The agency reported 107 youth-on-staff assaults for all of 2021, and 112 in in 2022. In 2023, that number rose to 142. Last year, DJS reported 183 incidents of youth-on-staff assault — a 29% increase from 2023.

The union that represents DJS employees points to a lack of adequate resources and understaffed facilities as the cause.

“Our members are frustrated. Our members are exhausted. Our members are concerned about their well-being — about their family’s well-being — in addition to the youths’ well-being,” Patrick Moran, the president of the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) said in an interview Friday with The Baltimore Sun.

DJS leaders point to a number of factors.

Former DJS Secretary Vincent Schiraldi said during a Friday interview with The Baltimore Sun that it could be linked to new staff getting acquainted with their positions, as well as children who are frustrated with the court system during extended stays.

Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, appointed Betsy Fox Tolentino, a veteran of the agency, to succeed Schiraldi. She is likely to be confirmed to the position when the legislature reconvenes in 2026 and is now leading in an interim capacity. DJS did not respond to a request for comment by deadline Friday. 

Data obtained from DJS by The Baltimore Sun found that, between June 3, 2020, and June 30, 2025, there were 712 assaults perpetrated by youth held at DJS facilities against staff members.

From Jan. 1 to June 30, 2025, the agency has recorded 100 assaults against its staff, demonstrating a 28% increase from the same time period in 2024 and a 72% rise from 2021.

Collateral damage

DJS has a staff injury severity scale from level zero to level three.

According to Michael Sharp, a spokesman for DJS, level zero assaults signify that staff members sustained no visible injury or reports of pain. Level one assaults indicate that staff require on-site medical care. Level two ratings require off-site medical care, and level three, deemed the “most serious,” requires overnight admission to a medical facility.

More than half of the assaults reported between June 2020 and 2025 — 498 — were recorded as level zero. Only four incidents required overnight admission.

The agency reported that there were 33 instances of youth-on-staff assault where the injury severity level was not recorded.

The data obtained by The Baltimore Sun did not account for youth-on-youth assaults within the agency’s facilities. Moran said that, when children held in DJS facilities fight each other, staff often become collateral damage.

“They’re told to break up a fight between the youth, but that often gets turned into a youth then attacking the staff, and they have no way of defending themselves if they are assaulted by a group of kids in the facilities,” he said. “They have no recourse, nothing. And, you know, that’s dangerous for them.”

‘They act out’

Youth can be held under the care of DJS until they are 21 years old.

The data provided to The Sun from DJS demonstrated that some children as young as 11 and young people as old as 20 were culpable for assaulting staff.

The most prevalent age group to perpetrate assaults was among 17-year-olds, which accounted for 31% of the 712 documented instances. There was a rapid decline in assaults against staff among 18-year-olds, which showed a 48% decrease in attacks in comparison.

There were just 10 instances of youth-on-staff assaults among those who were 19 at the time of the incident. The agency reported only one incident of a 20-year-old assaulting a staff member.

The embattled agency has changed hands several times over the past few years.

Former Secretary Sam Abed passed the agency on to Schiraldi in 2023 after Moore was inaugurated. Schiraldi, who was often under fire on behalf of Republicans and frustrated members of the public, resigned from the role in June.

Schiraldi noted that 2020 through 2025 encompassed the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought “real staffing challenges” across the country, he said.

“Working in either a juvenile or an adult facility is really challenging work, and so this is a national phenomenon that people are having a hard time staffing up,” said Schiraldi. “Once you do solve that problem, then you have new staff that adds all of those problems” with training and getting acquainted with the job.

An analysis for fiscal year 2026 from the nonpartisan Department of Legislative Services reported that DJS had an 11.1% vacancy rate for direct-care staff at the close of 2024.

Schiraldi also pointed to the longer stays that children facing charges as adults must undergo, which he said leaves them frustrated and demoralized.

According to the most recent DJS Data Resource Guide, the average length of stay for youth charged as adults in fiscal year 2024 was 123 days.

“When a kid is in limbo like that for months and months, they act out,” Schiraldi said.

‘Penny-wise and pound-foolish’

Moran said that the issues seen within the agency are not the fault of a single secretary or governor, noting that both Moore and former Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said they wanted to help Maryland youth, who often face adverse circumstances, without providing the agency with proper resources.

