State Roundup, May 4, 2015

Listen to this article

CURFEW LIFTED:  Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake on Sunday lifted Baltimore’s citywide curfew, effective immediately. The curfew, as originally ordered, was scheduled to last through Tuesday morning. The lift comes after several days of peaceful protests across the city, reports Ryan Sharrow in the Baltimore Business Journal. Businesses across city, standing to lose thousands of dollars due to closing early, also appealed for an end to the curfew.

TROOPS DEMOBILIZING: Gov. Larry Hogan says the Maryland National Guard has begun demobilizing the 3,000 troops brought into Baltimore after rioting broke out last week, a process that will take about three days. Hogan said Sunday that the state of emergency won’t be lifted until the last of the National Guard has left. He says he and Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake spoke and they agree that it is time to get the community back to normal again. He says lifting the curfew is a good idea, according to WBAL-AM and the Associated Press.

Hogan Jennings Singh

Among the citizen soldiers on patrol in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was Senate Minority Leader J.B. Jennings, center, a member of the Air National Guard, shown here with Adjutant General Linda Singh and Gov. Larry Hogan.

INSIDER LOOK AT THE PROBE: Justin George of the Sun offers an insightful and interesting look into how a Baltimore Police team probed the Freddie Gray injuries in secret since April 13, an investigation that is ongoing. It’s topped by a video with Justin George.

THE PROBE: Investigators believe Freddie Gray suffered serious head injuries while he was in a police transport van, although they have not concluded how the injuries occurred, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation. Lynh Bui, Arelis Hernández and Matt Zapotosky report in the Post. The article is topped by a graphic on those charged.

THE CHARGES: Jean Marbella of the Sun writes that State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby charged the driver of the van with second-degree murder and the other officers with offenses that included involuntary manslaughter, vehicular manslaughter, second-degree assault, false imprisonment and misconduct in office. The officers were taken into custody Friday and released on bail.

LEGAL EXPERTS REACT: Legal experts are divided on whether Mosby over-reached, reacted too early or acted appropriately considering the facts, writes Liz Bowie and Michael Dresser in the Sun.

THE CHARGED: Sun staffers offer profiles of each police officer charged. Begin by clicking here and scroll down into the copy.

THE PROSECUTOR: Jackie Northam of National Public Radio profiles Marilyn Mosby, a mother of two daughters who comes from five generations of law enforcement officials, including her mother and father, aunts and uncles. Her grandfather was a founding member of the first association for black police officers in Massachusetts.

PROTESTERS FREED? A Baltimore judge is expected to rule this morning on whether the city must release from custody people who were arrested during last week’s riots and held more than 24 hours before seeing a district court commissioner, reports Steve Lash for the Daily Record.

WHO’S TO BLAME: Columnist Barry Rascovar writes in MaryandReporter.com that the roots of this civil unrest in Baltimore City will be analyzed for decades. One obvious flash point could become a bone of contention in the Democratic presidential campaign. Another could dominate next year’s election for mayor. History may record that both Martin O’Malley and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, mayors past and present, bear partial responsibility for what went wrong in Baltimore over the last week.

PHOTOS: Baltimore Magazine rounds up a bunch of photos from everywhere about what was happening in Baltimore during the lengthy peaceful times during the past week.

RACISM: For the May 11 issue of the New Yorker, Jelani Cobb writes about racism and Baltimore, saying “we have grown adroit at feigning astonishment at the episodic convulsions of violence in American cities, but that doesn’t make them any less predictable or their roots any less apparent.”

BALTIMORE ON MEET THE PRESS: Here’s the best two minutes of Meet the Press, where the main topic the unrest in Baltimore with Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and former Mayor Martin O’Malley — and of course speculation on whether he will run for president now.

JAYNE MILLER’S CONFLICT: While the FOP was claiming that State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby had a conflict of interest, it and David Zurawik, media columnist for the Sun, also point to WBAL-TV’s investigative reporter Jayne Miller, who is in a personal and insider relationship with the top prosecutor in Mosby’s office.

POLLUTION CURBS: State lawmakers gave their reluctant approval Friday to a watered-down plan by the Hogan administration to curb smog-forming air pollution from Maryland’s coal-fired power plants. While clearing the way for modest emission reductions this summer, members of the Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review Committee said they were “extremely concerned” by the “lack of details and continued delays” in the administration’s proposal to require even deeper, long-term cuts in power plant pollution, writes Timothy Wheeler for the Sun.

SEN. AND DEL.YOUNG: Bethany Rodgers of the Frederick News Post profiles Karen Lewis Young and Ron Young.  Among certain circles, Karen Lewis Young might speak of her husband without mentioning his name or the fact that he’s her partner in life, instead referring to him as “the senator from my district.” And she is the delegate from his.

SEAFOOD WORKERS NEEDED: U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., made a push in a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing last week to a U.S. department secretary to conduct an immediate audit of the nation’s non-immigrant H-2B visas. According to a letter Mikulski delivered to Secretary of the U.S. Department Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, more than 40% of Maryland’s seafood processors have been unable to get the workers needed for the 2015 crab season, Josh Bollinger reports for the Easton Star Democrat.

GUITERREZ TO RUN: Louis Peck of Bethesda Magazine writes that Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez of Chevy Chase planned to file on Friday as a candidate for the 8th District congressional seat, making her the fourth candidate to jump into the contest for the Democratic nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen.

EDWARDS, VAN HOLLEN SPAR: The two Democratic candidates running for Senate in Maryland came out swinging in their first formal exchange on Sunday, debating each other’s commitment to Social Security, effectiveness in office and electability in next year’s general election, John Fritze reports for the Sun.

LEWIS TO CHAIR VAN HOLLEN RUN: Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the Montgomery County Democrat who is running for Senate, picked up the endorsement Sunday of former state Democratic party chairwoman Yvette Lewis. Lewis, a former teacher who lives in Prince George’s County, also will chair Van Hollen’s statewide campaign. She announced in March she was stepping down from the post to spend more time with her family, writes John Fritze for the Sun.

CARSON TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT: The Republican field of candidates for president continues to widen. Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson is expected to make a major announcement at an event tomorrow in his hometown of Detroit. But in an exclusive interview, Carson tells WBFF-TV’s Jeff Barnd he is in the race for the White House in 2016.

 

About The Author

Cynthia Prairie

cynthiaprairie@gmail.com
https://www.chestertelegraph.org/

Contributing Editor Cynthia Prairie has been a newspaper editor since 1979, when she began working at The Raleigh Times. Since then, she has worked for The Baltimore News American, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Prince George’s Journal and Baltimore County newspapers in the Patuxent Publishing chain, including overseeing The Jeffersonian when it was a two-day a week business publication. Cynthia has won numerous state awards, including the Maryland State Bar Association’s Gavel Award. Besides compiling and editing the daily State Roundup, she runs her own online newspaper, The Chester Telegraph. If you have additional questions or comments contact Cynthia at: cynthiaprairie@gmail.com

Support Our Work!

We depend on your support. A generous gift in any amount helps us continue to bring you this service.

Facebook

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Subscribe To Our Newsletter

Join our mailing list to receive the latest news and updates from our team.

You have Successfully Subscribed!