Baltimore native (and “The Good Wife” star) Josh Charles, “The Wire” actor Jamie Hector and “The Walking Dead” alum Jon Bernthal will star in a new HBO series depicting the exploits of the city’s corrupt Gun Trace Task Force. HBO’s “We Own This City,” based on Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton’s book of the same name, on Wednesday announced its director and three lead actors.
Representatives of the Maryland community joined MHA to thank hospitals during National Hospital Week. Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott introduces performances by the Morgan State University Choir and Fatal Attraction Step Squad from Coach G Academy and works for art by the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
For the second time in three years a state audit of Maryland’s health insurance exchange system found continued problems in the program’s verification of some applicants’ income to determine their eligibility for Medicaid over a three-year period. A 2018 audit of the quasi-governmental agency that oversees the Maryland health exchange found similar problems with Medicaid eligibility screenings over fiscal years 2015 to 2017. The latest review, examining fiscal years 2018 to 2020, found that the Medicaid eligibility process did not take some applicants’ federal tax data into account, limiting it to only state wage information.
Construction for the Guardians of the 1st Amendment Memorial, slated to be completed in June, is back on track after poor building conditions on the site required an additional $200,000 in construction work. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved a $300,000 grant Wednesday to partially fund the memorial at Newman Park in Annapolis. The original cost was budgeted for the grant amount, but soggy, unstable soil required the removal of dirt and rock, hauling in new soil and installing steel helical piles — a type of foundation anchor that screws into the earth. The project will now cost roughly half a million dollars.
Maryland ranks near the bottom among states in terms of the pace of its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a recent study. The WalletHub study was released on Tuesday. It said that Maryland is the state with the 10th slowest recovery from COVID-19. South Dakota has the fastest recovery of any state and Michigan has the slowest recovery of any state. Minnesota, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Washington, D.C., Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey are the other states/jurisdictions that have slower recoveries than Maryland.
Last month’s shooting death of a 13-year-old in Capitol Heights, Maryland, was allegedly committed by another child, who is 12 years old. And during a news briefing on Tuesday, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks said the death of King Douglas is a reflection not only of the pandemic’s toll on young minds, but also of the adults in the community. “What they mirror is what we give them,” said Alsobrooks, who pointed to an uptick in juvenile-involved carjackings and homicides over the last year.
A day after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced masks were no longer required outdoors in the state, a host of key coronavirus metrics, including hospitalizations and testing positivity, continued to decline. Maryland has recorded fewer than 1,000 cases for four of the last seven daysbut has averaged 1,047 new cases daily for the last two weeks. The 14-day average is about 300 cases lower than a spring high April 17 and down from a pandemic peak of 2,949 Jan. 12, during a post-holiday surge of the virus.
Four men were shot in Baltimore on Thursday, police said, as the violence threatened to push the city to 100 homicides in 2021, a week ahead of last year’s pace. Officers responding to a ShotSpotter alert of gunfire just after 7 p.m. in the 2700 block of Riggs Ave. found a man suffering from gunshot wounds, police said. Medics took the victim to the hospital, and his name, age and condition were not released.
Baltimore City CEO Sonja Santelises is proposing a small increase in her school system operating budget for next year, but an infusion of some $700 million in federal funds over the next four years will help defray pandemic related costs. The $1.18 billion general fund budget would increase spending by only $10 million over this year even as the school system tries to return to normal next school year, saying it intends to have students come back full time, five days a week.
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