Harry Dunn, former Capitol Police officer, cites Jan. 6 in bid for Maryland House seat

Julia Johnson

January 05, 08:22 AM January 05, 08:22 AM

A retired Capitol Hill police officer announced his bid for Congress on Friday, citing the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and the need to stop "MAGA extremists."

Harry Dunn, who testified before the Jan. 6 committee about his experience defending the Capitol, is joining a crowded Democratic primary field in Maryland's 3rd Congressional District to replace outgoing Rep. John Sarbanes (D-MD).

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"On January 6th, I defended our democracy from insurrectionists as a Capitol Police Officer. After, President Biden honored me with the Presidential Citizens Medal," Dunn wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. "Today, I’m running for Congress to stop Trump's MAGA extremists & ensure it never happens again."

Sarbanes will have been in Washington for nine terms when he leaves Congress, which he said he is doing because he is drawn back to working "with nonprofits, volunteering and otherwise contributing to my community."

Dunn's campaign announcement for the safe Democratic Maryland seat comes days before the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The anniversary will be marked Friday in a Pennsylvania speech by President Joe Biden, who has made Jan. 6 and the fight for democracy a plank of his reelection campaign.

Dunn's retirement from the Capitol Police and subsequent run for office weren't necessarily expected, as he was regularly serving in the complex in the days ahead of the holiday break.

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While Democrats from Congress to the White House are using Jan. 6 as an argument going into 2024, former President Donald Trump is framing Biden as the true opponent to democracy.

In recent weeks, Trump and his campaign have declared Biden to be waging a war against democracy, particularly through what they've said are political indictments of an opponent. At a campaign event last month in Iowa, Trump said Biden is the "destroyer of American democracy" for weaponizing his administration against a political opponent.

Maryland implements Medicaid expansions for gender-affirming care

Morgan Sweeney | The Center Square

January 05, 07:53 AM January 05, 07:53 AM

(The Center Square) — Effective Jan. 1, through its Trans Health Equity Act, Maryland Medicaid coverage has expanded gender-affirming services and procedures.

It has expanded from mental health services, hormone replacement therapy and gender reassignment surgery to include body contouring, vocal surgery and therapy, hair removal, puberty blockers, fertility preservation and various other cosmetic surgeries. It also covers the revision or reversal of prior gender-affirming procedures.

“Maryland Medicaid covers medically needed care that upholds the safety, dignity and respect of transgender and gender expansive people. Gender affirming care is for those who need medical care to make their body match their lived gender,” reads the Maryland Department of Health’s webpage on gender-affirming care.

Under the new law, cosmetic surgeries are included among services regarded as medically necessary, as long as they are “consistent with current clinical standards of care prescribed by a licensed health care provider.”

Maryland Medicaid still requires that patients be 18 or older, have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, undergo at least 12 months of continuous hormone therapy per the recommendation of a mental health professional, and give their full and informed consent for any treatment they’re pursuing. If seeking surgery, patients must receive two referrals from a mental health professional to obtain coverage.

Though just under 100 Medicaid-enrolled Marylanders sought gender-affirming care in 2022, according to a Williams Institute study, the costs of expanded coverage may be substantial. The effects on small businesses are “meaningful.” However, significant federal matching funds are also available for approved care.

“Assuming the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approve coverage for fertility preservation services for this population, such services would be subject to a 90% federal matching rate; all other services would be subject to a federal matching rate of 64.5% in fiscal 2024 and 63.9% in fiscal 2025 and thereafter,” according to the Fiscal and Policy Note attached to the bill.

The bill was sponsored by Del. Anne Kaiser and cosponsored by 59 other House Democrats. It passed 93-37 (the current Democratic majority in the Maryland House of Delegates is 102-39).

It was celebrated by many of the state’s Democratic lawmakers and LGBTQ advocates, such as the Human Rights Campaign. The Mental Health Association of Maryland called the law a “huge win” and a “critical first step in creating more equitable Medicare coverage.”

It was a good year for the Chesapeake Bay

Morgan Sweeney | The Center Square

January 01, 09:07 AM January 01, 09:07 AM

(The Center Square) — After decades of conservation work and multiple pieces of state and federal legislation passed on its behalf, 2023 proved a banner year for the Chesapeake Bay, according to data gathered by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Virginia’s Old Dominion University.

For years, conservationists have expressed concern over the amount of nutrient pollution entering the bay and disrupting its ecosystem. This year’s data showed that the bay had the “lowest average hypoxic volume since monitoring began 39 years ago,” according to a statement released by the Maryland DNR.

