This week, three of the state’s House members joined dozens of their colleagues on both sides of the aisle in sponsoring legislation related to Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex trafficker who died in prison in 2019. Epstein had a relationship with many powerful figures such as Trump, former President Bill Clinton and British Prince Andrew — all of whom were listed in flight logs released in New York last year.

Reps. Johnny Olszewski and Jamie Raskin were among the 34 congressmen who co-sponsored House Resolution 581, a measure that would give Attorney General Pam Bondi 30 days to “release nearly all unclassified files” related to the federal investigation of Epstein, his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and their known associates.

In a news release Tuesday, Olszewski said Republicans who campaigned on Epstein transparency should “welcome the opportunity to end the speculation once and for all.”

“President Trump and his extreme conservatives have doubled and tripled down on Epstein conspiracy theories for years, but now claim there’s ‘nothing to see,'” Olszewski said. “If that’s the case, they should have no problem releasing these files for the American public to evaluate.”

Olszewski and Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who together represent all of Baltimore City, were two of the 18 lawmakers who co-sponsored House Resolution 4405, also known as the “Epstein Files Transparency Act.” Derived from the aforementioned resolution, this bill has just one Republican sponsor, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie — a libertarian-minded deficit hawk whom Trump has threatened to primary.

Democrats had tried to force Republicans to vote on the issue for weeks until Wednesday, when three GOP members of the House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement backed Pennsylvania Rep. Summer Lee’s motion to subpoena the Department of Justice for the release of Epstein documents. A vote before the entire House will have to wait until lawmakers return from their summer recess.

Mfume’s chief of staff, Allegra Carson, told The Baltimore Sun Thursday that the congressman supports Lee’s motion to subpoena the DOJ. Mfume, who serves on the separate House Oversight Subcommittee on Government Operations, thanked Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett for introducing a similar resolution during a hearing Tuesday.

Katharine Wilson contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.

Titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets,” the order encourages local governments to revive civil commitment, a process used to place people with mental health conditions into treatment facilities without their consent. It also directs some Cabinet leaders to prioritize federal funding to cities that align with Trump’s lead by taking a hard stance against open drug use and street camping.

“Shifting homeless individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment will restore public order,” the order reads. “Surrendering our cities and citizens to disorder and fear is neither compassionate to the homeless nor other citizens.”

The order also requires the Department of Justice to evaluate whether homeless people arrested for federal crimes are “sexually dangerous persons.”

Involuntary civil commitment has been used preventively to confine people before they can harm themselves or others. But in more recent decades, mental health advocates have pushed to orient facilities toward treatment rather than incarceration.

In a statement Friday, the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development said Trump’s move “goes against every proven best practice to reduce homelessness.”

“This executive order on homelessness is yet another attempt to drive a stake of fear, division and hate through the heart of every community in our nation,” the department’s statement reads. “Maryland believes in more, and our armor is strong.”

The agency added that its Housing First program has “reduced unsheltered homelessness by 42%” statewide since 2015.

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The service combines two existing services within the city’s 311 non-emergency system — “48-Hour Abandoned Vehicle” and “Parking Complaint” — into a single option called “Parking Complaint,” according to a news release from the mayor. The move is aimed at cutting response times, simplifying the reporting process and enhancing customer service for residents.

“This new system is going to make it easier for residents to report abandoned vehicles in their neighborhoods — and improve our response time, so we can get those vehicles off the street faster,” Scott said in the release. “I’m grateful to all of the city agencies who came together, working with the Transportation Committee, to deliver this solution.”

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation, Mayor’s Office of Performance and Innovation and other city agencies worked with City Councilman Ryan Dorsey’s Transportation Committee to make the change, the release said.

“It seems simple, updating a set of 311 questions about parking, but it’s really just the face of a total reworking of how parking enforcement should operate,” Dorsey said.

The move follows the rollout of the city’s “comprehensive” 311 modernization in late May. Baltimore was the first city to use 311 as a non-emergency phone number for city services, and the program has since been expanded to address issues like trash pickup and potholes.

The city received more than a million 311 service requests from July 2024 to June 2025, of which about one-fifth were submitted via the website or mobile app, according to the release.

To report an issue, visit balt311.baltimorecity.gov.

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The incident occurred around 4:15 p.m. about 150 yards south of the lifeguarded area near the Chincoteague Beach parking lot, according to the NPS.

A relative told lifeguards that the man and another swimmer were struggling in the water “well offshore.” Both were pulled from the water, but the 18-year-old was unconscious and unresponsive, prompting lifeguards to administer CPR.

He was then transported to an area hospital and pronounced dead on arrival, the NPS said. The man’s name has not been released.

The NPS reminded swimmers to “never venture too far from shore” and be mindful of wind and ocean currents in the water off Assateague Island.

