Parliament security breach accused wanted to create anarchy: Police
Jha, who hails from West Bengal, was sent to seven-day police custody on Friday after his arrest last night. Police claimed in the Patiala House court that he admitted that the accused met many times to hatch the conspiracy to breach Parliament security.
US Treasury Department issues guidelines around a new tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel
The Biden administration released long-awaited guidance on Friday around tax credits for aviation fuel that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases compared with fuel made from crude oil. Some environmentalists expressed concern that the Treasury Department guidelines could allow credits for fuel made from corn and other crops that they consider poor choices because of the water and other resources needed to grow them. HIGH-FAT FLIGHT IS FIRST JETLINER TO MAKE FOSSIL-FUEL-FREE TRANSATLANTIC CROSSING FROM LONDON TO NY Midwest lawmakers and companies that produce corn-based ethanol praised the guidelines, although their enthusiasm could be short-lived. Congress approved the credits as part of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which included provisions designed to boost cleaner energy. The credits are designed to increase the supply and bring down the current high price of sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. Producers will be eligible for tax credits ranging from $1.25 to $1.75 per gallon, depending on how much their fuel reduces emissions compared with conventional products such as kerosene-based jet fuel. On a key issue — and after months of deliberations — the Treasury Department accepted measuring those emission reductions by using a model that was developed by the U.S. Energy Department and which is supported by the ethanol industry. However, Treasury said the Biden administration plans to update the model by March 1, leaving uncertainty around the eventual tax treatment of ethanol used to power airplanes. Treasury said the update will include “new modeling of key feedstocks and processes used in aviation fuel,” and will consider the impact on emissions from growing crops used to make the fuel. The Environmental Defense Fund said it would withhold final judgment on the guidelines until March, but that Friday’s guidelines could put the U.S. out of step with international standards. “Our initial assessment is that this would be a blank check for fuels made from sugar cane, soybean and rapeseed — none of which are sustainable or consistent with Congress’ intent,” said the group’s senior vice president, Mark Brownstein. Ethanol supporters countered that the Energy Department model provides a precise way to measure the benefits of agricultural feedstocks used in sustainable aviation fuel. The standard “is great, and I’m glad that Treasury is finally realizing it,” said Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, a major corn-producing state. Airlines for America, a trade group for the biggest U.S. carriers, praised the Treasury guidelines, which it said “will help to accelerate the production and availability of SAF and stimulate new investment.” Around 2% to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions come from aviation, according to estimates, but that share is expected to grow as air travel continues to boom. Widespread use of electric-powered airplanes is generally considered decades away.
Tennessee Gov. Lee grants 22 pardons, 1 commutation
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Friday granted clemency to 23 people, including a woman convicted of first-degree murder for her involvement in the death of a motel worker more than 20 years ago. The announcement marks the Republican’s third round of clemency since taking office in 2019. Lee approved 22 pardons and one commutation. “Clemency is a very powerful tool and it is not something that I take lightly,” Lee told reporters on Friday, stressing that it is “unique to the role of the governor at the state level.” TENNESSEE DEMOCRAT CALLS GOP GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL CHOICE EXPANSION PLAN A ‘REAL SCAM’ A pardon serves as a statement of forgiveness to someone who has completed their prison sentence and are no longer incarcerated, while commutation shortens a sentence but lets the conviction stand. Similar to last year, Lee didn’t issue any exonerations, in which the governor declares that the applicant didn’t commit the crime. Lee said that the actions he signed off on the 23 applications aligned with nonbinding recommendations from the state Board of Parole, with no victims speaking in opposition. Of the thousands of applications before Lee’s desk, only Michelle Lockwood-Tipton of Sevier County received a commutation. According to the governor’s office, Tipton was convicted of first-degree murder after her boyfriend at the time killed Pamela Hale, who was working at motel in eastern Tennessee. Her boyfriend, who she married a day after Hale’s murder using the money they robbed, was also convicted of first-degree murder. Tipton has served 21 years in prison and was not eligible for parole until 2052. However, with Lee’s intervention, Tipton will now be eligible for parole. She will not immediately be released from prison, per the governor’s office. “It was determined that she was shocked by the killing and unaware that that was going to happen,” Lee said. Lee added that Tipton has since been “exceptional” throughout her incarceration, noting that she’s currently working to get her Master’s degree in theology. Meanwhile, the 22 pardons include: Amanda Vaughn of Perry County; Ann Marie Byrd of Davidson County and Williamson County; Brendan Sullivan of Blount County; Cheryl Douglas of Rutherford County; Chris Ann Hobson of Fayette County; Christopher Park of Davidson Sumner and Wilson counties; DeAndre Brown of Shelby County; Demetria Garner of Davidson County; Donnell Spraggins of Shelby County; Catrina Cabe of Hamilton County; Eddie Criswell of Madison County; Edward Guthrie of Bradley County; Jimmy Harris of Overton and Putnam counties; Joseph Claggett of Davidson County; Joshua Owens of Bradley County; Kamiko Michelle Paris of Hamilton County; Kevin Campbell of Hamilton County; Melissa Whitehead-Gregory of Tipton County; Rhonda Shelton of Davidson County; Robert Scales of Davidson County; Tara Woods of Hamilton County; and Tylor Trotter of Knox County.