Tens of billions of federal and state dollars have been spent on bay conservation efforts — including reducing hypoxia, or dangerously low oxygen levels that inhibit marine life — since 1985, a couple of years after the first piece of federal legislation to restore the bay was passed. Federal and state governments have invested over $15 billion in the bay since 2015 alone. And those involved in such efforts are attributing 2023’s good news, at least partly, to the many initiatives that both government and non-governmental organizations have championed for so long.

When released, the Maryland DNR’s Program Chief of Water Quality Informatics commented on the results.

“This year’s Chesapeake Bay dissolved oxygen conditions are the best on record,” said Mark Trice in a statement. “These results illustrate that nutrient input reductions can produce a significant improvement for fish, crab and oyster habitats, and that we need to continue to advance our management efforts throughout the watershed.”

Trice referred to the management efforts, including agricultural and urban strategies to reduce polluted runoff implemented in parts of Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

“We can say these efforts are working — in the last reporting year (2021), we found that 77% of nitrogen reductions came from the agricultural sector,” said Rachel Felver, Program Communications Director for the Chesapeake Bay Program, in an email to The Center Square.

However, Felver also told The Center Square that during the most recent reporting period from 2019-21, the Program found that nitrogen and phosphorus, which are abundant in agricultural fertilizers and can contribute to hypoxia, still entered the bay in numbers that are difficult to comprehend — 286 million pounds of nitrogen and 19.9 million pounds of phosphorus. Nearly 18 billion pounds of sediment entered the bay during that time.

“These figures are lower than the long-term average (1985-2021) but are increases from the previous year,” Felver said.

It will take time to know what those numbers were for 2023.

This year’s low hypoxic volume happened despite imperfect conditions. Freshwater inflows (which carry runoff) to the bay were close to historical lows, but air temperatures were among historical highs, contributing to lower oxygen levels in the water.

Hypoxic volume can also fluctuate significantly with the seasons.

“Dissolved oxygen was better than average in May through August, with early August having the lowest volume of hypoxia ever measured during that time period,” Maryland’s DNR reported. “Hypoxia remained into September with worse than average conditions of 0.84 cubic miles observed versus a September historical average of 0.45. No hypoxia was observed in October.”

The Center Square previously reported on congressional legislation bolstering bay conservation projects for the next 10 years.

In case of emergency, leave Maryland

Morgan Sweeney | The Center Square

December 26, 01:00 PM December 26, 01:00 PM

(The Center Square) - In the case of a holiday health emergency, there’s both good news and bad news for Marylanders.

Maryland ranked first in the nation for hospital quality and fourth for overall health care, according to a 2023 study by U.S. News and World Report. In addition to hospital quality, the study looked at Medicare and nursing home quality, preventable hospital admissions, health care access and states’ public health outcomes.

While Maryland ranked ninth for health care access – its health care was relatively affordable and health insurance enrollment relatively high – there’s one way in which Marylanders’ access to health care is seriously impaired: Emergency room visits.

Maryland currently has the worst emergency room wait times in the country, and depending on the source, it’s been at or near the bottom for years. The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission found that, while the state’s hospital wait times are improving, patients still wait an average of eight hours to be admitted, according to a recent report.

In February, Frederick County Sen. Karen Lewis Young, D-District 3, introduced a bill that would create a task force to investigate the causes of the protracted wait times.

That bill never made it to the governor’s desk, but the state legislature still took action. The General Assembly directed the commission and the Maryland Hospitals Association to devise a strategy for progress.

They created the Emergency Department Dramatic Improvement Effort, or EDDIE for short. The commission aims to refine emergency department services through “rapid cycle quality improvement initiatives to meet hospital set goals related to ED throughput or length of stay” and public reporting of monthly data.

Prince George’s County also decided to establish its own task force in November, in lieu of one being formed by the state.

EDDIE began in the summer and already, hospitals are reporting positive changes.

Washington official fined $500 for voting in 2020 election twice

Misty Severi

December 19, 03:17 PM December 19, 03:17 PM

An elected Washington, D.C., official was among six people who were fined by the city this week after voting in the 2020 elections twice.

Vanessa Rubio, who was elected as advisory neighborhood commissioner, was fined $500 by the city after voting in the 2020 presidential election in Washington, D.C., and Maryland. The $500 fine was higher than the other perpetrators due to Rubio's status as an elected official. The other people were fined $100 each.

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The District of Columbia Board of Elections said it was told that she voted in person in Washington, D.C., but said she did not remember voting in Maryland. However, Rubio admitted a signature on a voting card for Maryland was hers and that it was possible she had voted in Maryland but did not remember doing so.