“The facilities they have are inadequate or sometimes outdated. That’s capital investment,” said Moran. “The sad part about this is [if] they do invest in these kids early on properly … it’s just so clear that they are not going to have to invest in them later on in life when they become adults and they have a better chance of getting these kids on a more productive path.”

“It’s penny-wise and pound-foolish,” he said.

By the numbers

DJS operates 11 facilities.

The facility with the highest instances of youth-on-staff assaults is Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, a facility for boys and girls in Prince George’s County, which reported 138 incidents.

According to the Cheltenham Data Resource Guide, the facility has a capacity for 72 children.

Green Ridge Youth Center, a boys-only facility in Allegany County, recorded the second-highest number of assaults at 121. With a youth capacity of just 21, this facility is significantly smaller.

According to the DJS website, two facilities, Alfred D. Noyes Children’s Center and Garrett Children’s Center, are temporarily closed. Both saw the lowest recorded number of youth-on-staff assaults at 42 and 8, respectively.

The fiscal analysis from the Department of Legislative Services stated residential facilities run by DJS “do not provide adequate capacity to accommodate the number of youths requiring out-of-home placements … nor do they provide the full complement of programming required to address the variety of treatment needs for the committed population.”

Moran agrees that a lack of resources has exacerbated the problem.

“You know that’s the bottom line here,” he said. “Bad things happen when you don’t have adequate staff, and bad things happen when you don’t have the proper programs that they are supposed to be running through because you don’t have the staff to do them.”

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.

Del. Gabe Acevero, a 34-year-old member of the Democratic Socialists of America, represents Montgomery County in the Maryland General Assembly. He was first elected in 2018 — long before Zohran Mamdani and Omar Fateh gained national attention for winning the Democratic mayoral primary in New York City and an endorsement from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minneapolis’ mayoral race, respectively.

As the electorate becomes younger and more progressive, Acevero said that establishment Democrats should “be cognizant” of what that constituency wants if it plans to win elections.

“If you look at where our base, where our constituency and where America is trending, we have to focus on working-class issues — from housing to socioeconomic, gender, environmental, justice — and we can’t just continue to provide lip service as a party,” he said. “We have to fight like hell, not just for the policies, but for workers and the working class. And that’s what I’ve been committed to in the legislature and will continue to do so.”

Del. Matt Morgan, a Republican from St. Mary’s County, said he knows Acevero well and considers him “a nice guy.” He said it’s “undeniable” that the Democratic Party is shifting in Acevero’s direction. And, in fact, “it’s already there,” Morgan said.

He thinks the push into socialism is ultimately a losing proposition for Maryland voters.

“Socialism has a 100% failure rate. The more it’s implemented in Maryland, the more people are going to leave,” Morgan said.

Recent developments in New York and Minnesota are perhaps indications that the word “socialism” does not carry the same negative connotation among voters today — especially among Generation Z and younger millennials born after the Cold War, according to Flavio Hickel, an associate professor of political science at Washington College. These voters, and others who increasingly identify as “working class,” believe Democrats “need to offer a more ambitious, aggressive, and left-leaning” policy vision, Hickel told The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday.

“I don’t think mainstream Democrats would regard what [Acevero] said as probably all that offensive or problematic,” Hickel said. “They just might differ in sort of, the tactics — how far, how quick and how aggressively do we pursue progressive change?”

A staff member for the Maryland Democratic Party did not immediately respond to The Sun’s request for comment on Acevero’s claims that Democrats are moving in his direction.

What a Democratic socialist wants in Maryland

Acevero’s campaign platform has often leaned progressive: police and criminal justice reform, a $15-per-hour minimum wage, single-payer Medicare For All, universal basic income, higher taxes for the wealthy, and support for kids aging out of the foster care system.

“I think, at the time, a lot of people were trying to, essentially, discourage Democratic voters in District 39 from voting for me, because [they thought], ‘these are like radical socialist policies,’” said Acevero. “In actuality, what they are are popular policies that working people in our state want to see enacted, and so we ran a — similar to Zohran [Mamdani] — a people-powered campaign.”

Like Mamdani, Acevero has been vocal in his support of Palestinians in the Gaza war against Israel during his time in the state legislature.

In 2025, he introduced the Not On Our Dime Act, which would have required the Maryland Secretary of State to remove nonprofit organizations from the state’s Registry of Charitable Solicitation if they knowingly engage in unauthorized support of Israeli settlement activity. That bill was heard in the House Judiciary Committee, but not debated on the floor.

