News

By Sarah Gantz, The Baltimore Sun

Baltimore signed an agreement Tuesday with the U.S. Department of Energy and the Maryland Clean Energy Center to develop a financing model to make solar energy more accessible to low-income residents.

Existing financing options for installing solar panels require a large up-front investment or high credit ratings, which can be prohibitive for many low-income homeowners. Details of Baltimore's financing model are still to be determined, but city officials said the goal will be to eliminate some of the barriers that prevent low-income residents from making the investment — as much as $15,000 for a typical Baltimore rowhouse.

"We want to prove the clean-energy revolution in our country can be designed to include everyone," said David Foster, a senior adviser at the Energy Department.

The new program eventually could serve as a national model, he said.

Foster was among the officials and lawmakers, including Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Reps. Elijah E. Cummings and John Sarbanes, who announced plans for the program outside a Belair-Edison home selected to receive solar panels as part of another city initiative to install solar panels in low-income areas.

Read entire article in The Baltimore Sun ​

This year’s theme for Artscape was Space. It was great to wander around this annual festival and see how people interpreted that theme in different ways. There was everything from large planet models you could walk inside of to cool off to fellow festival goers dressed up as aliens.

Visitors this year had a wide variety of activities to choose from with concerts to listen to, plays to watch, new video games to play, and local artwork to admire. I enjoyed the performance by the Orchkids at the Meyerhoff which is becoming an Artscape tradition.

Artscape always brings out the creative side of Baltimore and I’m pleased that this year’s festival was such a success!

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By Lowell Melser, WBAL 

Democratic members of Maryland's congressional delegation gather in an attempt to maintain pressure on the issue of gun safety legislation.

Maryland gun-safety advocates met in Baltimore to support tougher laws connected to gun violence, setting up what could be an interesting debate next week on Capitol Hill.

After last week's sit-in on the House floor, many of Maryland's Democratic members of Congress, along with gun violence prevention advocates and victims of gun violence, made an attempt to keep up the pressure on the issue, addressing a crowd in north Baltimore.

Kate Ranta talked about being stalked by her ex-husband, who shot her and her father.

"My son, who is 7 now, but 4 at the time, stood screaming, 'Don't do it, Daddy, don't shoot Mommy,' witnessing the whole thing. It was luck that no bullets entered his tiny body," Ranta said.

Sheryl Baughman lost her son to suicide. She said she believes that a waiting list for the mentally unstable might have saved him.

"Had they made him wait, maybe whatever circumstances were going on in his life that day could have been different," Baughman said.

Maryland's Democratic political leaders also used the forum to call out Republicans for not working with them on gun legislation, but they had trouble giving reasons why no such legislation passed when Democrats had control over the House and Senate in President Obama's first two years in office.

"I can't answer the question. I was on the intelligence committee, so I wouldn't have dealt with that to begin with, but I know it has always been an issue," said U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2.

Others blamed a supposed stronghold by the National Rifle Association over Congress at the time.

"The tide is turning, and the intimidation factor that operated on all of Congress at one point has begun to shift," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-District 3.

Read the entire article on WBAL 

Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the Sarbanes Family picnic. My dad and I were happy to see so many good friends made the trip out even in the rain! We look forward to doing this again. 

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to be on WYPR’s Maryland Morning. Click here to hear my interview with Tom Hall. 

David Ignatius,  The Washington Post

It has become a truism that the American political system is suffering from dysfunction. But weirdly, even the insurgent candidates, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, don’t talk much about how they would fix it. This is a populist insurgency without a clear manifesto.

So it’s refreshing to hear Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) present a detailed action plan to try to repair what’s broken. This proposal isn’t a cure-all. It wouldn’t fix the immigration problem or fund Social Security or fight terrorism. But by changing the way we fund elections, this proposal could make it easier to elect the politicians who would make the U.S. government work again for its citizens.

Sarbanes presents his proposal in the current issue of the Harvard Journal on Legislation. It’s a simple idea: Congress should free itself from big-money, special-interest domination by encouraging an alternative system of small contributions that would be matched with public funds. This isn’t a new idea — Teddy Roosevelt proposed a version back in 1907 — but it’s a good one, and a way to start curing what ails us.

Continue reading here.

Light City is kicking off this week in Baltimore and I am very excited for all of the various parts of the third district (the Inner Harbor, Harbor East, Little Italy, Fells Point, & Hampden) that will be participating! 

Baltimore was the 1st city in America to light our streets with gas lanterns proving that we’ve always been a city of innovators! I am excited to see an event come together that will show the rest of the country why so many young people and start ups are starting to call Baltimore home.

If you'd like more information on Light City click here to see their full list of events!

I am happy to announce that I will be running for re-election in Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District. 

 

Click here to read the entire annoucement.