China’s youth compete for stable gov’t jobs in unstable economic times
A good result on China’s annual national civil service exam is a requirement for any Chinese candidate who wants to be considered for the tens of thousands of vacant civil service jobs that the government seeks to fill every year. Many of the vacant positions are reserved for recent Chinese graduates. When 22-year-old recent graduate Du Xin sat down for the exam in December last year at a test centre in the city of Shijiazhuang in China’s Hebei province, she had been studying vigorously for six months. Some applicants even hire tutors to prepare them for the exam. Candidates are tested broadly on their general knowledge and analytical skills while in more recent years they have also been tested on their grasp of “Xi thought” – Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ideology and vision for China. Despite her months of preparation, Du knew that the odds that her test result would bring her closer to a government job were slim. As she began the exam, so, too, did millions of other Chinese youths across hundreds of Chinese cities. “The competition is fierce,” Du told Al Jazeera. That year the chance of securing a civil service position was 70 to one. A candidate makes last-minute preparations to sit for the Chinese civil service examinations, which nationwide, millions of candidates sit to qualify for thousands of job vacancies in the government, in Hefei, east China’s Anhui province in 2011 [File: AFP] Therefore, Du was surprised and thrilled when she learned that she did well on the exam and subsequently landed a job as an organiser at the local office of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shijiazhuang. This year, the competition looked to be even more fierce as the number of candidates sitting down for the exam at the end of November surpassed three million for the first time. The number of vacant government positions has not kept up, lowering the odds of securing a job like Du’s from 70 to 1 to 77 to 1, according to the state-run Global Times. Du is not surprised by the high number of applicants. “I think a lot of young people in China really want a stable job right now,” she said. Candidates prepare to take China’s national civil service exam in a university in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province, in 2013 [File: AFP] Job security is an ‘iron rice bowl’ The appeal of stable employment was what drew Du to the civil service exam last year at a time of economic turmoil in China. “I felt a bit lost after I finished my graduate studies, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” she told Al Jazeera. “But I knew I wanted a job where I could feel secure and have free time, and that made me interested in government work.” Although employment in China’s civil service rarely pays as well as comparable employment in the Chinese private sector, there are other benefits. Civil servants usually have access to better medical insurance, a preferential pension plan, consistent bonus pay-outs and secure lifetime employment. The security that comes with a public position has given rise to the nickname, “iron rice bowl”. Iron rice bowls are coveted by some traditional Chinese parents for their children – not just for stability but because some see obtaining such jobs as a recognition of excellence by the state. Candidates queueing to take the national examination for admissions to the civil service in Wuhan in China’s central Hubei province in 2021 [File: AFP] An important aspect of life as a civil servant for Du is the working hours. “I work from 9am to 5pm, and I don’t have to work on weekends,” Du said. Many of Du’s friends in the private sector work the 996 system – 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. “Compared to them, I have a lot more free time to enjoy my hobbies,” she said. Yang Jiang was also not surprised by the record number of applicants for China’s civil service exam this year. Jiang is a scholar of China’s economic policies and a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies. The number of applicants has been growing quickly in recent years, and according to Jiang, one reason is the equally high number of Chinese graduates entering the job market. In 2023 alone, almost 11.6 million Chinese finished their studies, the highest number ever. But the overarching reason for the high number of civil service exam applicants is the Chinese economy, Jiang told Al Jazeera. “The economic situation is uncertain in China,” she said. Candidates arrive for China’s national civil service exam in a university in Nanjing, east China’s Jiangsu province, in 2013 [File: AFP] The Chinese economy has been struggling to reach the growth rates of earlier years, the housing market is in the deepest slump in decades and foreign direct investment struck a deficit in the July-September period of 2023 for the first time recorded. For Chinese graduates, circumstances look particularly grim: youth unemployment hit a record high of 21.3 percent in June before the authorities stopped publishing the numbers. “The private sector in particular has seen a lot of layoffs in the economic downturn,” Jiang