Maryland Juice Is Back! - Meet Our New Writer (And Hopefully More Soon) // So What Now? We Kind of Have An Idea....

Aaaaand we're back! Sorry for the 10 month hiatus, but Maryland Juice founder David Moon stepped away from his writing duties to learn how to become a lawmaker in Annapolis. During that period, a lot of good political news went uncovered, but in recent months some new blogs and local publications have stepped into the Maryland press void. We hope to re-join this community in the coming weeks -- but as always, we will do so from the lens of Maryland's progressive Democratic community, with a twist of civil liberties and justice blended into your juice. :)

Unfortunately (or fortunately), Maryland Juice 1.0 (David Moon) will be taking an indefinite hiatus from his writing duties and lining up new writers for the blog. During this transition period, he'll be helping the new writers understand the readership data for Maryland Juice, it's writing style, etc. The goal will be to keep the mission of the blog the same (eg: justice oriented Maryland political news), but to bring some new voices into the mix. That being said, all story ideas and press distribution should go to the new writers. Moon is going to be shifting into a passive role with the blog. We'll see where this takes us.....

OH SNAP, NEW WRITERS! - The first of the new writers under the Maryland Juice 2.0 reboot will be Matt Verghese, a Montgomery County-based Democratic politico. He's kicking us off with a handful of articles on voter suppression in MoCo, endorsements in Maryland's Congressional races, and a summary of recent state polling results. Add this guy to your press list & send him some juicy leads: matt@marylandjuice.com.

Meet Matt Verghese, a Maryland Juice 2.0 writer

WHO IS THIS GUY ANYWAY? - Matt Verghese comes to Maryland Juice after a long stint in Annapolis - including working for the General Assembly, serving as Political and Communications Director of the Maryland Democratic Party, and as Lt. Governor Anthony Brown's Deputy Chief of Staff. He's been involved in a number of campaigns - including Governor O'Malley's 2010 reelect, serving as Deputy Coordinated Campaign Director in 2012, and the 2014 gubernatorial race. He currently works as a Senior Aide to Tom Hucker at the Montgomery County Council.

Matt is lover of all things Maryland - especially the Terps, berger cookies, crabs smothered in Old Bay, and local craft beers. He's opinionated (extremely so according to some), happily biased against outdated trickle-down reactionary policies and the politicians who espouse them, and a wonkish enthusiast of data, tables and charts. Matt lives in Montgomery County and is a proud graduate of MCPS. He received both his bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Maryland. You can reach Matt Verghese at matt@marylandjuice.com.

Washington Post Names Maryland Juice One of America's "Best State-Based Political Blogs" // 718,707 Pageviews & Counting!

Today Maryland Juice was named one of America's "best state-based political blogs" by The Washington Post's bloggers at The Fix. Hat tip: @MattVerghese:

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza explained how they assembled their 2013 list of best state political blogs (excerpt below):

WASHINGTON POST: After weeks of combing through, literally, thousands of nominations we are ready to unveil the Fix’s 2013 list of the best state-based political blogs! .... This is your United States.... In many states we got so many nominations that we had to name more than one blog as best. In three states — Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia — we got NO nominations. But we didn’t want to hold the whole process up simply because those three states couldn’t keep up.

A note: All of these blogs are nominated by Fix readers. Many of them are partisan — on both sides — and it should go without saying that we don’t endorse the opinions expressed in them. But, we are saying it anyway....

THANK YOU FOR READING MARYLAND JUICE! - Maryland Juice has now reached over 718,707 Pageviews and counting. I wanted to pause and truly thank readers for sticking with us. As always, it is a pleasure to serve your information consumption needs, and please keep the Juice flowing!

Baltimore Brewing: Police Say Failed Mayoral Candidate, Circuit Court Clerk Brandished Gun at Local Blogger During Fight

UPDATE: The Sun follows up on the Conaway-Meister fight with news of potential criminal charges:

State police said Baltimore Clerk of Circuit Court Frank M. Conaway Sr.'s permit to carry a concealed handgun expired in March, raising the possibility that he could face criminal charges after Monday's altercation with a blogger.... Conaway said he had a permit to carry the weapon, but state police spokeswoman Elena Russo said records show it expired in March.

Carrying a handgun without a permit is a misdemeanor that carries a minimum penalty of 30 days in jail and a maximum of three years. But there's a major sticking point: Even if Conaway's permit lapsed, he would be allowed to possess the gun on his own property, and there were differing accounts of whether Conaway stepped off the property.

Conaway, 78, said Tuesday that he remained inside the fenced-in portion of his yard....

Conaway says he did not attempt to punch Meister and countered with a claim that Meister tried to "karate kick" him.

City police officers who were in the area on other business witnessed the incident, but the Police Department withheld its report Tuesday as prosecutors deliberated over whether to bring charges against the two men....

But Conaway would not be in danger of losing the elected office he has held since 1998 — the Maryland Constitution says an elected official must step down only if convicted of a felony, or a misdemeanor related to his work in office....

Conaway said he believed he should have been alerted that his permit had lapsed: "I was never notified. I think there's an obligation on the part of the state police to notify" permit owners, he said....

Meister has vowed to continue writing about the Conaway family and said his actions were protected as free speech.

Some of the city's black leaders were rallying around Conaway on Tuesday, saying Meister had crossed the line and was harassing Conaway.

WBAL Interviews B'more Blogger Adam Meister

Maryland Juice this morning received an unusual email from feisty Baltimore political blogger Adam Meister. The subject of his message was "Clerk of Circuit Court of Baltimore City may have pulled gun during argument." Mr. Meister writes Charm City Current's "Politics Meister" blog, and he has often tangled with the Conaway family of elected officials. His past blog posts about the property tax issues of recently defeated City Councilmember Belinda Conaway led to lawsuits and apparently lingering bad blood. Mr. Meister's email today noted:

The political family that sued me is at it again! Apparently the father who is Clerk of the Circuit court of Baltimore at the very least had a gun when he argued with me on the sidewalk yesterday!