Christopher B. Shank

Slamming the Washington County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association for excessive overhead expenses and hoarded cash, state legislators Tuesday asked the county's volunteer fire and rescue companies to consider ways to streamline the association, leaving...

Donald F. Munson, who lost his state Senate seat last fall, has abandoned his plan to become a lobbyist. “I decided that lobbying wasn’t for me in life,” Munson said Wednesday. “My desire in life was to be in public service.&...

It cost about $96,000 to shelter, feed and transport eight state lawmakers representing Washington County during the last legislative session in Annapolis. All eight members of the Washington County delegation to the Maryland General Assembly were...

During a meeting with state legislators Monday, local construction contractors appealed for lower taxes, lower wage requirements for state contracts, fewer safety regulations and an end to a state program promoting use of minority-owned firms for state...

Two local Republican lawmakers — state Sen. Christopher B. Shank and Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr. — are considering jumping into a 6th Congressional District race if 10-term GOP incumbent Roscoe G. Bartlett bows out. Even though Bartlett, 85,...

Potential Congressional candidate picks up endorsements State Sen. Robert J. Garagiola hasn’t committed yet to running for the 6th District Congress seat, yet on Monday, his campaign released a list of 17 Democratic state senators and delegates...

Local school officials hope state education funding won't be taken away, unfunded mandates can be prevented and money can be spread around more fairly. Those sentiments were part of the message the Washington County Board of Education and school system...

A panel considering how to redraw Maryland's legislative boundaries started its state listening tour Saturday morning in Hancock. Five people spoke at a hearing of the Governor's Redistricting Advisory Committee at Hancock Middle-Senior High School....

Maryland State Sen. Christopher B. Shank wants the state to renegotiate a proposed lease for a company to build a $70 million solar farm on prison land near Hagerstown. His complaint is the lease price: $128 an acre per year, which he says is...

Maryland is dropping its sales tax on certain products for a week, an effort timed to coincide with back-to-school shopping. Shop Maryland Week will be Aug. 14 to 20. Qualifying apparel and footwear will be exempt from the state’s 6 percent...

Christopher B. Shank said his strongest feeling about the debt-ceiling battle in Washington, D.C., is as an American citizen, not as a Maryland state senator. “I am deeply frustrated at both sides at their inability to get the job done,”...

Know how sometimes you get a song stuck in your head and you just can’t seem to shake it? That “Isn’t it ironic?” tune from a few years back has been playing in mine ever since a local Republican lawmaker complained about a...