Acevero also sponsored a joint resolution in 2024 that would have conveyed to Maryland’s congressional delegation that the General Assembly supports a long-term ceasefire in Israel and Palestine. The joint resolution was heard in the Rules and Executive Nominations Committee, but did not advance further.

‘I’ve been very unapologetic’

Acevero told The Sun that Democrats “weren’t particularly fond of” him because, prior to his election in 2018, he was an activist with a penchant for holding politicians in both parties accountable.

“I wasn’t the darling of the establishment, and I certainly wasn’t embraced by the establishment Democrats in District 39,” he said. “I unseated a two-term incumbent, and I ran on a working-class, progressive agenda that some folks tried to weaponize … using the whole ‘Red Scare Socialism’ scare tactic.”

Acevero alleges establishment figures later hand-picked a candidate to beat him in the 2022 primary, calling his policies “pie in the sky” or “radical.” Still, he won.

Though he’s rounding out his second term, Acevero still isn’t necessarily “embraced” by other Democrats in the General Assembly. Often when he participates in floor debates, he is jeered and his comments — occasionally incendiary — are often called into question.

In 2021, he offered amendments to a package of major police reform bills because he felt the settled policy didn’t go far enough. Acevero voted against the Democratic redistricting plan later that year because he says he doesn’t believe in gerrymandering. He’s publicly critical of criminal justice bills that establish mandatory minimum sentences, of which he said: “Time and again, civil rights organizations have pointed out … it ties judges’ hands, but it also disproportionately impacts, you know, Black and Latino people.”

“I’ve been very unapologetic about the policies that I advocate for and who I am, because I think it’s important,” he said, adding that efforts to “delegitimize Democratic Socialists and their policies [have] never worked.”

This story has been updated to reflect that Omar Fateh won an endorsement from the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, not a primary election.

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com or Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.

In a statement Wednesday, Moore, a Democrat, said that the flooding, which caused evacuations in Garret and Allegany counties after Georges Creek overflowed following three days of extreme rainfall, “clearly met disaster assistance criteria” under the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The floods occurred between May 12 and May 14. Moore requested disaster assistance June 13.

In an email to The Baltimore Sun on Wednesday, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said that Trump responds to each request for assistance under the Stafford Act with “great care and consideration, ensuring American tax dollars are used appropriately and efficiently by the states to supplement — not substitute, their obligation to respond to and recover from disasters.”

“While the President’s decisions are communicated directly to the Governor of an affected State, the Trump administration remains committed to empowering and working with State and local governments to invest in their own resilience before disaster strikes, making response less urgent and recovery less prolonged,” Jackson wrote.

In an email to The Baltimore Sun Thursday, a FEMA spokesperson said that the agency follows the regulations of the Stafford Act to determine the necessity of federal assistance, and, in this case, worked closely collect and analyze the damage.

“The law and regulations require FEMA to review each request closely and consider the unique circumstances of disaster-caused damages as well as state and local capacity,” they said. “This decision just like all disaster requests was based on policy not politics.”

Since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, FEMA has denied eight requests for disaster declarations. That does not include Maryland’s request that Trump denied on Wednesday.

Upon returning to office, Trump said that FEMA should be eliminated and that states should be more responsible for their own disaster relief. In January, he issued an executive order establishing a committee to assess the recommended structural changes for the agency.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the president is retreating from the idea of abolishing FEMA after he visited Texas, which was ravaged by floods that killed more than 130 people, including dozens of children at a religious summer camp.

‘We did meet the threshold’

State Sen. Mike McKay, a Republican whose District 1 covers parts of Garrett, Allegany and Washington counties, said the news came as “a gut punch” for Allegany, one of the state’s poorest counties.

McKay learned of the denial at a Zoom meeting at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, he said, and the presentation included only an executive summary, so he wasn’t familiar with all its details.

As disappointing as the news was, he said he hopes the full report will include a clear explanation of why the county’s application fell short and what civic leaders and citizens can do to reverse the decision.

“We firmly believe we did meet the threshold to meet the FEMA requirements. We need to find out why we were found not (eligible) for these funds. This was like seeing grades on a website. We may have failed the grade, but we want to find out what the next test is, what we didn’t do right, and how we can do better next time.”

