Rep. Elijah Cummings response to Trump calling his district a rat and rodent infested mess:
Mr. President, I go home to my district daily. Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors.
It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.
- Elijah E. Cummings (@RepCummings) July 27, 2019
Baltimore's new mayor has vowed to clean up the city after being thrust into office by his predecessor's resignation amid corruption investigations, but he inherits serious, longstanding problems that have plagued previous administrations.
Bernard "Jack" Young, a longtime leader of the City Council, says he intends to serve only the remainder of former Mayor Catherine Pugh's term and has no interest in running for mayor in 2020. If the Democrat doesn't change his mind, his tenure would last just 1 ½ years.
Young had been Baltimore's interim leader since April 2, when Pugh departed on an indefinite leave for what her lawyer has said was poor health after a bout of pneumonia. Pugh stepped down a month later, mired in a scandal that's put her in the crosshairs of federal, state and city investigators trying to unravel the murky financial arrangements of her self-published children's books.
In a phone interview, Young told The Associated Press he's ready to make changes and is focused on reducing one of the country's highest rates of violent crime and tidying up the city's streets. He aims to bring more investments and jobs, particularly to its most deeply disenfranchised neighborhoods.
"I'm determined to make a dent. I'm not a placeholder — I'm the mayor now. And I'm going to run the city like the mayor," Young said from Detroit, where's he's attending a conference about economic development before his return to Baltimore over the weekend.
After weeks of growing pleas for her to step down, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh has resigned, her attorney said Thursday.
"I am sorry for the harm that I have caused to the image of the city of Baltimore and the credibility of the office of the mayor," she said in a letter read by her lawyer Steve Silverman.
"Baltimore deserves a mayor who can move our great city forward," the statement continued. Pugh, who has been suffering from health issues, did not appear at the press conference with her attorney.
Pugh, a Democrat, is under investigation for alleged "self-dealing" in connection to the sale of thousands of copies of a self-published children's book series. Many of those sales went to entities that she had influence over or that sought to do business with the city.
In recent weeks, federal agents raided her two homes, her City Hall office and other locations. She has been on an indefinite paid leave of absence from her job as Baltimore's top elected official since April 1, citing health reasons.
Maryland's Office of State Prosecutor and the city's ethics board have launched probes into whether any laws or ethics rules have been violated.
At this time, no local, state, or federal authorities have charged her with any crime.
FBI agents raided the home of Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh amid accusations of corruption stemming from the sale of her children's book. Baltimore resident Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (MD-07) issued the following statement on Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh:
“I urge Mayor Pugh to put the best interests of the City and its residents first and foremost. Baltimore needs and deserves leadership that is above reproach and which can lead the City forward in ways that engender the trust and confidence of all essential stakeholders. No one questions Mayor Pugh’s passion for Baltimore City and its citizens. At the same time, the circumstances now require that she also provide an example of accountability for those same people. We all want her health to be restored and to now focus on these very grave matters that have everything to do with her personal business endeavors and nothing to do with the priorities of the City of Baltimore.”
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby announced Tuesday her office would cease prosecuting people for possessing marijuana regardless of the quantity or the person’s criminal history.
Calling the move monumental for justice in Baltimore, Mosby also requested the courts vacate convictions in nearly 5,000 cases of marijuana possession.
Baltimore Mayor, Catherine Pugh released the following statement following the disturbing video of a police officer beating an unarmed black man this past weekend because the man refused to show his I.D.
.My statement on the video of the Baltimore Police Officer pic.twitter.com/Wp5GJk80zt
— Mayor Catherine Pugh (@MayorPugh50) August 11, 2018
Watch the sickening video below:
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby won a contentious Democratic primary election Tuesday and became the city’s first top prosecutor to be re-elected in a dozen years after fending off weeks of attacks from her two challengers, defense attorney Ivan Bates and former prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah.
Mosby, 38, emerged on Maryland’s political scene four years ago with a stunning victory over the city’s previous state’s attorney. She rose to national prominence months later by filing charges against six Baltimore police officers involved in Freddie Gray’s arrest.
With 90 percent of precincts counted at 11 p.m., Mosby was leading with about half the nearly 71,000 votes cast. Bates, 49, was in second, and Vignarajah, 41, trailed both. Vignarajah conceded.
In heavily Democratic Baltimore, winning the party’s primary is tantamount to election. No one from another party filed to run in the general election, so Mosby will be the only candidate listed on the ballot in November.
More than 200 local residents and elected leaders gathered in a tree-lined corner of a Baltimore park Saturday to rededicate the space, which had long venerated two Confederate generals, to the famed abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman.
“We stand on the shoulders of this great woman,” said Ernestine Jones-Williams, 71, a Baltimore County resident and a Tubman family descendant who spoke on behalf of the family. “We are overwhelmed. Overwhelmed. Thank you, and God bless you.”
The ceremony in Wyman Park Dell, on the 105th anniversary of Tubman’s death, took place feet from the now-empty pedestal of a large, bronze, double-equestrian statue of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, and officially renamed the space Harriet Tubman Grove.
At the event Saturday, city officials and local residents cited the events in Charleston and Charlottesville, but largely focused on more local efforts to have Baltimore’s statues removed, including a grass-roots petition drive.
They said the removal of the statues has imbued the spaces where they once stood, such as the Harriet Tubman Grove, with their own symbolic power.
