Brian Witte, Author at The Rapid City Post

FILE - Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks during a news conference, Sept. 5, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

Maryland to consider slavery reparations after Gov. Wes Moore’s veto is overridden

December 16, 2025

Maryland will create a commission to study potential slavery reparations in the state, after lawmakers overrode a veto by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore. The General Assembly voted in a brief special session Tuesday to override a veto by the nation’s only Black governor currently in office. Moore had disappointed many lawmakers in the heavily Democratic state when he vetoed the legislation in May. Moore said now isn’t the time for another study, and called for delivering results instead. But Democrats who control both chambers of the legislature felt the commission was needed to better examine how to do that.

FILE - Jennifer Vasquez Sura, front left, her husband Kilmar Abrego Garcia, front center, and Attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, front right, attend a protest rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Monday, Aug. 25, 2025, to support Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)

Judge to rule on whether to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration custody

November 20, 2025

A federal judge in Maryland says she will rule as soon as possible on whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be released from immigration custody. In a court hearing on Thursday, his attorneys noted that there is no final order of removal in his immigration records. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis seemed to find that oversight significant. Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador has galvanized both sides of the debate over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. Since his return to the United States, the government has been seeking to deport him to a series of African countries. His attorneys claim the government is illegally using the immigration system to punish him.

FILE - In this photo provided by the Maryland National Guard, the cargo ship Dali is stuck under part of the structure of the Francis Scott Key Bridge after the ship hit the bridge March 26, 2024, in Baltimore. (Maryland National Guard via AP, File)

NTSB set to vote on probable cause of cargo ship crash into Baltimore bridge, causing its collapse

November 18, 2025

The National Transportation Safety Board is set to vote on its findings into what caused a massive container ship to crash last year into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge, which collapsed and killed six construction workers. The board’s vote Tuesday is scheduled a day after Maryland officials more than doubled the estimated cost to replace the bridge and added two years on to the projected completion date — to 2030. The new projected cost is between $4.3 billion and $5.2 billion, compared to the previous estimate of about $1.9 billion. The board is meeting in Washington to vote on a probable cause, safety recommendations and any changes to a previous report.

FILE - The FBI headquarters building is seen in Washington, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Maryland sues Trump administration over location of FBI headquarters

November 6, 2025

Maryland officials have announced a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration for blocking the construction of a new FBI headquarters in the state just outside the nation’s capital. Gov. Wes Moore joined other Maryland officials on Thursday in Prince George’s County near Washington to criticize the plan to move the FBI’s headquarters several blocks away from its current home in the nation’s capital, instead of to Maryland, which had been selected by the Biden administration. The FBI announced this summer that it would move its headquarters to the Ronald Reagan Building complex, after a yearslong battle over the location.

FILE - Water gushes down the Conowingo Dam, Nov. 6, 2019, in Havre De Grace, Md. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Constellation Energy to spend $340M to improve water quality at Maryland’s Conowingo Dam

October 2, 2025

Constellation Energy has agreed to spend more than $340 million to improve water quality from the Conowingo Dam that flows into the Susquehanna River and eventually ends up in the Chesapeake Bay. The agreement announced Thursday clears the way for the re-licensing and continued operation of the dam’s hydroelectric facility on the Susquehanna, which is the largest source of renewable energy in Maryland. The agreement marks an end to wrangling over who is responsible for addressing pollution in sediment that gets stuck in the dam and ends up being released downstream and into the bay.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks during a news conference, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

Maryland governor criticizes Trump in reelection campaign announcement

September 9, 2025

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat who has been mentioned as a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has officially announced his reelection campaign for governor. The announcement on Tuesday was made in a campaign video. Moore avoided any talk about a potential GOP opponent for the governor’s office. Instead, he criticized Republican President Donald Trump. Moore took aim at Trump’s second term, saying the president “is bending over backwards for billionaires and big corporations, firing federal workers, gutting Medicaid, raising prices on everything from electricity to groceries.” Moore has repeatedly said he won’t run for president in 2028, but his comments haven’t ended speculation about his political future.

FILE - People talk near a Meta sign outside of the company's headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., March 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Maryland tax on digital ads violated Big Tech’s free speech, judges say

August 18, 2025

A federal appeals court has ruled that part of a first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising in Maryland aimed at Big Tech is unconstitutional. The ruling on Friday by a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says a ban on identifying the tax as a way of passing it along to customers violates free speech. The ruling reverses a decision by U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby and sends the case back to her with instructions to consider an appropriate remedy in light of the panel’s decision. Big Tech has argued the 2021 law unfairly targets companies like Meta, Google and Amazon.

A slab of concrete is prepared to be removed from the remaining portions of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Wednesday, July 30, 2025, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)

Owners of cargo ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge sue company that built vessel

August 4, 2025

The owners of the cargo ship that crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge are suing the company that built the vessel. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Pennsylvania last week alleges negligence in the design of a critical switchboard on the ship. Grace Ocean Private, the owners of the Dali, filed the lawsuit against Hyundai Heavy Industries in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. Hyundai Heavy Industries could not immediately be reached for comment. Grace Ocean Private contends the switchboard was defectively designed in a manner that wiring connections were not secure.

FILE - Maryland Gov. Wes Moore speaks during a taping of "Fox News Sunday" at Fox News headquarters in Washington, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Maryland’s Wes Moore says he’s not running for president but high-profile stops keep chatter alive

May 29, 2025

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has been saying for months that he does not plan to run for president in 2028. That isn’t stopping persistent talk about his future political plans, though. He’s often mentioned as a potential candidate for national office. While Moore says he’s focusing on being governor, he is still making appearances that get him national attention outside Maryland. On Friday, he is set to travel to speak at the Blue Palmetto Dinner in the early primary state of South Carolina. Moore says he’s keeping focused on being the state’s governor during a challenging time.

Brian Witte.