April 19th, 2019 by WCBC Radio

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan signed close to 200 bills into law on Thursday morning- among those  are measures that will give authorities more leeway in prosecuting perpetrators of hate crimes and online bullying. One bill prohibits even making a threat of a hate crime, inspired by a spate of bomb threats made to Baltimore-area Jewish community centers in 2017.  Another could dramatically expand data available on hate crime trends, requiring Maryland State Police to begin tracking and publicly reporting actions directed at a victim or victims because of their skin color, religious beliefs, gender, disability, national origin or homelessness. Governor Hogan highlighted some of the bills prior to signing them into law…