The statute’s clear as a bell. The public defender says to the police, ‘Don’t talk to my client’ — that’s the end of it,” Shellenberger said. “Clearly, this case where a gun is in public missing is the most concerning example of what we’re worried about.”

Baltimore Sun reporter Sam Janesch contributed to this article. 

Michelle Corkadel, the president of the Maryland Association of Boards of Education, said research indicates that students who are held back experience adverse impacts on their academic self-concept, self-confidence, pleasure in learning, motivation, behavior and interpersonal relationships. She expressed concern that parents would not understand the long-term consequences of retention, and would be unable to make informed decisions about their children’s education path.

Additionally, Corkadel said that retained students are more likely to be suspended in subsequent academic years, and their risk of dropping out nearly doubles.

She also implored the board to consider school budgets, which are already tight and could be further strained by the costs of professional development, extended school programs and logistical adjustments for increased retention.

“For many school systems, the current budgets do not have the ability to absorb these new expenses without cutting other vital programs,” Corkadel said. “Without additional funding, many school systems may find it difficult to sustain the level of support and training required by this policy, potentially compromising its effectiveness and the overall quality of education.”

Riya Gupta, the incoming interim executive director of Strong Schools Maryland, said that marginalized students, particularly those from low-income households, multilingual students and students of color, are disproportionately retained.

She suggested, instead, that the board prioritize early intervention policies before students reach grade three, as well as family engagement.

“Family engagement requires more than informing or involving them in meetings,” Gupta said. “It involves proactively equipping them with community resources, like public libraries, knowledge and support they need to actively participate in their child’s literacy development … especially those from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.”

State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright proposed the policy, which would also provide additional support for struggling readers in kindergarten through third grade, in July. Mandated grade retention was a feature of Wright’s success in raising Mississippi’s low reading scores during her time as the state’s superintendent.

The proposal includes exemptions for some students with disabilities, those with less than two years of instruction in an English language development program, and any who have been held back in earlier grades and received intensive reading intervention for two or more years but still show a reading deficiency.

Leslie Seid Margolis, an attorney for Disability Rights Maryland, said that the exemption policy for students with disabilities “fails” to take students’ individual circumstances into account and “makes assumptions about them based on their disabilities.”

“At a time when expectations for students are rising, expectations for students with disabilities should not be lowered,” she said.

Students would not repeat the third grade more than twice, and a provision has been added to the proposal that would allow parents to opt out of having their child repeat the third grade. Those parents would commit to ensuring their child receives additional support through summer school, tutoring before or after school, or additional support outside school hours.

Maryland State Education Association President Paul Lemle said he has “serious concerns” about the ability of parents to waive retention, saying that it may be overused by affluent families, in turn “widening opportunity gaps.”

The board could vote to approve the policy as soon as September. If approved, the third grade retention policy would take effect during the 2026-’27 school year.

“This is a great day for Maryland and for common-sense gun safety,” Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat, said in a statement Friday. “We must ensure guns stay out of the hands of those who are not allowed, under our laws, to carry them.”

The 14-2 decision from the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals rejected the notion in the case Maryland Shall Issue v. Wes Moore that requiring residents to apply for and obtain a handgun license violates the Second Amendment.

The lawsuit was initially filed against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, in 2017. It challenged a 2013 law signed by former Gov. Martin O’Malley that requires people to submit fingerprints, undergo a background check and complete a training course before they can purchase a handgun.

It is also illegal to sell, rent, gift or transfer a firearm to a person without a license under that law.

Last November, a three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled this provision of the law unconstitutional in a split 2-1 decision. Friday’s ruling overturns that decision.

To receive a handgun qualification license, applicants must be Maryland residents aged 21 or older. They are required to pass a firearm safety course and undergo a background check to ensure they aren’t prohibited from owning a gun under state or federal law. The licenses are issued by the Maryland State Police. They must also not be prohibited under state or federal law from gun ownership.

The application review process can take up to 30 days.

In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen that a New York law that required people applying for permits to carry guns in public to demonstrate “proper cause” to successfully receive a concealed carry permit was unconstitutional. This also disrupted the licensing process in Maryland, California, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Under that decision, the Supreme Court ruled that gun laws must be analogous to those that were in place during the founding of the United States.

U.S. Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, who wrote Friday’s opinion, said that Maryland’s licensing law is constitutional because it operates to ensure that people seeking to purchase firearms are law-abiding.

