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.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has announced plans to file a series of lawsuits on behalf of people who suffered child sexual abuse at the hands of Catholic priests and other clergy in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The planned civil claims come after Maryland lawmakers recently eliminated the statute of limitations for child sex abuse lawsuits amid increased scrutiny of the archdiocese's troubled history of misconduct and coverup. That law change will go into effect Oct. 1. A report released last month by the Maryland Attorney General's Office found that more than 150 clergy sexually abused over 600 children and perpetually escaped accountability for decades.
Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks has announced she will run for the U.S. Senate seat that is opening with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin. Alsobrooks, a Black Democrat, joins a growing field of candidates since the longtime senator from Maryland announced he would not seek reelection last week. Prince George’s County, which is in the suburbs of the nation’s capital, is Maryland’s second-largest jurisdiction with a population approaching 1 million people. The county has long been known as one of the wealthiest Black jurisdictions in the country. There are currently no Black women U.S. senators, and Maryland does not have a woman in its entire congressional delegation.
Novavax is cutting about a quarter of its workforce as the COVID-19 vaccine maker seeks to slash expenses while dealing with uncertain future revenue. The company says it expects to trim next year’s costs for research and development as well as selling, general and administrative expenses by about 40% to 50% compared to 2022. The company had 1,992 full-time employees as of February 21, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The job cuts announced Tuesday would equate to 498 employees. In the first quarter, the company's total revenue sank to $81 million. Its net loss totaled $294 million.
A former neo-Nazi has pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his two Florida roommates in 2017. The plea avoids a murder trial in which Devon Arthurs had planned to use the insanity defense. Court records show the 24-year-old pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of second-degree murder and will serve a 45-year prison sentence. Arthurs admitted killing Andrew Oneschuk and Jeremy Himmelman in their Tampa apartment. Arthurs told police after his arrest that all three had been part of a small, mostly online neo-Nazi group called the Atomwaffen Division. His trial was repeatedly delayed until he was found mentally competent.
As schools across the country struggle to find teachers to hire, more governors are pushing for pay increases and bonuses for the beleaguered profession. Some are doing it for the second straight year, as others vow to beat out other states competing for educators. Ahead of Monday’s start of national Teacher Appreciation Week, 26 governors are talking about boosting teacher compensation. That’s according to the nonprofit Teacher Salary Project. It’s not clear how far pay raises will go toward relieving the shortages. Some teachers say it’s too little, too late to fix problems that are years in the making.
Attorneys have debated the proper jurisdiction for settling a legal challenge to the first-in-the-nation tax on digital advertising during arguments before Maryland’s highest court. Meanwhile, an attorney for the state of Maryland appeared to surprise judges on the state's Supreme Court when she said during Friday's arguments that the state has already collected some taxes from companies that voluntarily submitted revenues to the state under the tax aimed at Big Tech. A lower Maryland court ruled last year that the tax on digital advertising violates the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, which prohibits discrimination against electronic commerce.
Police in Maryland say three masked attackers boarded a school bus earlier this week and one tried to shoot a student but the gun malfunctioned. Prince George's County Police say the bus stopped in Oxon Hill, a suburb of Washington, D.C., to drop off students around 5 p.m. Monday, when three people attacked a boy on the bus. Police say in a release Thursday that the attackers were likely minors themselves. Detectives believe the gun one of them had malfunctioned when they tried to shoot. The victim suffered minor injuries. A bus driver was terrified but unhurt. Police are investigating the motive, and haven't announced any arrests.
A federal ruling blasting Chicago planners for not equipping more of their intersections with audible signals that help blind pedestrians cross busy streets has given advocates a victory they call long overdue. The judge's recent ruling could push other major U.S. cities to install accessible pedestrian signals. The decision mirrors a previous federal ruling in New York, which is ahead of schedule in complying with a judge's mandate to retrofit most of its signalized crosswalks in the next decade. Fewer than three dozen of Chicago’s nearly 3,000 intersections with visual crossing signals are equipped with audible cues. A future hearing could determine how many intersections must be upgraded and when.
The Democratic-controlled state Senate has voted along party lines for a proposed constitutional amendment allowing no-excuse absentee voting in Delaware. The amendment was approved Thursday and now goes to the House. It was introduced earlier this year after Delaware's Supreme Court upheld a judge's ruling that a universal vote-by-mail bill was unconstitutional. The constitution currently states that people are allowed to vote absentee if they are unable to go to the polls on Election Day because of their public service, business or occupation. Spouses and dependents of those people also are allowed to vote absentee. Sickness or physical disability, vacation, and religion the other allowances. The proposed amendment eliminates those restrictions.
