Democratic Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware says he will not seek reelection to a fifth term in the U.S. Senate. Carper announced Monday that he will retire when his current term expires in 2024. His announcement paves the way for a wide-open contest for the seat he has held since 2001 in heavily blue Delaware. He is the fourth Democratic senator to announce plans to retire in this coming cycle. Carper served five terms in the U.S. House and two terms as governor before being elected to the Senate in 2000. In the Senate, Carper built a reputation as a moderate lawmaker and a champion of environmental protection and the U.S. Postal Service.
Police say a man accused of pushing another man onto the tracks at a Baltimore subway station, electrocuting him, has been arrested in New York. Baltimore police say investigators found 39-year-old Joseph White of Baltimore at a Queens hotel Wednesday and arrested him. They say he'll be charged with first-degree murder after he's extradited to Baltimore. Police say investigators learned White pushed Christopher Foster onto the subway tracks at the Shot Tower station in downtown Baltimore on April 12, causing Foster's death. Police say the investigation revealed Foster was standing near the platform's edge when he was pushed from behind, fell onto the tracks and was electrocuted. He died on the scene.
A Senate bill requiring anyone in Delaware wanting to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted, undergo training and obtain permission from the state has cleared a House committee. The Democrat-led Judiciary Committee voted to release the bill Wednesday after a lengthy public hearing similar to one conducted in the Senate last month. The legislation was immediately reassigned to the Appropriations Committee for consideration of the price tag that comes with the new permit scheme. Gun-control advocates say the proposal will help reduce the number of homicides and suicides in Delaware. Opponents argue that the bill infringes on the rights of law-abiding citizens and will have no effect on criminals who ignore gun laws and are to blame for the state’s gun violence problem.
President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are turning to a select group of negotiators to help broker a deal to increase the nation’s borrowing authority and avoid the economic carnage that would ensue if a deal is not reached soon. Republican Rep. Garret Graves of Louisiana will represent House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Those representing Biden are presidential counselor Steve Ricchetti, legislative director Louisa Terrell and Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget. The four have been tapped as the hopeful closers on a debt-limit deal.
Body-camera footage released Tuesday shows a Baltimore police officer shot an armed teenager from behind during a foot pursuit. The chase lasted less than a minute before the officer fired four shots, leaving the teen hospitalized in critical condition. The officer who pulled the trigger was later identified as Detective Cedric Elleby, who joined the department in 2019. He has been placed on administrative duties. Witness accounts had already raised significant questions about whether the shooting was justified. Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison declined to comment Tuesday on whether it violated department policy. He promised “a thorough, transparent and extensive investigation.”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has signed gun-control measures that lawmakers approved in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year. The high court’s ruling in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen ended a requirement similar to a Maryland law for people to demonstrate a particular need to get a license to carry a concealed gun in public. One of the measures signed by Moore removes the “good and substantial reason” language from Maryland law that the court found unconstitutional in the Bruen case. But the Maryland General Assembly also tightened gun laws to prevent someone from carrying a concealed handgun in certain areas.
A former U.S. Post Office employee in Delaware who stole more than 100 packages from the mail over a course of several months will not serve any time in prison. A federal judge on Monday sentenced 33-year-old Jasmine Holloway to six months of home confinement followed by two years’ probation. That was the sentence recommended both by federal prosecutors and Holloway’s public defender. Holloway also was ordered to pay more than $32,000 in restitution. Holloway pleaded guilty last year to four counts of mail theft by a postal employee, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of five years for each count.
A state panel has boosted Delaware’s government revenue forecast but lowered its estimate for the fiscal year starting July 1. The panel on Monday raised the revenue forecast for this year by $62 million compared to its March forecast. Much of the gain is due to higher personal and corporate income tax projections. The panel reduced its estimate for fiscal 2024 by about $51 million. The change was due to a $71 million decline in estimated dividend and interest income amid volatility in the banking sector. That was partially offset by a slight uptick in corporate income tax projections. Lawmakers will use the latest estimates next week as they begin marking up Gov. John Carney’s proposed $5.5 billion general fund operating budget for next year.
A convicted child rapist whose crimes were recently highlighted in a state report on sex abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore has died in prison. Maryland's corrections agency says John Merzbacher died Friday of natural causes at the age of 81. Merzbacher was serving four life sentences for raping one of his students at a Catholic middle school in south Baltimore in the 1970s. He was accused of terrorizing dozens of students, including raping them at gunpoint. A yearslong investigation by the Maryland Attorney General's Office found more than 150 priests and others associated with the Baltimore archdiocese sexually abused over 600 children for decades, often with impunity.