McKay said he was on the phone with the governor’s office this morning, and the Moore administration sounds determined to help in case there’s an appeals process.

“The governor’s care and attention has been flawless throughout this natural disaster,” he said. “We’re going to find a way to turn that denial into a smile.”

The state provided financial assistance to Allegany County in the wake of the floods — $459,375 from the State Disaster Recovery Fund, and $1 million through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

“We will continue to stand with our fellow Marylanders in Western Maryland as they rebuild from the damage caused in May,” said Moore.

Assessments performed by FEMA, the Maryland Department of Emergency Management, and local officials estimated $15.8 million in emergency response costs and infrastructural damage,“including more than 200 homes, numerous businesses, roads and bridges, railroads, sewer systems, drinking water, and public utilities,” Moore’s statement said.

“With a natural disaster where residents, businesses, and public infrastructure are impacted on this scale, recovery is an all-hands-on-deck approach,” Russ Strickland, the secretary of the Maryland Department of Emergency Management, said in a statement after Moore issued the request. “The addition of much-needed federal assistance is necessary to get those affected back to their regular lives and to allow those communities to fully recover in months instead of years.”

When the president approves requests for disaster assistance, it allows states to request FEMA public assistance and access to the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program under the Stafford Act.

Moore said that, historically, the president awards disaster assistance if the joint damage assessment shows eligible costs over the county and state indicators. Maryland’s indicator is $11,674,953. Allegany County’s is $321,460.

“These estimates are above and beyond the thresholds for disaster assistance set by FEMA,” said Moore.

In a joint statement released Wednesday afternoon, Congresswoman April McClain Delaney and U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks — all Democrats — said that the affected areas are still in need of support to repair schools, libraries, roads, bridges, businesses and homes that were severely damaged during the floods.

“Even though the cost of the damage in these two rural Maryland counties exceeds the threshold for federal assistance, the Administration is refusing to come to their aid,” they said. “We strongly urge the President to reconsider this decision and deliver federal resources to Allegany and Garrett Counties so they are not forced to shoulder the burden of recovery on their own.”

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com and Jonathan Pitts at jpitts@baltsun.com.

The Mosbys, now divorced, were considered a veritable power couple in Baltimore before he lost his bid for reelection as Baltimore City Council president to current Council President Zeke Cohen and she served a year-long home detention sentence upon her mortgage fraud conviction, which was vacated earlier this month.

Marilyn Mosby also faced charges of perjury, which were upheld.

Now, both are reportedly working for a California-based nonprofit organization that focuses on behavioral and mental health, as well as urban redevelopment.

Marilyn Mosby’s sentence ended last month. Upon her release, she appeared on the podcast Native Lands, where she said she feels “so much gratitude” that God “covered” her and her children over the past several years.

She also maintained her innocence, saying that she “lost everything” — her marriage, her career, her house and her car — because of the charges and subsequent conviction.

“…[T]hey tried to break me on so many levels and make an example out of me for what I stood for,” she said. “It had absolutely nothing to do with what I did wrong. I withdrew my own retirement savings that I put away every two weeks to buy property. That’s the extent of what I was accused of.”

Marilyn Mosby said she is currently appealing in federal court to keep her home in Florida and maintain her law license.

She also alleged on the podcast that current Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates used her conviction as an opportunity to “hurt” her after he filed an attorney grievance against her in the case of Adnan Syed.

Earlier this year, Syed’s sentence for the 1999 murder conviction for the death of his high school sweetheart was reduced to time served. Mosby filed a “motion to vacate” his conviction during her second term.

“Unfortunately, the newly elected state’s attorney is playing politics, just like [President Donald] Trump,” she said. “Unfortunately, he took advantage that I had this bogus investigation and looming criminal case over me. He had run against me before and lost, and this time he won, and he ran on a platform of pretty much reversing everything I had done in my office progressive-related, and he did just that.”

Mosby lost her reelection bid to Bates in 2022.

James Bentley, a spokesman for Bates, wrote in an email to The Baltimore Sun that, because Attorneys Grievance Commission filings are confidential, his office was unable to comment.

However, in a donor email, Bates said, “She’s right — and I stand by it.”

“When I took office in January 2023, I made it a priority to repeal the reckless policies of the Mosby Administration that led to [2,666] homicides and thousands of non-fatal shootings during her tenure,” the email reads. “For eight years, there was no accountability — and Baltimore paid the price.”