explained. “That has naturally made more Chinese graduates look towards the public sector for the sort of job security that is currently missing in the private sector,” she said. ‘They can’t make us disappear’ Like Du, 23-year-old Chris Liao from Guangdong province in southern China graduated last year with a master’s degree in public administration. He also signed up for the civil service exam. “I didn’t make it past the written exam,” he told Al Jazeera. Afterwards, Liao was unable to find a job within his field of study, forcing him to work as a cook for a while before he moved back with his parents outside Guangzhou, the largest metropolis in Guangdong. He is now among the millions of unemployed young people in China. “I feel like life got really difficult when COVID
Biden administration commits millions in new funding to Columbia River Basin restoration
In the 1960s and 1970s, four dams were built along the Lower Snake River in Washington State. They were advertised as a source of cheap, clean energy. Some conservation groups and tribe members nearby said the dams would have a negative impact on the regional environment. Decades later, the controversy has come to a head as the Biden administration has agreed to work alongside those groups to develop a plan to save the fish. “The importance of salmon to our people has dated back to our beginning,” Nez Perce Chairman Shannon Wheeler said. “I think that’s the relationship today that we’re here to speak for the salmon that have lost their voice.” The Nez Perce tribe is one of four Columbia Basin tribes who have long relied on the salmon in the region. “For them to be able to return to their native waters, where they originate from, there’s a way of life that’s associated to that,” Wheeler said. BIDEN ADMIN CREATES PATHWAY WITH ECO GROUPS TO SHUTTER ENERGY SOURCE SERVING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS The Columbia River Basin covers parts of seven states and Canada. It once produced one of the largest salmon runs on earth. “These native runs that have once numbered in the millions have been reduced to the thousands and sometimes less,” Wheeler said. The Nez Perce Tribe and other groups have been part of an ongoing legal battle over the four dams built along the Snake River. The groups say those are the source of a declining salmon population. The Idaho Wildlife Federation is part of the broader Snake River coalition. Executive Director Brian Brooks said the fish runs in Idaho are nearly depleted. “We have the Salmon River, a river that was named after the abundance of fish that used to come back to Idaho,” Brooks said. “Only Idaho’s fish are on an extinction trajectory and the only thing that our fish experience that none of the other tributaries do are the Snake River dams.” The Snake River begins in Wyoming and flows northwest. Along the way it joins with the Salmon River before flowing into the Columbia River, which feeds into the Pacific Ocean. That’s where salmon spend most of their lives. HOUSE PANEL TO PROBE BIDEN ADMIN’S NEGOTIATIONS WITH ECO GROUPS TRYING TO TEAR DOWN KEY POWER SOURCE “These fish used to get swept down to the ocean in a matter of days. Now that’s 40 days,” Brooks said. “When they come back up, they go through stress induced by the fish ladders. There are seals and sea lions. And there’s a number of issues compounded by the existence of the dams.” After several years in the open ocean, the salmon return to where they were hatched by swimming upstream. For a fish born in Idaho’s Salmon River, it must get past eight dams. “We have a five-star hotel waiting for these fish in the Frank Church Wilderness,” Brooks said. “It’s beautiful, clean habitat. And they cannot get here because of the impacts, the mortality caused by these lower Snake River dams.” About half of the region relies on hydroelectricity for power. “[The dams are] zero carbon and they’re available 24 seven. That’s pretty good. They’re low cost. They’ve been a key element of economic development in the Pacific Northwest for decades,” National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Jim Matheson said. Several efforts have been put in place to help the salmon get past the dams. Engineers have built fish ladders, elevators and other passage facilities to help improve survival. Conservation groups say those have fallen short and removing the four Lower Snake River Dams is necessary to save the fish. “If you look at salmon, steelhead runs on tributaries on the Columbia River that only have to go through 1, 2, 3 or 4 dams they’re doing fine. They fluctuate naturally up and down. That happens all the time,” Brooks said. “The very simple truth is that eight dams are simply too many dams for a fish to go through.” BIDEN ADMIN PLAN TO RELEASE PREDATOR NEAR RURAL COMMUNITIES FACES WIDESPREAD OPPOSITION: ‘A HUGE THREAT Earthjustice has represented a coalition of groups calling for dam removal for decades. Earthjustice first took legal action in 1992, challenging a National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration report that determined the dams did not endanger the fish. They successfully got that determination overturned in 1994. Earthjustice