Lawmakers announce $800,000 for high-speed internet access
WASHINGTON — Western Maryland will receive $800,000 in federal funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission to expand broadband connectivity and increase access to reliable, high-speed internet.
U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks, and U.S. Rep April McClain Delaney, all Maryland Democrats, announced the award in a joint statement Friday.
'In today's world, access to the internet is an essential service — for families and businesses alike,' Van Hollen said. 'This federal investment from the Appalachian Regional Commission will help further close the digital divide that Allegany and Garrett counties have faced for far too long. Not only will this project deliver high-speed internet to local households, it will also generate new opportunities that will help the region's economy grow in the years to come.'
The funding will support the Garrett County Middle Mile Infrastructure Project and fund the construction of about 138,288 feet of middle-mile fiber optic cable across Garrett and Allegany counties.
'I know this investment will support our economy and the lives of so many Western Maryland families,' Alsobrooks said.
The new fiber optic network will improve internet connectivity in areas of the counties where access gaps have persisted. It will also support a new e-commerce distribution center that will help strengthen the supply chain and support business growth in the region — while making the counties more attractive for additional investment in the future.
'This ARC investment in middle mile infrastructure will strengthen our region's digital infrastructure so that families, students, and small businesses are not left behind. I will also keep fighting for the resources that Allegany and Garrett Counties need to attract business investment and further workforce development,' Delaney said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hill
34 minutes ago
- The Hill
To become governor, Kamala Harris must leap hurdles she created
I have no inside knowledge or insight as to whether Kamala Harris will run for governor of California in 2026. I'm not looped into her inner circle or decision-making process. But as someone who has advised many potential candidates about whether to run for offices from president to city council, I do have some perspective on what she should be considering. Having managed four campaigns for governor of California, I know the process is often harrowing and humbling for those who throw their hat in the ring. The state's electorate is not on the whole very attentive to politics, picking up only bits and snippets about candidates, many of them negative, and the media is out to turn over every rock to expose every frailty, screw-up, inconsistency and verbal slip. In Harris's case, she is already well known to voters, having been on the statewide ballot eight times, and having served as vice president, U.S. senator and attorney general. But she will be tested on two issues having nothing to do with her service as a senator or attorney general. If she does run, she will be pestered unmercifully about whether she would just be using the governorship as a holding room on her way to another White House bid. She would, of course, have to issue a pro forma pledge to serve a full term. The question is whether voters would believe have witnessed presidential fever infect their governors before. Jerry Brown was elected the first time in 1974. A little more than a year after being inaugurated, he was gallivanting off to Maryland and other states campaigning for president. Brown then ran yet again for president just over six months into his second term. Pete Wilson was handily reelected in 1994, then announced he was running for president less than five months after being sworn in. A perhaps even more serious problem for Harris is the current orgy of reporting about the new book, 'Original Sin,' which purports to tell the inside story of Joe Biden's physical and mental decline — and the complicity of those close to him in covering up and making excuses for his lapses. Some Democrats have tried to push back on the book by questioning this or picking at that, but come on, millions of Americans witnessed firsthand the pathetic and alarming former shell of himself that Biden displayed during the debate with Trump. Already, announced gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa (D), the former L.A. mayor, has very publicly taken Harris to task, demanding to know what she knew and when she knew it and criticizing her for not sounding an alarm about Biden's decrepitude. Just wait until the press gets her in their sights. And Harris will really have no good option: She will either have to throw Biden under the bus — an uncomfortable route given his recent cancer diagnosis, and her mum's-the-word approach until now — or claim she didn't witness the deterioration while sitting at his elbow, thus implicating herself in the cover-up. The emperor has no clothes, anyone? With all due respect to Harris, there is also the matter of her own presidential campaign. From a Democratic point of view, it was a total failure. She not only lost to Trump, of all people, but was the only Democratic nominee in the last 20 years to lose the popular vote. She lost all seven swing states — five of which had Democratic governors, and five of which had not one, but two Democratic senators. Democrats lost the Senate and failed to take back the House. She actually got a smaller share of the vote here in her own home state than Biden had in 2020. She even received fewer women's votes than Biden did in 2020. Does any of that shout, 'Hey, I should be able to waltz into the governor's office of the biggest state as a consolation prize?' Now, no doubt, a lot of Democrats in California would still support her, even if only as a big middle finger to Trump. But going for governor would inevitably result in a relitigation of questions about her flop of a run for president, as laid out in the best-selling book 'Fight,' a detailed chronicle of the 2024 race that sheds light on many of the missteps and mismanagement of her campaign. Again, I don't have a clue about Harris's intentions. But I do have some free advice about what she should be thinking about in making her decision. She's welcome. Garry South is a veteran Democratic strategist who has managed four campaigns for governor of California and two for lieutenant governor.