A horse has died after a race at Churchill Downs, making it the eighth fatality in recent weeks at the home of the Kentucky Derby. Rio Moon died after the sixth race. According to Equibase chart notes on the race, the 3-year-old colt “suffered a catastrophic injury to his left foreleg a few strides after the wire.” The notes say Rio Moon was euthanized. The colt was trained by Dale Romans and was winless in six career starts with earnings of $11,621. Two horses were euthanized after being injured in races on the Kentucky Derby undercard on May 6. Five others were euthanized after training and racing incidents at the track in the days leading up to the Derby.
A Delaware judge has ruled in favor of Oracle founder Larry Ellison in a shareholder lawsuit alleging that he coerced the company into paying a grossly inflated price to acquire software corporation NetSuite. The shareholders argued that the $9.3 billion deal in 2016 should be subjected to a rigorous “entire fairness” review because Ellison was both a controlling shareholder of Oracle at the time and owned almost 40% of shares in NetSuite, which he cofounded in 1998. The lawsuit alleges that Oracle overpaid for NetSuite by $3 billion. The judge acknowledged Friday that Ellison was “a force” at Oracle and a face of the company. But he said Ellison was not a controlling shareholder of Oracle and that the company empowered a special committee to negotiate the deal.
A teenager critically wounded by Baltimore police Thursday afternoon was shot in the back while running from officers, according to an eyewitness account. Police said the 17-year-old ignored commands to drop the gun he was carrying during a foot pursuit through west Baltimore, but the witness account raises questions about whether the shooting was legally justified. Officials have declined to confirm numerous details about the shooting, including whether the teen was shot in the back. Department policy says officers can use deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect if the person poses an imminent threat or is in the process of committing a felony that could result in serious injury or death.
A group led by Josh Harris has agreed to buy the NFL’s Washington Commanders from longtime owner Dan Snyder and his family. The sides announced the deal in a joint statement Friday, roughly a month after they reached an agreement in principle on the sale for a record $6.05 billion. The deal is the highest price paid for a North American professional sports franchise. It is still pending approval of three-quarters of owners and other customary closing conditions. Harris’ group includes Washington-area billionaire Mitchell Rales and basketball Hall of Famer Magic Johnson. Snyder has owned the team since 1999.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has signed measures into law to help veterans, including tax relief on retirement income. Moore, who is a former U.S. Army captain and paratrooper, signed the legislation on Friday in Middle River, Maryland, at Martin State Airport, which is home to the Maryland Air National Guard. Moore, a Democrat, prioritized a tax relief measure for military retirees called the Keep Our Heroes Home Act, because it’s designed as an incentive for veterans to stay in Maryland, instead of moving to another state with more favorable tax conditions.
Thousands of doctors and nurses signed on to work in the country’s most desperate regions during the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for forgiveness of medical school debt. But now, with the public health emergency over, expansion of the program that brought them onboard is in jeopardy, even as people struggle to get timely and quality care because of an industry-wide dearth of workers. Funding for the National Health Service Corps expires at the end of September. Last year, just over 20,000 people were corps members — up 50% from 13,000 people in 2019.
A teenager is in critical condition Thursday afternoon after being shot by a Baltimore police officer. Officials say the shooting followed a foot pursuit during which police repeatedly ordered the teen, who was armed, to drop his weapon. An officer initially approached the 17-year-old because he was “displaying characteristics of an armed person,” Baltimore Police Deputy Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters at the scene. He didn't answer questions about whether the teen pointed his gun at police or whether he was shot in the back. Residents of the west Baltimore neighborhood reacted with anger, demanding to know why the shooting was necessary.
Maryland officials have announced a public awareness campaign to remind Medicaid recipients to renew their coverage. That's because the federal government is reinstating a requirement that existed before the COVID-19 pandemic for states to verify eligibility. Maryland officials made the announcement at a bilingual news conference in front of the Maryland State House on Thursday. It came on the same day that the nation’s COVID-19 health emergency was ending. Officials are calling it a “Medicaid Check-in” for the nearly 1.8 million Medicaid participants in the state during what’s known as the redetermination period, which began in April and runs through May 2024.
A 123-year-old schooner that was once declared the “Official Windjammer of Maine” by state lawmakers has a new owner, and it will be leaving Maine. Two brothers who are lifelong sailors had the winning bid this week for the Victory Chimes. Miles and Alex Pincus, who operate two floating restaurants in New York, haven’t yet decided what they will do with the schooner. It will eventually be leaving Maine, but the final location has not been decided. The vessel, currently based in Rockland, Maine, is on the National Register of Historical Places.