"Finally, Ms. Rubio stated that it was 'never really stated that you are not able to vote in more than one state,' and that she thought that if one attempted to do so, the 'system' would block one from doing so," the board's order said, according to NBC News.

The other five have also admitted to voting in both Washington, D.C., and Maryland but claimed they did so by mistake.

Instances of voter fraud, or accidentally voting in an election twice, are rare. Although former President Donald Trump has alleged there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, officials have claimed the number of true voter fraud incidents is statistically insignificant.

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The six voters in Washington, D.C., who accidentally voted twice are also insignificant in the outcome of the election. President Joe Biden won the district with more than 300,000 votes and won Maryland with approximately 1.98 million votes to Trump's 976,000.

Two other cases of double voting in the 2020 general election are still being investigated by the District of Columbia Board of Elections.

Hakeem Jeffries endorses David Trone in divided Maryland Senate race to succeed Ben Cardin

David Sivak

December 18, 01:58 PM December 18, 02:39 PM

Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and his deputies in the House endorsed Rep. David Trone's (D-MD) run for Senate on Monday, further dividing the party in what has become a two-person race in Maryland.

To date, some of the biggest names in Maryland politics, from Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) to Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the former majority leader of the House, have announced their support for Angela Alsobrooks, the two-term executive of Prince George's County.

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Will Jawando, the Montgomery County councilman who dropped out of the race in October, has endorsed Alsobrooks as well.

Trone counts dozens of his House colleagues as supporters, but the Monday endorsement is by far his biggest pickup, lending Trone establishment support as he runs for the seat of retiring Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD).

Along with Jeffries, Reps. Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Pete Aguilar (D-CA), the No. 2 and No. 3 Democrats in the House, also endorsed his run.

The two candidates are largely aligned on the issues, though race is expected to play an outsize role in the primary. If elected, Alsobrooks would be only the fourth black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate, something her surrogates have emphasized on the trail.

Jeffries, seemingly sensitive to that fact, hailed Trone, who is white, as an ally of the black community in announcing his support.

“From the moment he arrived in the House of Representatives, David Trone has been a consistent and valued partner in the effort to fix our broken criminal justice system, eliminate reentry barriers for returning citizens and root out systemic racism,” said Jeffries, the first black party leader in Congress.

The endorsements are considered important to demonstrating early momentum in deep-blue Maryland, where the race will essentially be decided in the May primary.

The other factor, of course, is money. Trone, a three-term congressman who made a fortune in the retail liquor business, lags Alsobrooks in individual donations, but his ability to self-fund makes him a formidable rival. He has so far contributed $10 million to his own campaign.

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Alsobrooks has raised around $3 million.

Trone, who had already been endorsed by Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), the vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, touted Monday's endorsement in a text blast to supporters and on X, calling it a "massive vote of confidence" in his campaign.

Jaw-dropping find: Manhattan Project autographed book signed by Oppenheimer and 23 others

Paul Bedard

December 18, 09:41 AM December 18, 10:45 AM

There really is gold in them thar hills.

Bill Panagopulos was recently at the Chesapeake, Maryland, farm he was buying when one of the two home inspectors reviewing it asked what he does for a living.

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Panagopulos, the president of Alexander Historical Auctions, explained he collects and sells relics, autographs, and artifacts dating back to the Civil War but especially from the World War II era, currently a hot market. Some of his most notable sales have been featured in Secrets.

“I told him about some of the great things that had come out of the woodwork during my career, including the top hat worn by FDR at his inauguration, Vito Genovese's 1920s tax returns, a written bet between Eisenhower and Montgomery as to when World War II would end,” Panagopulos said.

That prompted the home inspector to tell of his own find.

“He mentioned that he had a friend whose grandmother had been a secretary on the Manhattan Project headed by Robert Oppenheimer, which developed the first atomic bomb. Of course, I scoffed. There were hundreds of secretaries working on that epic project, but I suggested the lady send me some photos of what she had regardless,” Panagopulos said.

When he opened her package, his jaw dropped.

“Here was a publication on the creation of ‘the Bomb,’ printed literally days after the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, signed by most of the top physicists and other key players in the project: Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermi, Ernesto Lawrence, James Chadwick, Harold Urey, Richard Tolman, James Conant, and 17 other key players,” he told us of the 200-page package that included the signatures of four Nobel Prize winners.

“It turns out the original owner had been the personal secretary of Gen. Leslie Groves himself, the military head of the entire project. The consignor, a local school teacher at Bohemia Manor High School, used to take this piece and pass it around class for her students to look at every so often,” Panagopulos said. “I was flabbergasted.”

The package included a copy of Atomic Bombs: A General Account of the Development of Methods of Using Atomic Energy for Military Purposes Under the Auspices of the United States Government 1940-1945. It was written by Manhattan Project physicist Henry Smyth for Groves, who ran the Manhattan Project.