continued the pressure over the years to get the dams removed. In 2021, they agreed to a pause to negotiate with the newly elected Biden Administration. “In this case, out-of-court discussions open up opportunities to take a more comprehensive approach to issues related to protecting salmon than is available through litigation,” Earthjustice said in a statement to Fox. “One example is the development of a plan to replace the energy services now provided by Lower Snake River dams.” In 2022, the Biden administration released a pair of studies concerning the Lower Snake River Dams. A new NOAA report looked into the environmental impact of the dams. It stated, “Sixteen stocks historically spawned above Bonneville Dam. Of those, four are now extinct, and seven are listed under the federal ESA [Endangered Species Act].” The report ultimately recommended breaching the four lower Snake River dams. “NOAA Fisheries recognizes that the important services the Lower Snake River dams provide would need to be replaced or otherwise offset before breaching could occur,” NOAA Fisheries West Coast Regional Administrator Jennifer Quan said at a congressional June field hearing held in Washington State. A Bonneville Power Administration [BPA] representative also testified at that hearing on the agency’s report that looked at replacement power for the four dams. “Replacing these dams while meeting clean energy goals and maintaining system reliability is possible. But doing so comes at a substantial cost to the region and notes that emerging replacement technologies must first become commercially viable,” BPA’s John Harrison said. TOP BIDEN AIDE’S SPOUSE INVOLVED WITH GROUP PUSHING ELECTRIC VEHICLE TRANSITION BPA operates the four Snake River dams. Those produce
Wisconsin man gets 3 years for bomb threat against then-Gov. Scott Walker
A Wisconsin man who made a 2018 bomb threat that prompted a search of then-Gov. Scott Walker’s office in the state Capitol has been sentenced to three years in prison and two years of extended supervision, the state Department of Justice announced on Friday. WISCONSIN DOJ SUED BY LOBBYING GROUP OVER PUBLIC RECORDS REQUEST Terrance Grissom, 53, was already serving time for making other threats against officials when he sent a letter in 2018 to the Dane County District Attorney’s Office saying that there was a bomb in Walker’s office that would kill the governor at the push of a button. Capitol Police evacuated the office and searched it but did not find any explosives. Grissom pleaded guilty earlier this month to a charge of making a bomb threat and was sentenced on Thursday in Dane County Circuit Court. Adam Welch, the public defender listed as Grissom’s attorney, did not immediately respond to an email sent Friday seeking comment. “Those who make criminal threats to harm others must be held accountable,” Attorney General Josh Kaul said in a statement. “Bomb scares are serious offenses, and I’m thankful to everyone involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case.”
Appeals court refuses Louisiana’s plea to reconsider House map ruling
A federal appeals court refused Friday to reconsider its ruling giving the Louisiana Legislature until Jan. 15 to enact a new congressional map after a lower court found that the current political boundaries dilute the power of the state’s Black voters. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Louisiana’s Republican secretary of state and other state officials to have a larger set of judges rehear the Nov. 10 decision by a three-judge panel. That panel said if the Legislature does not pass a new map by mid-January, then the lower court should conduct a trial and “decide on a plan for the 2024 elections.” NORTHERN LOUISIANA DISTRICT JUDGE DIES AFTER UNSPECIFIED ILLNESS The political tug-of-war and legal battle over Louisiana’s GOP-drawn congressional map has been going on for more than a year and a half. Louisiana is among states still wrangling over congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that Alabama had violated the Voting Rights Act. Louisiana’s current map, which was used in the November congressional election, has white majorities in five of six districts — despite Black people accounting for one-third of the state’s population. Republicans, who dominate Louisiana’s Legislature, say that the map is fair. They argue that Black populations in the state are too dispersed to be united into a second majority Black district. Democrats argue that the map discriminates against Black voters and that there should be two majority-minority districts. Currently, five of the six districts are held by Republicans. Another mostly Black district could deliver a second congressional seat to Democrats. Louisiana officials cited a recent decision by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in their petition for a new hearing before the 5th Circuit. In a 2-1 decision last month, the 8th Circuit said private individuals and groups such as the NAACP do not have the ability to sue under a key section of the Voting Rights Act. The decision, which contradicted decades of precedent, could further erode protections under the landmark 1965 law.