“The Queen’s Gambit” is playing out in real life in Maine, where a custodian is coaching his schools’ chess teams to national acclaim. Part-time chess coach and full-time custodian David Bishop led his elementary and middle school teams to state championship titles this year, drawing comparisons to the Netflix series about a chess prodigy inspired by a janitor. Bishop’s coaching success follows a happy twist of fate. He took the school's custodial job after taking an early retirement package at age 50. He didn't even know about the chess club. Now, members of the team say chess has taught them to to be strategic and to consider the ramifications of decisions.
The formal end of the national Public Health Emergency on Thursday is largely a symbolic and psychological step, representing the country’s formal emergence from the COVID-19 pandemic. But behind the scenes, several core aspects of America’s pandemic-era emergency safety net are also coming to a close, from extra food assistance to automatic enrollment in Medicaid. While these measures were always designed to be temporary, their expiration is inevitably producing hardship and confusion.
A Delaware judge has refused to dismiss a shareholder lawsuit alleging that Facebook officers and directors violated both the law and their fiduciary duties in failing for years to protect the privacy of user data. The judge Wednesday said the plaintiffs had demonstrated that demanding that Facebook’s board take legal action before filing their shareholder lawsuit would have been futile because board members have disqualifying conflicts. While noting that he was required to accept the allegations in the complaint as true for purposes of ruling on the motion, the judge said the lawsuit suggests that Facebook officials engaged in or allowed wrongdoing “on a truly colossal scale.”
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation that would require the National Archives to screen documents leaving the White House for classified material. It's the first major proposal to respond to a series of intelligence breaches over the last year. Under the bills unveiled Wednesday, anytime a president seeks to classify a mix of official and unofficial papers as personal records, the archivist would first have to conduct a security review to ensure nothing is classified. In the cases of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and former Vice President Mike Pence, classified material was found commingled with personal records.
Authorities in western Maryland say a 20-year-old man was killed and three college students were wounded in a shooting at a party. The Allegany County Combined Criminal Investigation Unit says the gunfire broke out early Sunday at a student rental property near Frostburg State University. Alexander Ramon Redondo of Westernport died after being taken to a hospital. He was not enrolled at Frostburg State. Two female students were hospitalized in stable condition. Investigators did not immediately respond to an email Wednesday seeking an update on their condition. Officials have not announced any arrests.
House Republicans are facing growing pressure to show progress in their investigations. On Wednesday they plan to detail what they say are concerning new findings about President Joe Biden’s family and their finances. The smoking gun, according to the GOP, is “thousands of pages” of recently obtained financial records that include more than 150 suspicious activity reports connected to the president’s son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden, as well as a growing number of associates. These reports can be routine, but Republicans believe the records could potentially show an effort by the president and his family to trade off his name.
Maryland’s highest court has reversed a ruling by a lower court that the state’s first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising was unconstitutional. In a ruling released Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Maryland said the lower court lacked jurisdiction over the case because the plaintiffs failed to exhaust administrative remedies. In an order, Justice Matthew Fader, the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Maryland, remanded the case back to Anne Arundel County Circuit Court with directions to dismiss its action for reasons that will be stated in a later opinion. The four-page order does not make any ruling on the constitutionality of the law.
Authorities have charged a former Delaware middle school teacher with multiple counts of rape of a student. Delaware State Police say 42-year-old Reed Messer was extradited to Delaware on Monday after being arrested at her home in Greenville, South Carolina. Authorities say the former Stanton Middle School teacher began a sexual relationship with a juvenile student in 2014 in Wilmington that lasted for about two months. Messer has been certified as a teacher in South Carolina since 2015. She faces more than 20 felony counts and is being held in custody with bond set at $310,000 cash. The court docket did not list an attorney for Messer.
Jill Biden says writing about her grief after her son's death helped her cope. The first lady shared her experience Tuesday with the children and siblings of service members who died in the line of duty. She joined the group via video at their writing seminar in Texas sponsored by The War Horse. The nonprofit newsroom publishes stories about the human fallout of military service. Biden says she was reluctant to write about the grief she felt over her son Beau Biden. But she says she later realized that writing about it helped give her the strength to carry the grief.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A summer day camp designed to help kids develop resiliency and healthy social-emotional skills returns to five northcentral West Virginia counties this summer. Camp Mindful Warriors, a program presented by the West Virginia University Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute’s …
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