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Karoline Leavitt rips Van Hollen, media for their portrayal of suspected human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called out Democrats and the media for defending illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Friday. Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to an El Salvador mega prison, was returned to the U.S. Friday to answer federal charges for human smuggling and conspiracy. "The Justice Department's Grand Jury Indictment against Abrego Garcia proves the unhinged Democrat Party was wrong, and their stenographers in the Fake News Media were once again played like fools," Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News. Democrats Celebrate Return Of Suspected Human Trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia "Abrego Garcia was never an innocent 'Maryland Man'– Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien terrorist, gang member, and human trafficker who has spent his entire life abusing innocent people, especially women and the most vulnerable," Leavitt added. She also called out Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who traveled to El Salvador in April "to show solidarity" with Abrego Garcia. Read On The Fox News App "Abrego Garcia will now return to the United States to answer for his crimes and meet the full force of American justice," Leavitt said. "The Democrat lawmakers, namely Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen, and every single so-called 'journalist' who defended this illegal criminal abuser must immediately apologize to Garcia's victims. The Trump Administration will continue to hold criminals accountable to the fullest extent of the law." Abrego Garcia previously lived in Maryland before the administration deported him to the Central American country's mega prison. According to Abrego Garcia's indictment, he played a "significant role" in a human smuggling ring operating for nearly a decade, and Bondi described him as a full-time smuggler who made more than 100 trips, transporting women, children and MS-13 gang-affiliated persons throughout the United States. Fox News Digital obtained Tennessee Highway Patrol bodycam footage from a 2022 traffic stop where troopers pulled over Abrego Garcia for speeding. Inside his vehicle were eight other men, raising immediate suspicions. "He's hauling these people for money," one trooper said. Law enforcement found $1,400 in cash and flagged Abrego Garcia in the National Crime Information Center, which returned a gang/terrorism alert. ICE was called, but never responded. Despite Abrego Garcia's alleged illegal activity, various media outlets continued to refer to him as a "Maryland man" Friday, including the Washington Post and the New York Times. Fox News contributor Guy Benson shared a screenshot of their Breaking News alerts using the phrase. Axios and USA TODAY referred to him as a "Maryland man" or "Maryland father" on social article source: Karoline Leavitt rips Van Hollen, media for their portrayal of suspected human trafficker Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
5 Absurd Ways Republicans Are Defending Kicking People Off Medicaid
WASHINGTON — In their zeal to deliver a big win to President Donald Trump by passing his sweeping tax and spending bill, Republicans have been coming up with ridiculous ways to defend their plan to strip health care from an estimated 11 million low-income people. Experts don't matter. Prove you are worthy of health care. We're all going to die anyway. Somehow, these are actual arguments GOP lawmakers and officials have been making as they try to gloss over the pain their bill would impose on poor people and families while handing big tax breaks to mostly rich people. Here are five of the most absurd ways Republicans have tried to defend their so-called Big Beautiful Bill, which guts federal health and food assistance programs by nearly $1.3 trillion. It was her first town hall of the year, held at 7:30 in the morning at a rural area two hours away from Des Moines — possibly to keep national attention off the senator as much as possible. Yet Republican Sen. Joni Erst of Iowa last week still managed to step in it with a flippant remarkto a woman concerned about Republican plans to cut Medicaid. 'People will die!' the woman shouted at the senator. 'Well, we all are going to die,' Ernst responded with a smirk. 'For heaven's sakes, folks.' The glib comment quickly went viral on social media and Democrats pounced on her words, featuring them on signs at press conferences around the U.S. Capitol this week as they blasted the GOP tax and spending bill. It even spurred Democratic state Rep. JD Scholten to announce his entry into the race to unseat Ernst, who faces reelection next year, and election handicappers to shift the raceslightly toward Democrats. Ernst later doubled down by filming a sarcastic apology video from a cemetery. 'I'm very compassionate,' she told a swarm of reporters this week. From the minute Republicans started drafting the legislation this year, they knew two things: They would limit eligibility for the childless adults without disabilities covered under the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion, saving hundreds of billions of dollars, and they would deny that the significant loss of coverage resulting from 'work requirements' — which would mostly kick people who have jobs off Medicaid by imposing new paperwork burdens on them — counted as a cut. In fact, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) explained in February, losing health care coverage would spur people to improve themselves, and they'd be better off for it. 'Work is good for you. You find dignity in work. And the people that are not doing that, we're going to try to get their attention,' Johnson said. 