Updates

Today is the 96th anniversary of women winning the right to vote. While we are on the verge of electing our first female president we need to remember that we still have work to do when it comes to securing equal pay for equal work and electing more women into office!

Back in the day, before Michael Phelps competed in his first Olympics, he and I used to share the pool at Meadowbrook in Mt. Washington.  At 23 years his senior, I used to pace myself by trying to swim one lap for his every two. I couldn't even do that. Anyway, we chose different paths from there. Michael decided to become the greatest Olympian of all time. I went into politics.  Sometimes I think about how different things would have been if I'd been a better swimmer. Oh well ....  Congratulations Michael on making your hometown of Baltimore and Towson High School (where all my kids graduated) so proud!!

- Congressman John Sarbanes 

 

This year I had the chance to go to the National Night Out events in Onley and Halethorpe. It's always a great night for members of the community to come out and meet our first responders and law enforcement personnel.

Click below to see a quick video from the Halethorpe event. 

Click on the left or right of the photo to scroll through an album of photos from Olney and Halethorpe's National Night Out events. 

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Here's a quick update on Day 4 of the Democratic National Convention!

Reporting from Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention!

This year’s Baltimore Pride week takes on special significance this year, after the violence in Orlando. To learn more about the events taking place click here: http://baltimorepride.org/

I am proud of the great strides we have made as a nation over recent years when it comes to making sure every American, no matter who they love, is treated equality. We have seen the reversal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell in our military, marriage equally passed on a national level, and just last month President Obama named Stonewall National Monument in New York City the first national monument to LGBT rights.

However, the GOP's recently released platform has been named the most anti-LGBT platform ever. We need to push to make sure that Democrats win in November to ensure the progress we've made in recent years isn't reversed.

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