Mark Pennak of Maryland Shall Issue said the organization plans to file a petition to have the decision reviewed.

“The Fourth Circuit today rejected our constitutional challenge to Maryland’s Handgun Qualification License requirement, holding that the law did not even infringe on the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” Maryland Shall Issue wrote in a statement posted to X. “We believe that holding is contrary to controlling Supreme Court precedent and is plainly wrong as a matter of common sense. The majority opinion is, in the words of the dissent, ‘baseless.'”

“The Office of the Attorney General is extending outreach to the Muslim community across Maryland as it launches a search to fill the now-vacated seat,” Jennifer Donelan, a spokesperson for Brown, said in a statement Monday. “It is critical that Commission membership reflects those communities that have been most impacted by hate activity in Maryland. We look forward to their contribution to this important work in our State.”

Middle Eastern Forum Action, a grassroots advocacy organization, called for Brown, a Democrat, to remove Ayman Nassar, a representative of the advocacy groups the Islamic Leadership Institute and the Aafia Foundation, from the commission, alleging in an automatic email petition that Nassar has made “antisemitic,” “anti-American” and “anti-gay” comments on social media, and is pro-Hamas, which is currently at war with Israel.

Benjamin Baird, the director of Middle East Forum Action, said in a statement that Brown, who announced Nassar’s appointment on July 31, owes Marylanders an explanation for his choice to have Nassar on the commission.

“To accept Nassar’s resignation without acknowledging the hateful ideology that precipitated his exit is evasive and disingenuous,” he said. “If Maryland truly stands against hatred in all of its forms, then our public officials must call out bigotry and extremism when they see it.”

According to the Georgetown University Bridge Initiative, a multiyear research project on Islamophobia, Middle East Forum is a a right-wing, anti-Islam think tank.

A request for comment from Nassar was not immediately returned.

The Commission on Hate Crime Response and Prevention was created under 2023 legislation in an effort to strategize how to respond to and prevent hate crimes and study related laws. The commission is largely made up of members of faith-based, civil rights and state-run organizations designated in the law, including the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights and the Maryland State’s Attorneys’ Association.

Nassar is a former member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.

“Last year, @OAGMaryland appointed an antisemite to sit on the Commission on Hate Crimes. Lawmakers fired the entire commission just to get rid of 1 bad apple,” Middle Eastern Forum Action posted on X on Thursday. “Absurdly, the AG just hired a pro-Hamas extremist to replace her!”

Zainab Chaudry, the executive director of the Maryland chapter of CAIR, was suspended from the hate crimes commission in November following a series of social media posts published on a personal account that criticized Israel and rallied support for Palestine. She told The Baltimore Sun last year that she was exercising her right to free speech, and that the posts reflected only her personal views — not those of CAIR.

In an interview with The Sun on Monday afternoon, Chaudry said that, during her tenure, no other commissioner spoke up to acknowledge the humanity of Palestinians and the “crimes against humanity, according to international law,” being committed in Gaza.

Chaudry was later reinstated on the commission by Brown, who determined he did not have the authority to remove or suspend members.

Legislation was passed in 2024 to remove Chaudry from the commission.

That bill amended the 2023 legislation to remove all specifically designated organizations not run by the state, including the Women’s Law Center, Free State Justice, the Jewish Community Relations Council and the NAACP. Instead, the commission now comprises 22 members, including 15 who represent or advocate for members of a protected class under Maryland’s hate crimes statute as appointed by the attorney general.

Under Maryland law, a person is a protected class based on immutable traits surrounding their race, color, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, disability, national origin or housing status.

Chaudry said that Brown’s office should be making the decision on appointments based on merit — “not on which drums are beating the loudest.”

“It sends a very troubling message on what the priorities and what the scope of the hate crimes commission is,” she said.

“The Blueprint conversation is just one of many difficult discussions that we will have over the next 12 months,” Moore said Saturday during his closing speech at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference in Ocean City. “But in Maryland, we do not shy away from difficult — we lean into it and we get big things done together.”

As Maryland heads into murky fiscal waters, Moore said that “everything is on the table” regarding financial adjustments, but committed to prioritizing funneling dollars toward health care, child care services and education.

However, Moore has been on record as saying his threshold for raising taxes is extremely high. He has yet to indicate under what circumstances he may be moved to implement any increases.