Copies were distributed after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, and Nagasaki, Japan, in August 1945, but only one was signed by the 24 creators of the first atomic bomb, a story that was reintroduced to the public recently with the award-winning movie Oppenheimer.

That’s because Groves’s secretary at the Pentagon, Nellie Sanderson, asked those who were part of the Manhattan Project to sign the book's cover when they met with Groves, Panagopulos said.

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The auctioneer said the package will be offered in a sale set for Jan. 11-12 and that he expects it to sell for $20,000 or more.

“There really is treasure in them thar hills!” Panagopulos said.

WATCH LIVE: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee holds hearing on FBI headquarters relocation

Brady Knox

December 12, 09:00 AM December 12, 09:01 AM

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is holding a hearing examining the General Service Administration's site selection for the FBI's new headquarters.

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The hearing is slated to begin at 10 a.m. GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Elliot Doomes and FBI Finance and Facilities Division Assistant Director Nicholas Dimos will be testifying. Former GSA Public Buildings Service Commissioner Nina Albert will also be testifying on a second panel.

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The decision of where to relocate the FBI headquarters became a hot-button concern, particularly after the two choices were narrowed down to Virginia and Maryland. The GSA decided to choose a suburb in the latter.

Raskin says there is antisemitism in the GOP: ‘Where does Elise Stefanik get off?’

Samuel Schaffer

December 10, 10:38 PM December 11, 09:27 AM

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) railed against the GOP Sunday regarding the recent national response to antisemitism on college campuses. He took specific aim at Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and former President Donald Trump on the topic.

Raskin joined host Ali Velshi on MSNBC, and they discussed the GOP response to what people are calling antisemitism across the country. Raskin accused the party of being intertwined with antisemitism.

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“Somebody like Elise Stefanik has no problem going after Ivy League presidents. What about Donald Trump, who dines with Nicholas Fuentes, who is an unreconstructed Holocaust revisionist neo-Nazi who says that Jews don’t belong in Western civilization?” Raskin said.

He then alluded to the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Trump was quoted as saying that there were “some very fine people on both sides.”

“Jews will not replace us!” was one of the chants that could be heard at that rally, according to the Anti-Defamation League.

“If we’re going to have a conversation about antisemitism, let’s talk about real antisemitism in the Republican Party,” Raskin said Sunday.

The conversation eventually turned to recent testimony before Congress by the heads of major colleges in the United States. University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill was one of the people who testified, and she later resigned from her post due to backlash from the appearance.

During her testimony, she was asked if calling for the genocide of Jews violated the university’s code of conduct, according to CBS News.

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"If it is directed and severe and pervasive, it is harassment," Magill said in response to the question. After being pressed on the topic by Stefanik, Magill called the decision “context-dependent.”

Magill faced backlash over her refusal to answer the question with a "yes" or a "no."

Maryland teachers union representative suspended for antisemitic posts targeting local wealthy Jews

Heather Hunter

December 04, 08:00 PM December 04, 08:03 PM

A Maryland teacher has reportedly been suspended after being accused of spreading antisemitic social media posts.

Angela Wolf, an English teacher at Takoma Park Middle School in Silver Spring, Maryland, and a Montgomery County Education Association board member, shared numerous posts blasting Israel and allegedly shared a list of wealthy Jews in her county slamming them as "gluttons and thieves."

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After the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attack on Israel, Wolf posted numerous messages, including praise for the “bus operators at Dulles who refused to transport Zionists to the pro Israel rally” and said, “Their solidarity with the victims of Israeli genocide should be commended.”

According to reports, the Montgomery County educator has a long history of antisemitic commentary, including a 2020 post in which she posted a list of local billionaires, who mostly were Jewish, and called them "the gluttons and thieves."

“None of these people invented anything useful and are have done a damn thing to further the needs of communities,” Wolf said on Facebook.

“They are gluttons and thieves,” she said. “They accumulated this kind of wealth through abusing workers.”

Wolf has defended her post, saying she had “no idea these billionaires are Jewish."

She added, “People are angry at teachers or a particular politician or the poor. I have read no attacks on the 1% … who have NOT ‘earned their wealth.'”

Takoma Park Middle School responded to the numerous social media posts.

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“I was extremely saddened and disappointed by the content of these posts,” Takoma Park principal Erin Martin wrote on Nov. 30, adding that she “strongly condemn[s] the views expressed as they do not align with our school’s values of inclusivity, respect and acceptance.”

Wolf is an official for one of the largest local teacher unions in the country, representing 14,000 educators.