“Since the removal of the Lee-Jackson statue, this park has become a gathering place for city residents of all backgrounds to meet, talk and enjoy the location as a space that symbolizes hope and positive change,” said Ciara Harris, chief of staff to Baltimore Recreation and Parks Director Reginald Moore. “Harriet Tubman Grove will provide the city an opportunity to correct historic injustice to a Maryland native. Our city is properly recognizing an African-American hero.”
Read more: Baltimore park space where Confederate statue once stood is rededicated to Harriet Tubman
Maryland U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings had a medical procedure on his knee Friday to drain a bacterial infection, his office said, hours after his wife announced she was dropping out of the Democratic primary for governor because of "personal considerations."
The congressman's office said doctors drained the infection in a minor procedure. He was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital Dec. 29.
"He is resting comfortably and expects a full recovery," his office said in a news release.
That's a lot to ask for in a city on pace to record its highest annual homicide toll, a place still reeling from the racially-charged riots that followed the 2015 death of Freddie Gray at the hands of police.
So Bridgeford and other community leaders have been hitting the streets of West Baltimore, urging drug dealers and gang members to put their guns down from Friday through Sunday.
"This is about a culture shift," she said. "It's about helping people realize they have a choice in their decision-making. Not just about committing violence but about feeling hopeless that there's nothing we can do about the level of violence in our communities."
With 208 homicides so far this year -- compared with 318 for all of 2016, according to a tally by The Baltimore Sun -- and police-community relations stretched thin, some residents doubt the ceasefire will be successful. Others see it as a way to start taking back control of crime-plagued neighborhoods.
Read more: 'Nobody kill anybody': Baltimore hopes for homicide-free weekend
New Orleans recently took down its Confederate monuments. Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh says she is considering doing the same thing in the city.
“The city does want to remove these,” Pugh told The Baltimore Sun. “We will take a closer look at how we go about following in the footsteps of New Orleans.”
Pugh said she’s been focused in her first months in office on implementing police reforms under the consent decree negotiated with the Department of Justice and finding more funds for the school system. She said she’s now turning her attention to other issues, such as the monuments.
“You name it, we’ve tackled it,” she said. “This is another one of those things that we will tackle as well.
“New Orleans has taken on this issue. It costs about $200,000 a statute to tear them down. … Maybe we can auction them?”
Read more: Pugh to explore removing Confederate monuments in Baltimore.
Read more: DOJ unveils police reforms in Baltimore
After dropping the charges against the last three police officers in the Freddie Gray case a visibly frustrated Baltimore State Attorney, Marilyn Mosby held a press briefing where she discussed how some police officers helped to derail the case. Watch her press conference below.
The Baltimore Police van driver accused of giving a "rough ride" that killed Freddie Gray was acquitted of all charges Thursday by Circuit Judge Barry Williams.
Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., 46, had faced the most serious charges of any of the six officers indicted in Gray's arrest and death last April, including second-degree depraved heart murder. Goodson was also acquitted of three counts of manslaughter, second-degree assault, reckless endangerment and misconduct in office.
His acquittal, which comes after Williams considered the charges for three days, throws the rest of the cases into jeopardy. The other officers charged face similar, but lesser accusations.
Read more: Freddie Gray case: Officer Caesar Goodson Jr. not guilty on all charges
A Baltimore police officer charged with murder in the 2015 death of black detainee Freddie Gray waived a jury trial on Monday and will be tried by a Maryland judge instead.
Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., 46, drove the police van in which Gray broke his neck and is the third officer to face trial for his death. The April 2015 incident triggered protests and rioting and fueled a U.S. debate on police treatment of minorities.
Prosecutors are still seeking a conviction in the high-profile case, with two trials ending in a mistrial and an acquittal.
Goodson's last-minute decision to have Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge Barry Williams decide the case came during a pre-trial motions hearing. The trial begins on Thursday.
Tim Maloney, a Maryland lawyer who has handled police misconduct cases, said a bench trial was a good move on Goodson's part since there was a lot of pressure on jurors in the majority black city to convict someone.
Read more: Baltimore policeman charged in Freddie Gray death chooses bench trial
Two of the Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray are suing State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby.
Sgt. Alicia White and Officer William Porter filed a lawsuit against Mosby, Baltimore Sheriff’s Office Maj. Sam Cogen and the state of Maryland in Baltimore circuit court for defamation and invasion of privacy, according to a report by the Baltimore Sun.
The suit goes back to statements made by Mosby at a May 1, 2015 news conference, which White and Porter claim that the city’s top prosecutor knew “were false,” according to the Sun.
“These among other statements were made not for the purpose of prosecuting crimes that had allegedly been committed by White and Porter, but rather for purposes of quelling the riots in Baltimore,” the suit asserts.
Read more: Police Officers Sue Baltimore’s Top Prosecutor for Defamation Over Freddie Gray Statements
Freddie Gray, who died after sustaining a neck injury while riding in a police van in Baltimore, told officers he had a "bad back" weeks before his death, according to court documents filed by attorneys for one of six cops charged in the case.
Lawyers for Caesar Goodson, 46, the officer who drove the van carrying Gray, filed the motion seeking the dead man's medical records last month.
The filing suggest lawyers may try to convince a jury that Gray was already injured at the time of his fatal encounter with police.
Read more: Court filing says Freddie Gray complained of 'bad back'
