AUDIT: SSA MAY HAVE HOUSED FOSTER KIDS WITH REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS: Maryland failed to protect children under state care from being placed in homes where registered sex offenders lived. It’s one of numerous findings listed in an audit of the Social Services Administration that came out Wednesday. The audit documented additional problems ranging from lack of medical care for foster children to children living in hotels instead of homes. Pamela Wood and Brenda Wintrode/The Baltimore Banner.
- The 70-page audit released Wednesday includes a slate of concerning findings dating back to 2008 and new findings that include nearly $700,000 in penalties for failing to meet federal foster care service requirements. Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
- According to the audit, from May 2020 to May 2024 the SSA did not ensure criminal background checks were conducted on workers interacting with children. One employee was charged with sexual assault of a minor and with crimes related to the children in his care. Chevall Pryce/The Baltimore Sun.
CRITICAL SOCIAL SERVICES AUDIT PROMPTS LEGISLATIVE HEARINGS: Maryland lawmakers plan to hold hearings in coming weeks on reports that the Social Services Administration may have let children in its care be housed with registered sex offenders, just one of many allegations in an audit of a “broken” agency. Nicole Pilsbury and Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters.
COMMUNITY BLOWBACK OVER LANDFILL DISCHARGE REQUEST: A Baltimore County landfill’s request to discharge additional potentially toxic runoff into the Gunpowder River met fierce blowback from nearly 200 community members and elected officials who packed a public hearing Tuesday evening and raised concerns about harm to local waterways. Sapna Bansil/The Baltimore Banner.
FERGUSON HESITATES ON REDRAWING CONGRESSIONAL MAPS: Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said Tuesday it’s too early to commit to legislation to redraw the state’s congressional districts before the next Census. Del. David Moon and Sen. Clarence Lam have said they will sponsor bills to redraw the state’s eight congressional districts, in response to redistricting in Texas and other states aimed at shoring up the Republican majority in the House ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Bryan Sears and William Ford/Maryland Matters.
COMPTROLLER LIERMAN LAUNCHES REELECTION BID: Maryland Comptroller Brooke Lierman launched her reelection bid on Wednesday, asking voters to give her four more years as the state’s top tax collector so she can continue to modernize the office. Pamela Wood/The Baltimore Banner.
NEW STATE PARK TO CELEBRATE FAMILY WHO FOUNDED AFRO NEWSPAPER: For more than 60 years, the dense forests of Patuxent River State Park have cradled a secret. Vines and tall grasses hid the homes of a Black family who triumphed over the horrors of slavery, built a thriving community and launched the AFRO-American newspaper chain. “The Howard family in one generation experienced the full arc of the African-American experience,” said Angela Crenshaw, director of the Maryland Park Service. Julie Scharper/The Baltimore Banner.
BALTIMORE COUNTY LACKS FREE PUBLIC POOLS: Baltimore County does not have a single public pool that is free to residents, while the city of Baltimore has 16 — several of which are newly renovated, thanks to $41 million in Covid-19 relief funds. Rona Kobell/The Baltimore Banner.
NEW MICROSOFT CENTER PART OF STATE QUANTUM SCIENCE PUSH: Microsoft is opening a new quantum research center near the University of Maryland, part of a push to make the state a hub for quantum science. Gov. Wes Moore said Wednesday the center will be built in the University of Maryland’s Discovery District in College Park. Christian Olaniran/WJZ-TV News.
We pay way too much in taxes in this state for State Agencies to fail such as SSA. Not to mention fail our children by allowing these children, who are already living a life of hell, to be housed with predators and even have employees not vetted right. And to think these problems go back to 2008! This is disgraceful. How many of our other agencies are failing us in this state. We’re obviously not hiring the best people to push the operations to their best. We should expect more of our gov’t services. They want to justify higher taxes to pay for all of their programs and pet projects only to waste waste waste and not get results we as MDers deserve. But this agency in particular is especially disconcerting as we failed the most vulnerable of our community, children in foster care. About a 1/3 of the US population has been sexually abused within their lifetime. This is a serious problem within our society. The DEMS that run this state always want to claim they are doing the right thing. 100+ years of Dem rule has made our state incompetent and continue back scratching policies within the connected society. These are the results we get. Oh we’ll conduct hearings now that we’ve been failed for 18 years. 18 years of child sexual abuse and incompetence within SSA! So i ask how many other agencies in our state are failing us. Don’t ask for higher taxes next year Annapolis, you don’t deserve them until you cut, streamline, oversee, and upgrade our agencies to be more efficient with less.