Consumers in Maryland lost millions of dollars to fraud and scams last year, as the nation as a whole hit a new benchmark for fraud losses: more than $10 billion in 2023. Marylanders made 43,433 fraud reports in 2023, according to data released by the Federal Trade Commission. Most of the reports — 14,968 — were for imposter scams, where a scammer impersonates a government or business official, or even a personal contact, to earn a person’s trust or intimidate them to get them to send money.
Work is underway on the first phase of a $96 million development in Park Heights as a push to redefine the long-ignored North Baltimore community gains momentum. The 100-unit senior housing tower now under construction is among a wave of new life in the area north of Pimlico Race Course that has been plagued with chronic vacancies, blight, poverty and violent crime.
Brandon Gruszczynski, who manages the LGBTQ Baltimore Eagle Bar & Nightclub in Old Goucher, fondly remembers a once-vibrant gay scene in Baltimore. It was during the ’90s and early 2000s when patrons could hop from bar to bar for hours on any given night or attend other activities, such as house parties, drag bingo or game and trivia nights throughout the week.
Even as lawmakers scramble during fiscally tight times to maximize funding for the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, legislative analysts are recommending temporarily withholding $150,000 from the Moore administration’s funding recommendation. A Maryland Senate subcommittee held a budget hearing Friday to review updates on the state’s education reform plan. A House subcommittee will follow suit on Monday.
House Bill 516, the Climate Crisis and Environmental Justice Act (CCEJ), introduced by Del. Diana Fennell (D-Prince George’s), provides funding to reach Maryland’s climate targets. The CCEJ fulfills the Moore administration’s pollution reduction plan recommendation for a funding mechanism to help provide $1 billion annually to achieve the state’s climate pollution reduction goals and invest in our state’s communities and local economy.
Gov. Wes Moore and the top prosecutors for Baltimore City and Prince George’s County will take part Monday evening in a panel discussion of juvenile justice issues in Maryland in a live program on WBFF-TV in Baltimore. Armstrong Williams, co-owner of The Baltimore Sun and commentator, will moderate the show at 7 p.m.
There have been at least 12 school shootings in the United States so far this year, as of February 16. Three were on college campuses, and nine were on K-12 school grounds. The incidents left seven people dead and at least 19 others injured, according to CNN’s analysis of events reported by the Gun Violence Archive, Education Week and Everytown for Gun Safety.
A plan to limit police use of facial recognition technology is likely on track to pass in this year’s session of the Maryland General Assembly, capping a multiyear effort with a compromise that’s drawn support from both law enforcement and public defenders. “The world’s going to end,” Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger joked during a hearing Tuesday in which he supported the legislation.
Recent media coverage of juvenile crime issues in Maryland should have us all worried. We lived through the “super-predator” era of the 1990s, when America’s young people were vilified as “godless, fatherless, and without conscience” and in need of being “brought to heel.” We have run two juvenile justice agencies between us and have worked a combined 65 years in the field of youth justice.
On the eve of the second anniversary of the state’s temporary takeover of the Back River sewage plant in 2022, Baltimore City is calling on a private company to manage its key facilities. The so-far-unannounced, no-bid contract with Operations Management International (OMI) will start at $50 million and could increase to $100 million over an eight-year period.