The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a multibillion-dollar education reform plan poised to be enacted over the better part of a decade, was passed in the early days of the pandemic in 2020. Moore said early discussions for the reform policy began in September 2016.

He testified in favor of the policy during a joint hearing between Maryland’s House and Senate in 2020.

Moore noted that many prolific laws are amended over time to keep pace with “the reality on the ground,” pointing to the legislation that established Social Security, which was amended more than 12 times, and Maryland’s state constitution, which has had more than 200 amendments.

“It is a prerequisite to make sure that every single one of our children — no matter where they are born, no matter who they are born to, no matter what neighborhood they call home — that they have a chance to achieve every single God-given dream that they have,” Moore said. “And that is why I am fully committed to implementing the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future and making sure we can see that promise come to fruition.”

The Moore administration has braced itself for the state’s forthcoming deficit.

Last month, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved over $148 million in cuts to the active budget. Those decreases account for only 2% of the state’s $63 billion budget for fiscal year 2025.

Earlier this week, Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat representing South Baltimore, said he does not foresee any further large budget cuts ahead of the legislative session in January.

In preparation for the upcoming session’s budget season, the governor said Saturday that his administration will begin requiring state agencies to submit data and “evidence” along with their budget proposals to demonstrate why increases or adjustments are necessary.

“This administration doesn’t move on blind hope. We don’t do blind hope,” Moore said. “We move on data.”

“We’re on our way to get that legislation passed,” said Cardin, a Democrat, during a town hall at the Ocean City conference. “We’re on our way to get the funding necessary.”

The Key Bridge was struck by the cargo ship Dali and collapsed in the early morning hours of March 26, killing six construction workers. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, visited Baltimore days later, promising that his administration would fully fund the construction of a replacement bridge.

To date, legislation to approve that funding has not passed in Congress.

Cardin reaffirmed Thursday that the Biden administration is committed to covering the full cost through the federal highway fund and that Maryland is ready to move forward with contracts to begin replacing the bridge and avoid further financial damage.

According to Cardin, the Senate cleared the hurdle in getting committees to sign off on providing 100% federal funding before Congress recessed for August.

“Maryland has already incurred tremendous losses from the point of view of delays getting trucks to their destinations because of detours they have to take,” he said. “The loss of revenues going through the toll facilities in our state has had a major impact on our state revenues.”

Cardin reiterated that the bill still needs to be passed, and that work must be done to appropriate funding for the project over the next four to five years — about the same amount of time he said it should take to rebuild the bridge.

He said the state is looking at “one consolidated contract” rather than multiple smaller contracts to complete the project, which should streamline the rebuilding process.

“We’ll get the bridge done — we hope — better than four years, which would be a pretty good record to get it completed within that time frame,” said Cardin.

Since Key Bridge collapse, several ships have experienced trouble in Maryland waters

Cardin is Maryland’s senior senator and the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Because he has opted not to seek re-election, Friday marked the last of his annual summer conference addresses as an elected official.

The moment was not lost on conference attendees.

Pointing to the work he did to replenish Ocean City’s beaches, Mayor Rick Meehan gave Cardin a key to the city, noting that his efforts have allowed residents and business owners to opt out of purchasing flood insurance for oceanside properties.

“That’s just one example of the many things the senator has done for us,” said Meehan, a Republican.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in an interview that he “looks forward” to continuing Cardin’s leadership style of “bringing people together” when he becomes the senior senator at the start of the new term.

“Let me just say what a joy it’s been to work with Senator Cardin,” said Van Hollen. “We’ve been great partners.”

Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, a Democrat, is running against former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican to replace Cardin.

But Cardin’s work isn’t through.

“First of all, I am still alive for those of you that are wondering,” he said, “and we still have about four-and-a-half months left of this term of Congress, so we still have a lot of things we’ve got to get done.”

“I think there’s going to be serious, active budget management to make sure that every dollar that goes out is being spent well,” Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, said. “We have places where there were a few additional costs that were unexpected, and revenue is a little lower than anticipated, and so we have to live within our means.”

Last month, the Maryland Board of Public Works approved $148.3 million in cuts to the $63 billion budget that went into effect July 1, declaring it a measure to increase spending for child care and health programming, like Medicaid.

The decreases represent just 0.2% of the budget for fiscal year 2025.