Marilyn Mosby could not be reached for comment on this story.

Before the downfall of their perceived political empire, Nick Mosby served as the Baltimore City Council president from 2020 through 2024. He was a representative of Baltimore City in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2017 to 2020, and sat on the City Council from 2011 to 2016.

Nick Mosby declined to be interviewed for this story.

Marilyn Mosby served two terms as Baltimore City State’s Attorney. She famously levied criminal charges against the six Baltimore police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray, who died of fatal injuries sustained in custody.

None of the officers involved in Gray’s death were convicted.

In late May, Associated Black Charities, a racial equity organization with a mission to eliminate structural barriers for Black Marylanders, welcomed Nick Mosby as a new member of its board on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Nick Mosby awarded $150,000 to Associated Black Charities as one of his last acts in office. He also asked former President Joe Biden to pardon Marilyn Mosby, who, at that point, was serving one year of home detention after she was convicted of mortgage fraud.

During her federal trial, Marilyn Mosby testified that Nick Mosby mishandled their finances and lied to her about their debts, including a tax lien on their Baltimore home.

Earlier this year, Nick Mosby was confirmed as a member of the Maryland State Lottery and Gaming Control Commission by the state Senate, following his appointment by Gov. Wes Moore.

He received support from Democratic leadership during his confirmation hearing, with Senate Executive Nominations Committee Vice Chair Antonio Hayes, a Baltimore Democrat, saying that the former delegate and council president was “an excellent choice” because of his “leadership and deep understanding of this office.”

“My career has been dedicated to serving the people of Maryland,” Nick Mosby wrote on his LinkedIn after his confirmation hearing. “I have advocated for policies benefiting small businesses, expanded opportunities for workforce development, promoted equitable access to economic resources for minority-owned businesses, and championed efforts to retain the Preakness in Baltimore City.”

According to his bio published on the commission website, Mosby also currently serves as the vice president of operations for God Loves Outreach Ministries, or G.L.O.M., Global, a California-based nonprofit organization that seeks to serve underdeveloped urban communities across the United States through behavioral and mental health support.

As reported by The Baltimore Brew, Marilyn Mosby began working for the organization as its director of global strategic planning last year while she was still serving home detention.

G.L.O.M. Global did not respond to requests from The Baltimore Sun to confirm Nick or Marilyn Mosby’s employment.

In a phone call Wednesday, Marilyn Mosby said she does not work at G.L.O.M.

According to her LinkedIn, the former state’s attorney is still listed as a managing partner for Mahogany Elite Consulting LLC, which she disclosed in a 2021 letter to the city inspector general would “offer legal and consulting services.”

This story was updated a day after publication to report that Marilyn Mosby does not work at G.L.O.M. Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.

“We write … to tell you that fundamental changes, and new leadership, are needed to restore confidence in PJM’s ability to meet the many challenges of this moment,” Moore and governors from Delaware, Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois, New Jersey and Tennessee wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to PJM Interconnection.

PJM Interconnection operates the electrical grid that powers those states, as well as Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio, West Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The company has said it is, at minimum, searching for two new board members.

David Mills, the grid’s chair of Board of Managers, said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun that PJM “appreciates the Governors’ engagement and has responded directly.”

“While perspectives may differ, PJM remains focused on its core mission: delivering reliable, affordable power to 67 million people and navigating complex stakeholder priorities with transparency and integrity,” Mills said.

The governors, including Moore, are asking that PJM “select widely respected leaders who are intimately familiar with the PJM region and its challenges” when searching for new members.

In the letter, the governors said that the company’s “multi-year inability to efficiently” bring in new resources to attach to the grid “and to engage in effective long-term transmission planning” has denied Marylanders and thousands of other people in the additional grid states jobs and billions of dollars in investment.

“With billions of ratepayer dollars and the stability of our grid at stake, it is critical that PJM take concerted, effective action to restore state and stakeholder confidence,” the coalition wrote. “We write today with a first step that will begin to restore PJM’s legitimacy as the neutral grid operator it must remain: you must appoint distinguished, widely respected individuals to these two open Board seats.”

Moore has previously been a public critic of PJM, saying in June that the company has “inefficient and outdated processes.”

“The cost of energy for residents in Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland have increased from 23% to 40% over the last five years,” Moore said at a June 12 press conference. “We know these increases have the biggest impact on low- and moderate-income families, and now is the time to answer the demand with increased generation.”