Two Baltimore police officers have been indicted in separate cases this week, including one accused of selling marijuana while on duty. The allegations against Cejus Watson, an 11-year department veteran, come as the department seeks to rebuild its reputation after the Gun Trace Task Force corruption scandal ruptured public trust. The second officer, Alexis Acosta, faces manslaughter and other charges after he struck and killed a scooter rider while responding to a 911 call last year. Baltimore State's Attorney Ivan Bates, who took office in January, announced the indictments at a news conference Thursday morning, saying they demonstrate his commitment to holding law enforcement officers accountable.
Fox News is opposing an effort by three news organizations to reveal documents related to its recently settled defamation lawsuit, saying that material would do nothing but ‘gratify private spite or promote public scandal.’ The Associated Press, The New York Times and National Public Radio want to uncover mostly private phone, text and email conversations between Fox employees after the 2020 presidential election. Many of the messages have already proven newsworthy and embarrassing to Fox. A Fox lawyer said one of the reasons it agreed to pay a $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems was to buy peace and end the media spectacle.
Maryland Rep. David Trone says he will run for the U.S. Senate seat that will be open with the retirement of Sen. Ben Cardin. The Democratic representative made the announcement Thursday. He has focused on issues including opioid addiction, mental health, medical research and criminal justice reform while in office. Trone is in his third term in the U.S. House. He is the second Democratic candidate to announce a Senate campaign since Cardin said Monday that he would not seek reelection. Montgomery County Councilman Will Jawando also is running. Other potential candidates for Cardin’s Senate seat include Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin and Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
In Montana, a court rebuffed one abortion restriction, but the governor quickly signed others into law. In Maryland, the governor signed protection for access. Those are among the latest developments in the sprawling saga of abortion law in the aftermath of last year's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade and nationwide access to abortions. Most Republican states have imposed bans or restrictions, but some have run afoul of courts. Most Democratic-dominated states have tried to bolster access. Meanwhile, Republicans who now have veto-proof majorities in both chambers of the North Carolina Legislature have begun pushing a less stringent ban than other states have adopted.
The state Senate has confirmed Gov. John Carney’s two nominees for Delaware's Supreme Court, including a lawyer tapped by Carney for the high court after being arrested for drunken driving. Carney’s nominations of Abigail LeGrow and N. Christopher Griffiths were confirmed Wednesday with no Republican support. Despite Griffiths’ DUI arrest, GOP lawmakers were primarily outraged that, for the first time in decades, there will be no resident of Kent County on the state’s highest court. The state House last week unanimously passed a bipartisan bill mandating that the five-member court include at least one justice from central Kent County, one from southern Sussex County, and two from northern New Castle County. The Senate declined to take up the bill before voting on Carney’s nominees.
At a time when Republican-led states are restricting or banning abortion and limiting gender-affirming care, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has signed several bills to protect abortion rights and expand Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming treatment in the heavily Democratic state. One new law is designed to protect patients and providers from criminal, civil and administrative penalties relating to abortion bans or restrictions in other states. The Trans Health Equity Act expands coverage to all Medicaid recipients for whom gender-affirming treatment is medically necessary, including transgender, nonbinary, intersex, two-spirit, and other gender diverse people.
The Democrat-controlled state Senate has voted along party lines to pass a bill requiring anyone in Delaware wanting to buy a handgun to first be fingerprinted, undergo training and obtain permission from the state. Tuesday's vote came after more than two hours of debate in which gun-control advocates argued that the proposal will help reduce the number of homicides and suicides in Delaware. Opponents argued that the bill infringes on the rights of law-abiding citizens and will have no effect on criminals responsible for the state’s gun violence problem. The permit proposal, which now goes to the Democrat-led House, is similar to others introduced by Democrats in recent years, including one that passed the Senate in 2021 but stalled in the House.
Howard University is turning to an experienced scholar of the African diaspora to serve as its new university president. Ben Vinson III, currently the provost at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, will officially take over as president from the retiring Wayne Frederick on Sept. 1. Vinson is a historian specializing in studies of the African diaspora, particularly in Latin America. His appointment comes at a crucial time for the historically Black university; the venerable institution is riding a wave of national prominence, with illustrious alumni, major funding boosts and high-profile staff additions. Vinson called the Howard position “the honor of a lifetime."
A Maryland appellate court has denied a request by Adnan Syed’s lawyer to reconsider its recent decision to reinstate his murder conviction. His lawyer, Erica Suter, has said Tuesday she will appeal to the Maryland Supreme Court. The Appellate Court of Maryland reinstated the conviction in March in a ruling that upheld arguments from the victim’s family claiming a lower court violated their rights. Syed, whose long legal case gained international attention in 2014 from the hit podcast “Serial,” regained his freedom last year when Baltimore prosecutors moved to vacate his conviction, saying they reviewed the case and found alternative suspects and unreliable evidence used at trial.
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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