'So everyone needs to take a deep sigh of relief and understand that we're not going to harm any Americans with this. What we're doing is the right thing by the people.' The Congressional Budget Office said this week the proposed work requirements — better understood as a limit on benefits for people who don't prove to their state government they've participated in 80 hours per month of qualifying 'community engagement' activities — would reduce Medicaid enrollment by 5.2 million and save $344 billion over a decade. Ultimately, 4.8 million fewer people would have insurance in 2034. This week, Johnson's office pointed to a new analysis by the conservative American Enterprise Institute finding that unemployed Medicaid recipients who would be affected by the law typically spend 4.2 hours per day watching TV and playing video games, compared with 2.7 hours per day of TV and video games for Medicaid recipients with jobs. For Republicans, unemployed gamers are about as deserving of government assistance as undocumented immigrants, who are also targeted in the legislation. 'The next time a Democrat makes false claims about 'Medicaid cuts,' just remember that what they're really saying is they want illegal aliens and able-bodied adults playing video games at home to continue stealing resources from those who need it,' Johnson's office said in a statement. In a major analysis of work requirements that have been tried in various federal programs, however, the CBO found in 2022 that booting unemployed people off Medicaid didn't boost their employment. The budget office pointed to what happened when the first Trump administration let Arkansas implement a Medicaid work requirement in 2018. 'There, many of the targeted adults lost their health insurance as a result of the work requirement,' the CBO said. 'Employment did not appear to increase, although the evidence is scant. Research indicates that many participants were unaware of the work requirement or found it too onerous to demonstrate compliance.' Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.), lead author of the Republicans' Medicaid proposal, has said lawmakers learned from the Arkansas example and that the compliance paperwork in this case would be less onerous. GOP lawmakers have sought to undermine the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan federal agency that analyzes the fiscal effects of legislation, after it estimated that the massive tax cut package will add $2.4 trillion to the debt over the next 10 years and eliminate health insurance for nearly 11 million people. Republicans have argued that these tax cuts will spur economic growth and eventually pay for themselves, something that studies have shown did not happen after they made similar arguments about their 2017 tax cut bill. They also have a very vocal critic to contend with in billionaire Elon Musk, their one-time ally who has savaged the bill as an 'abomination' for how it will balloon the deficit. Appearing Thursday on CNN, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) also dismissed the CBO's projections about the nearly 11 million people who stand to lose their health care coverage. 'Can you say for certain no one will lose their health insurance?' CNN anchor Pamela Brown asked Scott. 'You just can't look at those numbers at face value and say they're going to happen,' Scott responded. Republicans who are willing to at least acknowledge that cutting Medicaid will lead to people losing health insurance argue that they will instead be able to find a job and receive employer-sponsored health care. 'People are screaming and saying, 'Hey, it's kicking people off Medicaid.' It's not kicking people off Medicaid,' Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) said in an interview with CNBC. 'It's transitioning from Medicaid to employer-provided health care. So, yes, we've got 10 million people that are not gonna be on Medicaid, but they then are gonna be on employer-provided health care.' That's an extremely optimistic prediction, especially since the GOP bill doesn't explicitly create any jobs itself. Even if those people who lose their Medicaid coverage are able to find a job at some point, not every employer offers health care, particularly for part-time roles. 'Few of those disenrolled from Medicaid because of the policy would have access to and enroll in employment-based coverage and none would be eligible for the premium tax credit,' CBO Director Phillip Swagel said in a letter to members of Congress on Wednesday. Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former TV personality now running the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said people should have to 'prove that you matter' to get Medicaid coverage. During a Wednesday interview on Fox Business, Oz defended the bill's harsh, new work requirements for Medicaid. The bill requires states to deny coverage to people age 19 to 64 applying for Medicaid if they're not already working at least 80 hours a month. It also requires states to kick people off Medicaid if they can't prove they're meeting the work requirements. The Congressional Budget Office estimates these work requirements alone will result in 5.2 million people losing their health coverage. 'We're asking that able-bodied individuals who are able to go back to work at least try to get a job or volunteer or take care of a loved one who needs help or go back into school,' Oz said. 'Do something that shows you have agency over your future.' If people aren't doing those things, he said, they'll have to get a job and get health insurance there because they shouldn't be covered by Medicaid anymore. 'Go out there. Do entry-level jobs. Get into the workforce. Prove that you matter,' Oz said. 'Get agency into your own life.' In fact, under the GOP bill, most people are projected to lose Medicaid coverage due to red tape, with states not automatically exempting certain people from work requirements who should be exempted. At least 2 in 3 enrollees would be kicked off Medicaid despite working or qualifying for an exemption, like having a disability or going to school, per the nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