The Moore administration declined to comment beyond the statements made in Wednesday’s letter.

Emily Scarr,  a senior advisor for Maryland PIRG, said in a statement to The Baltimore Sun that electric customers in the state “are seeing massive supply rate increases because of PJM’s poor planning.”

“For too long PJM’s failure to connect clean energy to the grid has benefited polluting energy companies and utilities at the expense of ratepayers,” said Scarr. It’s time for new leadership to end the back room decision making and ensure an affordable and reliable grid.”

Brittany Baker, the head of the Maryland Chapter of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said that “PJM is one of the main reasons that utility bills are so high right now.”

Baker also say that Maryland Maryland “has all of the energy it needs to sustain itself, most days.”

“Maryland is an importer of electricity, but so are [most] the other states in the PJM region,” said Baker.

Got a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com, (410) 320-2803 and on X as @hnnhgskllalso.

“It’s not enough to just have these tax credits on the books,” House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, said at a news conference in Annapolis Thursday. “We need more outreach, because Marylanders need to know about them, they need to know how to apply for them, they need to know how to claim them.”

In partnership with the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization based out of Washington, D.C., the Maryland General Assembly and Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, Comptroller Brooke Lierman said she was able to identify that between 18% and 21% of eligible tax filers did not claim the state EITC over the past three years.

The research partnership between the state and the Urban Institute is funded by philanthropic organizations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the T. Rowe Price Foundation, the Greater Washington Community Foundation and the Abell Foundation.

According to the Urban Institute, the majority of those who did not file live in Baltimore City, and Prince George’s, Montgomery, Kent, Howard and Baltimore counties, where residents are more likely to be people of color, young adults, single parents, non-traditional caregivers, parents of young children, families living in rural areas or non-citizens.

Jones said that Maryland was one of the first states to allow all Maryland taxpayers — “regardless of their immigration status” — to apply for EITCs.

According to Lierman, her office sent out more than $519 million in EITC returns to over 444,000 Marylanders this tax season, alone. Last tax season, she said, nearly 99,000 eligible families did not claim the EITC.

Moore said that the EITC is one of the “most important child poverty fighting tools.” But Lierman noted that “a tax credit sitting unused is a promise unfulfilled.”

“You know, and I know, the Earned Income Tax Credit represents more than policy,” she said. “It embodies our fundamental belief that hard work should be rewarded, and that every Marylander deserves a pathway to economic stability.”

The Urban Institute is still conducting research, and plans to release a report by the year’s end. Based on that research, the comptroller’s office will target these communities through a filing awareness campaign established under legislation passed in 2024.

Under the law, the comptroller’s office is to receive $300,000 annually from fiscal year 2026 to fiscal year 2030 to implement the awareness campaign.

“We are not going to spend these funds blindly,” said Lierman. “We are ensuring maximum value for every dollar.”

Jones said that campaigns like the one being crafted are “responsible governance.”

“As you watch the administration in Washington rip apart our social safety net, throw away benefits and make life more unaffordable, in our state we are doubling down on our efforts to get people the benefits they are entitled to,” she said.

Got a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com, (410) 320-2803 and on X as @hnnhgskllalso.

O’Rourke, who represented Texas as a Democratic congressman from 2013 to 2019, is making a stop at the France-Merrick Performing Arts Center in Baltimore after holding similar discussions in Philadelphia and Richmond on Friday and Saturday with his organization, Powered By People.

He started the organization in 2019 as a volunteer-based voter mobilization organization centered in Texas. It is also a leadership PAC affiliated with O’Rourke. Powered by People raised $9.17 million during the 2024 election cycle, according to OpenSecrets. Per its website, Powered by People is not authorized by any candidates or their committees. The organization did not return requests for comment from The Baltimore Sun.

With this upcoming tour, O’Rourke, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2018 and Texas governor in 2022, joins a growing list of progressive Democratic politicians hosting town halls in states beyond their own. For example, U.S. Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, joined U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, on his “Fighting Oligarchy” tour, which made stops in Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Arizona over the spring.

With a Democratic governor in the State House, a Democratic super majority in the state legislature and nine out of 10 Democratic members of the state’s congressional delegation, Maryland is a firmly blue state.

So why is O’Rourke making a stop in Baltimore?

Flavio Hickel Jr, an associate professor of political science at Washington College, said “it’s hard to gauge” the event, itself, as well as its timing.

