Maryland’s inspector general for education says the Baltimore County school system failed to provide adequate security for its computer network servers, despite several warnings from the state in the years preceding a devastating ransomware attack in 2020. The investigative report published Monday places the school system partially at fault for the hack that disrupted school operations days before the Thanksgiving holiday in 2020, when all instruction and school board meetings were taking place online due to the coronavirus pandemic. The report offers new details about the cause of the attack, the total cost of recovery and actions taken by the Baltimore County school system prior to the incident.
Baltimore prosecutors and a city judge collaborated behind closed doors to “choreograph” the hearing where Adnan Syed’s conviction stemming from the killing of Hae Min Lee was overturned, attorneys representing her brother in an appeal seeking to restore his conviction have alleged. In a filing Monday evening — the last before oral arguments for the case in the Appellate Court of Maryland on Feb. 2 — Young Lee’s lawyers ramped up claims of impropriety in the proceedings that freed Syed, while doubling down on previous legal arguments and distinguishing their client’s position from that of Maryland’s attorney general’s office.
Howard University has been awarded a five-year, $90 million contract to lead a research center focused on technology for military systems, university and defense officials announced Monday, the first such center at a historically Black college or university. The new center, funded by the Defense Department and the Air Force, will focus on tactical autonomy technology for military systems. The investment reflects efforts by military leaders to promote and draw upon expertise that better reflects the country they are protecting — and correct biases and problems that weaken it.
President Joe Biden will return to Baltimore next week to tout federal funding to replace the roughly 150-year-old Baltimore and Potomac Tunnel, a project the administration says will address the largest bottleneck for rail commuters between Washington, D.C., and New Jersey. The Democratic president will visit Jan. 30 as part of a two-day trip with a New York City stop, as well, to showcase funding under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
Sen. Chris Van Hollen will join Morgan State’s faculty and students later this Monday morning to celebrate the enactment of his HBCU Rise Act, which became law this past December. The bipartisan bill creates a new program within the U.S. Department of Defense to make it easier for historically Black colleges to achieve r1 status — which is very high research activity status. For Maryland’s HBCUs, that means more money will flow in for research.
City officials are hoping to facilitate improvements in customer service for local cable customers by striking a new franchise agreement with current provider Breezeline. Cumberland Mayor Ray Morriss and the City Council discussed the possibilities of a new arrangement with the provider at a work session held at City Hall on last week. The city and Breezeline are currently operating on terms outlined in a contract that expired at the end of 2020.
In Episode 48, Damian is joined by Brian O’Malley, President and CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance for a discussion on Transit Oriented Development, the power of public transit, and Maryland’s transportation future.
As always, we hope to see you soon, in The Lobby.
A key gauge of family poverty, children who qualify for free or reduced-price meals in public schools, is skyrocketing in Baltimore County. Roughly 66% of the children in the county school system currently qualify for either free or reduced-price meals, according to statistics on the school system’s website. That’s up from about 44% just five years ago. Advocates say it shows that more families in the county are struggling and that school meals should be free for all children. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, all public-school children across the country were offered free meals. The federal government ended that program last summer. Now families have to apply for free and reduced-price meals.
Maryland 529 board chair Peter Tsirigotis turned in his resignation Friday, one day after facing withering criticism from state lawmakers for the agency’s handling of problems with one of Maryland’s college savings plans. Tsirigotis, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment, appeared before the Maryland House Appropriations Committee on Thursday to explain why hundreds of families have been unable to access all of the money in their Maryland Prepaid College Trust accounts. “As a parent of college-age children, I can relate to and share the frustrations expressed by the account holders,” Tsirigotis told lawmakers. “We are focused on resolving the issues for the account holders as swiftly as possible. However, we realize in retrospect that more could have been done to provide account holders with updated information.”
The oldest continuously operating African American community theater in the country has received $5.2 million in state and federal funding to upgrade its aging building. Arena Players Inc., located at 801 McCulloh St. in Baltimore, will use the funds to upgrade its building, which the theater has used since 1962 and bought in 1969, according to its website. U.S. Senators Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin along with Congressman Kweisi Mfume helped secure the $4 million in federal funding as part of the recent omnibus funding legislation. The theater was also allocated $1.2 million for the project through the state’s fiscal year 2023 capital budget last year.
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