Ferguson said that, combined with some declined revenue sources, “increased costs and utilization” of the child care tax credit and Medicaid have made “a big impact” on the budget.

“It is very clear that we are going to have some tough decisions to make, but I think it’s too early to make, sort of, projections about what the approach will be until we have more data,” he said, noting that there is no plan to “radically” shift priorities away from things like the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future and other education initiatives.

Republicans are not keen on the scope of the cuts.

“They really didn’t cut anything,” House Minority Leader Jason Buckel, a Republican representative of Allegany County, said in a phone interview, asserting that they only reappropriated funding from certain line items to others.

“I think the biggest question is, ‘Where does it leave us?’” Buckel, also in town for the Maryland Association of Counties conference, said.

Ferguson said he foresees a sales tax decline, but is waiting to see whether income taxes decline to determine where the state’s financial chips will fall.

But he also said that making cuts for expanded child care and Medicaid access are “fundamental priorities” — not budget mismanagement.

“It just means that it costs more, and that money has to come from somewhere so we have to — anywhere where there’s additional discretionary spending or new programs that haven’t been launched yet — I think it makes sense that we’re going to have to make some tough cuts and some tough choices, but that’s just governance, and I don’t think there’s anything draconian or I don’t think it’s going to be severe,” he said.

As for an increase in taxes in 2025, Ferguson said the bar is still high. But there could be a slowdown for Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s priorities, like the Blueprint and Baltimore’s Red Line East-West transportation project.

Still, Ferguson says the timeline changes that may be observed likely won’t be “radical,” but there are likely shifts to be made.

“When you pass something five years prior, it only makes sense to actively look at it and make sure you’re getting the results that are anticipated, and so we should be doing that in every category — in education, in climate, in health care,” he said. “And so, I wouldn’t foreclose any changes. I think we will invest and make sure we are investing for young people and families — that will be the key.”

Regarding the Red Line, Ferguson said there is “no planned money for construction,” and conversations about the state’s ability to invest need to be had.

Buckel told The Baltimore Sun that, while at the Ocean City conference, he has heard representatives of the Maryland Department of Transportation tell local officials from across the state that they can’t afford their priority projects.

“I’m not against the Red Line just to be against it,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem realistic.”

HUD had also cleared the city to reapply for $6 million of the forfeited $10 million, though the city has not yet seen those funds returned.

The report cited shifts in leadership, a lack of standard operating procedures, infrequent drawdowns of federally approved funds, unverifiable expenses and grant costs paid outside of contracted periods as the cause.

“Over the past several months, we have worked closely with HUD alongside our internal teams to improve our policies, procedures and practices. Please see below for additional updates as it relates to the investigation,” Ernestina Simmons, director of the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services, said in a letter to Cumming.

In July 2023, Cumming received a complaint alleging that the city had to return more than $10 million in Continuum of Care grant funding provided to the Mayor’s Office of Homeless Services by HUD because of delayed fund drawdowns and software issues.

Over 50 employees departed the Office of Homeless Services between 2021 and 2023, with witnesses in the report stating that a lack of historical knowledge of operations was passed down in the interim.

Additionally, the Office of Homeless Services was to return $501,684 due to infrequent drawdowns and ineligible expenses as reported by HUD.

The Office of Homeless Services receives federal funding through HUD, which it makes available to nonprofits that apply for program funding. Each nonprofit recipient enters into a contract with the city, which sets guidelines and restrictions for funding their programs.

Once the contracts are finalized, the Office of Homeless Services draws down the grant money from HUD to mete out to each nonprofit through the federal agency’s electronic line of credit control system.

According to HUD, these drawdowns are to happen quarterly. The Office of Homeless Services has 120 days after the completion of a program to pull the remaining funds from HUD.

Irene Agustin, the former director of the Office of Homeless Services, served from June 2021 to September 2023. Agustin declined to be interviewed for Cumming’s report.

Nearly 40 grants totaling $25,444,257 expired in 2022, and approximately $14.7 million was drawn by the Office of Homeless Services from HUD — “significantly past the 120-day deadline,” the report reads. A drawdown report showed that the office submitted five draw requests to HUD between late December 2022 and May 2023, with the majority of returned funds relating back to fiscal year 2020.

Agustin told the city’s Department of Finance in June 2023 that HUD would recall nearly $5.9 million due to lack of drawdowns. Approximately $5.9 million had already been disbursed to nonprofits through the Office of Homeless Services without pulling the funds for reimbursement.