“He could be thinking about another run at Texas politics and maybe this is sort of a way to build up some campaign war chest,” said Hickel.

CBS News in Texas reported in June that O’Rourke said he may be running for office in the state in 2026.

But, to Hickel, it’s more likely that O’Rourke has a “desire to probably recreate a little bit of the magic that Bernie and AOC had.”

“Bernie and AOC obviously raised a lot of media attention for the progressive wing of the Democratic Party,” said Hickel. “I think he’s trying to create some sort of buzz.”

Roger Hartley, the dean of the University of Baltimore’s College of Public Affairs, said that O’Rourke could be attempting to drum up support for Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.

Otherwise, said Hartley, O’Rourke may be trying to build name recognition in places he knows he could win should he try another run for president in 2028. O’Rourke dropped out of a wide field of Democrats vying to be on the ticket during the 2020 presidential election.

“It could be signs that he’s trying to raise name recognition in places where the Democratic base lives,” Hartley said.

Have a news tip? Reach out to Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.

“Ed Rothstein has dedicated his career to serving this country and the people of Maryland,” Moore, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. “I am honored that he has raised his hands once again to serve the state as Maryland’s next secretary of the Department of Veterans and Military Families.”

Rothstein will step into the role on Aug. 1. Ross Cohen, who is serving as the interim acting secretary, will become the agency’s deputy secretary.

Rothstein is taking the reins of the agency from former Secretary Anthony C. Woods, who stepped down in May to join a tech startup.

A Republican, Rothstein is in his second term as a Carroll County commissioner. Before becoming a county commissioner, he was the executive director of the BWI Business Partnership and served on multiple boards of directors for state and regional nonprofits, including the Carroll County Veterans Advisory Council.

“Having worked with Commissioner Ed Rothstein for over six years, I know he’ll make an excellent Secretary of Maryland Department of Veterans and Military Families,” Roberta Windham, the Carroll County administrator, said. “His dedication to veterans and his passion for service is evident in everything he does. Carroll County’s Commissioners and I wish him all the best in his new role.”

Rothstein boasts a military career spanning three decades, with several deployments and multiple duty stations. He began his military career in 1983, when he enlisted in the Army Reserve. In 1990, he transitioned to the military intelligence corps.

Rothstein retired in 2014.

During his final military assignment, Rothstein served as the garrison commander at Fort George G. Meade U.S. Army Installation, where he supported more than 227,000 personnel across five states.

He has also been very open about the mental health struggles of military members, recalling witnessing drug abuse, domestic violence and suicide while in command at Fort Meade.

“Ed’s track record as a distinguished Army veteran and a devoted public servant demonstrates his commitment to live mission first, people always,” Moore said. “During this next critical phase of our work, he will help lead our efforts to build a state that is safer, more affordable, more competitive — and one that leaves no one behind.”

In a statement Monday, Rothstein said that veterans and military families have “carried a tremendous burden,” and that uplifting them is “essential.”

“The governor’s faith, trust, and confidence in my approach is all I can ask for from a true leader,” he said. “I am deeply honored to serve under his visionary leadership.”

Upon his retirement from the military, Rothstein served as the economic developer for Anne Arundel County and established ERA Advisory LLC, a small business and leadership consultancy firm focused on giving back to the community.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Lock Haven University and received master’s degrees from Webster University and the Eisenhower School for National Security.

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.

“Governor Moore is finally recognizing that the Republicans have better ideas when it comes to fiscal responsibility,” state Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey, a representative of the Upper Eastern Shore, said in a statement Friday afternoon.

In late June, the Moore administration announced that it would be reducing the number of state employee positions in the budget, implementing a hiring freeze for most state agencies and offering buyouts for workers who voluntarily choose to leave their state government jobs.

Moore’s buyout program officially launched Thursday. State employees who opt to quit their jobs will receive $20,000, plus an additional $300 for every year of service.

According to a Friday news release from the Senate Republican Caucus, Moore’s voluntary separation plan is a short-term fix that won’t attract participation from the highest-earning state employees because the incentive pay is too low.

Republicans in the Maryland Senate and House of Delegates suggested hiring freezes and the elimination of vacant state employee positions as methods to help close the state’s $3 billion structural deficit that Moore and the General Assembly contended with during the 2025 legislative session.