US ambassador to China doesn’t ‘feel optimistic’ about future relations between countries
The U.S. ambassador to China on Friday said he isn’t “optimistic” about the future of U.S.-Chinese relations. “I don’t feel optimistic about the future of U.S.-China relations. I feel that we need to see how things develop. We had a very good, productive meeting in California, can we now sustain that engagement? Can we sustain our commitments to each other,” Nicholas Burns explained in a Brookings Institution question and answer session, referring to President Biden’s meeting last month with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in San Francisco. He added that he’d lived through the “roller coaster” of China cutting off communications then reinstating them. “So, I wouldn’t say I’m optimistic, I’m careful, maybe realistic,” he added. “Hopeful. But hopeful’s different than being optimistic.” HONG KONG PUTS BOUNTIES ON PRO-DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS, INCLUDING AMERICAN CITIZEN, UNDER CHINA IMPOSED LAW Earlier at the event, Burns called China the United States’ most consequential relationship for the next couple of decades. “We’re the two leading economies in the world and will be into the 2030s and 2040s,” he said. “We’re the two most powerful militaries in the world and certainly will be for the next two decades. We’re the two countries with the widest global reach if you think about the economic, societal, political, strategic breadth that most countries have and we’re vying for global power as well as regional power.” Earlier this week, while speaking with the Council on Foreign Relations, Burns said, “We’re not in a state of good relations” but he said the administration been able to “reconnect the two governments.” XI JINPING ARRIVES IN VIETNAM AS AS CHINA COURTS LEADERSHIP FOR ALLIANCE Burns said Friday he believes there’s a “high degree of bipartisanship” among the left and right on the threat of China, who he said “wants to become the strongest power in the Indo-Pacific. I think that’s irrefutable. That’s their goal.” While speaking with the Council on Foreign Relations this week, he said the administration had defended former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s decision to visit Taiwan in 2022. “We felt it was important that we defend her right as a co-equal head of a branch of the U.S. government, but that really sent – the aftermath sent the relationship [with China] into a tailspin.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP He added that as of this spring and following the Chinese spy balloon incident in February, “we really had very few contacts of a senior nature between the United States and China.”
DeSantis argues Trump ‘will say it’s stolen, no matter what’ if former president loses in Iowa or NH
CONCORD, N.H. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he expects Donald Trump to try and “delegitimize” the election results if the former president ends up losing either the Iowa caucuses or New Hampshire primary. “If Trump loses, he will say it’s stolen no matter what. Absolutely. He will try to delegitimize the results,” DeSantis told reporters on Friday during a question and answer session after holding a town hall in New Hampshire’s capital city. DeSantis noted that Trump “did that against Ted Cruz in 2016,” as he referred to Trump’s tweet after narrowly losing the caucuses to the firebrand conservative senator from Texas that “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it.” The former president for three years has repeatedly made unproven claims that his 2020 election loss to President Biden was due to a “rigged” election and “massive voter fraud.” DESANTIS STOPS IN ALL 99 OF IOWA’S COUNTIES — BUT WILL IT HELP HIM CLOSE THE GAP WITH TRUMP? And Trump made history earlier this year as the first former or current president to be indicted for a crime, but his four indictments — including in federal court in Washington, D.C., and in Fulton County court in Georgia — on charges he tried to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss. DeSantis argued that, “I don’t think people are going to buy it. Trump remains the commanding front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential nomination race, as he makes his third straight White House run. DeSantis is currently a very distant second to Trump in the latest polls in Iowa, where the Jan. 15 caucuses kick off the GOP nominating calendar. And in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and votes second after Iowa on Jan. 23, DeSantis is in fourth place, far behind Trump and also trailing former ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, as well as former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who is making his second White House bid. TRUMP HOLDS A MASSIVE LEAD IN THE POLLS WITH FIVE WEEKS TO GO UNTIL THE IOWA CAUCUSES As the first votes in the race for the Republican nomination draw closer, DeSantis has been turning up the volume on his criticism of Trump. In his conversation with the crowd at his town hall, and in answering reporter questions, he repeatedly jabbed at Trump for failing to follow through on campaign promises, for being too old to serve again as president, and for skipping out on debating his rivals for the Republican nomination. “He’s promising the same things he did in ’16 that he didn’t deliver. And now he’s just running on the same stuff again,” he argued. “You know, we didn’t get a wall. We didn’t get the swamp drained. He said he was going to go after Hillary [Clinton] and then let her off the hook two weeks after the election.” Speaking with reporters, DeSantis asked,”’Why won’t he [Trump] debate. Why not?’ And I do think he would not perform the way they remember the Trump from 2015 and ’16. I think that’s the real reason he’s not debating.” And the governor argued that Trump is “a different guy now and I think he owes it to actually show up and answer questions.” WAS THE REAL WINNER SO FAR IN THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES THE GUY WHO DIDN’T SHOW UP? DeSantis also targeted Trump for not engaging with voters. “When is the last time he stood on a stage and just took questions from voters?” DeSantis asked. “Has he done that at any point in this campaign? He certainly hasn’t done it on a debate stage. How often has he been willing to go and really answer the tough questions… people want to see you earn it.” Asked for a response, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung argued in a statement to Fox News that, “Ron DeSantis is acting out on his Lincoln Project fantasies and doing his best impression of a Never Trumper by reciting Democrat talking points peddled by Crooked Joe Biden and his campaign.” And Cheung charged that “when Ron’s political career is finished in a few weeks, he can start moonlighting as a Democrat surrogate because he’s showing everyone his true colors.” The Lincoln Project is a political action committee formed four years ago by Republicans and former members of the GOP who oppose Trump. DeSantis returned to New Hampshire three days after popular Republican Gov. Chris Sununu endorsed Haley in the state’s Republican presidential primary. ‘WE’RE ALL IN’ – SUNUNU BACKS HALEY IN MAJOR 2024 ENDORSEMENT Sununu, a vocal GOP critic of Trump, had said for weeks that he was deciding between Haley, Christie and DeSantis. DeSantis told Fox News that Sununu’s backing of Haley wouldn’t change his campaign strategy in the Granite State, saying “I wasn’t necessarily expecting that.” “Chris is great, a great campaigner and all that,” DeSantis added arguing that “ultimately, Nikki Haley is an establishment candidate. That does not do well in these Republican primaries. That is starting to become more and more apparent to voters as she’s gotten more attention.” Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.
New Orioles stadium lease heading to a vote next week, Maryland Gov. Moore says
A long-term agreement between the Baltimore Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority for a new lease at Camden Yards is moving forward for a vote by state officials next week, Gov. Wes Moore and the team have confirmed. The agreement is slated to go before the Maryland Stadium Authority on Monday in Baltimore at the warehouse next to the ballpark. The state’s Board of Public Works, a three-member board chaired by the governor, also is scheduled to meet there later that day. In a statement, Moore said the agreement “embodies the three core principles I laid out at the beginning of this process: this is a long term deal that will keep baseball in Baltimore for all to enjoy, that puts all Maryland taxpayers at the top of mind, and that benefits the entire City of Baltimore.” MARYLAND GOV. MOORE CALLS ORIOLES LEASE DEAL ‘IMMINENT’ “I know for many this process has been long, and the team that worked on securing this deal has done so diligently with the best interests of the taxpayer in mind,” the governor said. “The Orioles are a treasured part of the Baltimore community and I know I speak for all Marylanders when I say we are so excited to see the impact they will make on the City of Baltimore and across the state for years to come.” The Orioles confirmed the agreement in a statement. “We appreciate the hard work that has gone into bringing this agreement down to the finish line, and we’re grateful to the Maryland Stadium Authority, the Governor’s team, and, of course, everyone here at the Orioles organization,” the team said. The Orioles’ lease at Camden Yards, which is owned by the state of Maryland, expires at the end of the year. In September, the team dramatically announced a new 30-year deal to stay at the ballpark — a message to that effect appeared on the scoreboard in the middle of a game the night the team clinched the AL East. The next day, the governor’s office released details of a memorandum of understanding involving Moore, the team and the Maryland Stadium Authority. The September agreement included a 99-year development rights agreement for areas surrounding the ballpark, including the warehouse and Camden Station. That was a sticking point last week for Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Baltimore Democrat, whose district includes the stadium, and the Moore administration said it would work to address those concerns before moving forward. An agenda on the stadium authority’s website says the panel will consider a contract that extends the existing lease and includes time to create a development plan. The board also will consider a draft agreement to memorialize the terms and conditions of a 30-year lease agreement. Last year, the state increased bond authorization for M&T Bank Stadium, home of the Baltimore Ravens, and Camden Yards. The measure allowed borrowing of up to $600 million for each stadium.