Per a spreadsheet given to HUD in July 2023, the total contracted funding amount equated to $25.5 million, though the city had withdrawn only $14.7 million from HUD.

In total, Simmons confirmed to Cumming that $5.9 million was taken back by HUD due to lack of drawdowns and approximately $4.9 million was returned due to underspending.

HUD approved a request earlier this year from the city for an extension to submit drawdowns for grants for fiscal year 2020. That request for reimbursement was submitted to HUD for approximately $5.9 million. According to Cumming’s report, the office has been working with HUD to provide documentation to substantiate the reimbursement of those funds since 2023. The money hasn’t been paid to the city as of July 2024.

The theme of this year’s four-day conference is “turning the tide,” featuring discussions regarding how county and municipal governments can continue working with essential services and prioritized projects in the current fiscal climate now that federal funding from the COVID-19 pandemic has stopped.

“Fostering strong partnerships and developing innovative, forward-thinking strategies to modern challenges are crucial to Maryland’s future,” said Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr., the current president of MACo. “Our 2024 Summer Conference is an opportunity to bring together some of the best and brightest minds from across the state to discuss our shared challenges and collaborate on ways to use emerging technology and trade to make government services more efficient for every resident.”

Like several other attendees, Olszewski is campaigning for Congress, making this year’s conference more socially and politically consequential than 2023. He’s angling to replace outgoing U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger.

State Sen. Sarah Elfreth, who is running against Republican Robert Steinberger to fill a vacancy left by Congressman John Sarbanes, and U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, who is campaigning against Democrat Blane Miller to keep his seat, will also attend the conference.

The convention will run through Saturday, kicking off with Wednesday’s annual golf tournament held at Glen Riddle Golf Course in Berlin.

Amid sandy beach trips and politician-hosted fundraisers held up and down Coastal Highway, policy sessions will be held every day, with topics ranging from AI and cybersecurity to the Maryland Open Meetings Act, federal grants and health care initiatives.

Outgoing U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin will hold his last MACo summer town hall in elected office Friday morning. Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Angela Alsobrooks and Republican nominee Larry Hogan, both of whom are vying to fill the seat Cardin will leave vacant at the end of the term, are slated to attend the conference.

Comptroller Brooke Lierman, a Democrat, will be honored at the Women of MACo luncheon Friday afternoon. Lierman is the first woman to serve as Maryland’s top tax official.

Following Friday evening’s annual crab feast in the Ocean City Convention Center parking lot, Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, will deliver the conference’s closing address Saturday, with many anxiously awaiting to learn the topic.

During the 2023 conference, Moore foreshadowed murky fiscal waters on the horizon, cautioning attendees to tighten their purse strings and setting the tone for the remainder of the calendar year and the 2024 legislative session.

Check back for coverage Thursday through Saturday. The Baltimore Sun will be reporting on the conference from Ocean City.

“We’re thrilled to have the president and vice president together in Maryland,” Ken Ulman, the chair of Maryland’s Democratic Party, said Friday.

Biden and Harris, both Democrats, will visit Maryland on Aug. 15, four days ahead of the Democratic National Convention where Harris is expected to be named the official Democratic presidential nominee. Earlier this week, she named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a military veteran and former high school teacher, as her running mate.

The White House declined to release details regarding the event — including its location — in an email to The Baltimore Sun on Friday morning. According to the Associated Press, they are poised to discuss “progress they are making to lower costs for the American people.”

Ulman said in a phone interview that the visit is related to lowering prescription drug costs.

“Maryland is always happy to receive our president and vice president, and the fact that they chose to be here together to announce an important policy initiative we understand is regarding drug pricing, we’re very excited to have them,” he said.

Democrats in Maryland, including Gov. Wes Moore, rushed to support Harris in her surprise presidential bid. Additionally, Moore’s name was floated as a potential running mate ahead of Harris’ announcement last week.

During her 2020 presidential run, Harris settled her campaign headquarters in Baltimore.

Biden and Harris have made several recent trips to Maryland.

The president was on the ground days after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge that killed six construction workers and crippled activity at the Port of Baltimore in March. And Harris appeared in Maryland’s Washington, D.C., suburbs in June to announce her endorsement of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks, who is running against former Gov. Larry Hogan to replace Ben Cardin, a Democrat, upon his retirement at the end of the term.