State Roundup, November 28, 2017

TODAY IS GIVING TUESDAY, GIVING NEWS DAY MarylandReporter.com is joining more than 100 local and investigative newsrooms that are eligible to receive up to $28,000 each in matching grants, doubling every donation up to $1,000 they receive by Dec. 31. Giving Tuesday encourages people to support the causes that matter to them. #GivingNewsDay is a reminder that quality journalism shines a spotlight on those issues every day.

TAX PLAN THREATENS PRIVATE INVESTMENT: When Maryland officials announced last year they had secured funding for a $5.6 billion light rail project in the Washington suburbs, they touted the millions of dollars in private money that had been put up to offset the cost to taxpayers. Now, writes John Fritze for the Sun, as construction on the Purple Line gets underway, some of those same officials — Republicans and Democrats — are warning that a provision of the tax overhaul moving through Congress would threaten similar projects by making it more difficult to lure that private investment.

SUPREMES UPHOLD MD WEAPONS BAN: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand without comment a lower-court decision upholding the constitutionality of Maryland’s ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, those carrying more than 10 rounds of ammunition, Steve Lash of the Daily Record reports. The justices declined to hear gun-rights advocates’ appeal of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ conclusion the ban on the high-powered guns and ammunition quantity does not implicate the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms due to the weapons’ lethal ferocity “most useful in military service.”

READ MORE HERE: http://thedailyrecord.com/2017/11/27/supreme-court-maryland-assault-weapons-ban-kolbe/