Sen. J.B. Jennings, a Baltimore County Republican, said that he had asked Moore about implementing a hiring freeze during a Senate Budget and Taxation Committee meeting before the budget bill hit the Senate floor. According to Jennings, Moore rejected the idea.

“It was the Republicans’ idea to downsize state government through hiring freezes, eliminating vacant [positions] and voluntary layoffs,” Hershey said. “But simply because Republicans provided these ideas during the 90-day legislative session, the Democrat leadership was unwilling to accept them and instead chose to raise taxes and fees and force Marylanders to pay more for bloated government.”

The Democrat-controlled legislature declined to adopt Republican ideas regarding the state workforce, opting instead to implement nearly $2 billion in cuts and more than $1 billion in new and increased taxes and fees to balance the budget for fiscal year 2026.

“Wait until next year … Marylanders have not seen the last of Governor Moore’s appetite for higher taxes and increased fees,” said Hershey.

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.

“What we want to make sure is that we’re moving people into an economy where they can have good-paying jobs, where they can have benefits provided by great companies like this that help their workers climb that ladder of success,” Loeffler, the SBA administrator, said of Checkerspot Brewing Company in Pigtown. “We want to have an economy that lifts up all workers — that provides an on-ramp into the economy, as opposed to incentivizing people not being a part of the economy.”

Loeffler took a tour through the Checkerspot Brewing Company in Baltimore’s Pigtown neighborhood, which is owned by Judy and Rob Neff. They showed Loeffler machinery in their actual brewing space, which grew from an endeavor in the kitchen of their house to a warehouse and neighborhood mainstay.

The Neffs showed Loeffler through their brewing process and gave her a taste of their “The Bird is the Word” Honey Kolsch — a beer inspired by the city’s bird-inspired sports teams, the Orioles and the Ravens.

Asked how they feel about Trump’s signature bill, Judy Neff said, “We’re just like supporters of the SBA. We’re happy that the SBA is intact and still here to help small businesses,” noting that the largest benefit will be felt by their tipped employees. The president’s “no tax on tips” plan in the bill allows workers to deduct $25,000 in tips annually from their income.

Loeffler underscored the provisions of the bill that cut taxes for workers who receive tips and work overtime hours.

According to Loeffler, 21% of Marylanders work overtime.

“When they work overtime, they’re keeping that money in their pockets instead of them paying more in taxes due to overtime.” she said.

Loeffler also pointed to the 5% of tipped workers who will be able to keep those tips in their pockets.

“Spend it on Main Street or save it for the future,” she said.

Jess Leal is a beer tender at Checkerspot who also works at other breweries. She said that no taxes on tips will “definitely make a difference” for her.

“I think being able to see all of that money that is given to you and actually getting to see that number back is going to be a significant change,” Leal said.

Additionally, Loeffler said the small business benefits of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” allow business owners to deduct up to 20% of their qualified business income.

According to Loeffler, Trump’s bill will affect approximately 86,000 small businesses in Maryland.

She said that the money they accrue can be used to ensure that business owners can add additional jobs or make investments. Loeffler said it also lowers taxes for “hard-working” families making between $15,000 and $80,000 annually, and “doubles the child tax credit.”

“The list goes on and on,” she said.

Some Marylanders, including the state’s Democratic leaders, oppose the passage of the bill, largely because they say it takes health care access away from those who need it most.

More than 1.5 million adults and nearly half of all children in Maryland are covered by Medicaid, according to the state Department of Health.

One of the most stringent Medicaid measures under the “big, beautiful bill” is the requirement that recipients will have to fulfill 80 hours of work or community service activities each month starting in 2027.

Loeffler said that “the good news is” that work requirements under Trump’s policy bill are “pretty minimal.”

Advocates worry that changes to an already complicated system could exacerbate the difficulty low-income Marylanders have in adequately receiving and maintaining health care access. For example, the current Medicaid system has a yearly recertification requirement, where recipients must demonstrate that they still qualify.

Under Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” that annual recertification would be reduced to six months, giving recipients a shorter window to show why they still qualify.

To the detractors, Loeffler said Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” is a “pro-growth, pro-worker” bill that makes sure that there are “permanent tax cuts for small businesses.”

“This is not a corporate tax cut bill,” she said. “This is not a tax cut bill for the rich.”

Have a news tip? Contact Hannah Gaskill at hgaskill@baltsun.com.