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Daniel Fuentes Espinal, a 54-year-old father of three originally from Honduras, has been pastor of the Iglesia del Nazareno Jesus Te Ama (Church of the Nazarene Jesus Loves You) in Easton since 2015. His family fled violence in Honduras in 2001, when ICE said Fuentes Espinal was granted a visa to remain in the U.S. for six months.

“Fuentes entered the United States on a 6-month visa and never left in 24 years. It is a federal crime to overstay the authorized period of time granted under a visitors visa,” ICE said in a statement.

Fuentes Espinal’s daughter, Clarissa Fuentes Diaz, was eight years old when she left Honduras with her father and was recently notified she would become a U.S. citizen. She told multiple news outlets that Fuentes Espinal, who also works in construction, was followed to a Lowe’s hardware store on the day of his arrest and taken into custody while running routine errands.

Fuentes Espinal was held in Salisbury and Baltimore before being moved to the Winn Correctional Center, a private prison facility used by ICE to detain immigrants in northwestern Louisiana, according to Fuentes Diaz. This facility is about an hour’s drive from an ICE detention center in the town of Jena, where Columbia University pro-Palestine activist Mahmoud Khalil was held for more than three months.

Fuentes Espinal’s two other children were born in the U.S., according to Maryland Matters.

Reactions to arrest

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who emerged as a leader among Democrats by visiting El Salvador when Kilmar Abrego Garcia was wrongfully deported this spring, told Maryland Matters that his office has been in contact with Fuentes Espinal’s family and is continuing to monitor the situation.

Maryland Reps. Sarah Elfreth and Glenn Ivey, both Democrats, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, calling for Fuentes Espinal’s release. The letter notes that Fuentes Espinal has no criminal record in his more than two decades living in the U.S.

“We believe that the arrest and detention of Pastor Espinal does not reflect this Administration’s repeated commitment to arrest, detain, and remove violent criminals,” the letter reads. “… His arrest and detention by ICE does nothing to further your state goals of making America safer.”

The Maryland Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations also condemned the arrest, calling Fuentes Espinal a “widely respected pastor” who has tried to obtain American citizenship.

“Detaining a widely respected pastor who has been serving the Maryland community for twenty years while attempting to rectify his legal status sends a chilling message,” CAIR’s Maryland director, Zainab Chaudry, said in a statement. “We call on ICE to immediately release this pastor and stop wasting government resources targeting immigrants who have done nothing but contribute to our society.”

As of Saturday morning, a GoFundMe campaign for Fuentes Espinal’s legal expenses and to support his family had raised more than $28,000 of its $40,000 goal.

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“Morning Joe” host Jonathan Lemire asked Moore for his reaction to The Atlantic reporting that Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly had stopped paying dues to the National Governors’ Association (NGA). Walz and Kelly have concluded “the organization’s usefulness is now in doubt” because it did not respond forcefully enough to President Donald Trump’s “federal incursions into state matters,” according to sources cited by the outlet.

“I have a deep respect for my colleagues in Minnesota and also Governor Kelly in Kansas; they are dear friends, both Governor Walz and Governor Kelly,” Moore told Lemire. “And I also know that in this moment, the people in our states, the people in our country, they need us to focus on best practices and working together to make their lives better.”

Moore is set to become the NGA’s vice president this year and is gearing up to run for a second term as governor of Maryland in 2026. While he’s been critical of Trump at times, Moore has sought to position himself as “not the leader of the resistance” and spoken about eliminating “waste, fraud and abuse,” while cuts by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency angered Democrats.

Both Kelly and Walz, the party’s vice presidential nominee in the 2024 presidential election, will be term-limited next year — perhaps explaining their willingness to question the group.

Another Democrat, Maine Gov. Janet Mills, will not attend this summer’s NGA meeting in Colorado. In February, Mills publicly sparred with Trump over his effort to withhold federal funds from Maine when she refused to comply with the executive order banning transgender women from participating in female sports leagues.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, the NGA’s current vice president, will ascend to the presidency this year, succeeding Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Stitt appeared alongside Moore on “Morning Joe” Friday; the two governors were friendly and agreed on several issues.

Moore on budget

Moore also discussed his approach to Maryland’s budget, pointing out that his first three budgets decreased the size of the state’s general fund. While true, spending has increased under Moore in areas such as Medicaid and Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, a decade-long plan to reform public education that caused financial headaches during the recent legislative session.

“In our first three years as governor, we have actually had three straight budgets where we actually decreased the size of the general fund … decreasing the size of state government, saying we can be more efficient,” the governor said. “We can be more effective, and that doesn’t mean we have to spend more… We’ve got to be really careful and cautious when it comes to utilization of taxpayer dollars.”

His references to the general fund do not include the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, Medicaid and other areas where spending has increased.

In recent political ads and other TV appearances, Moore has said the fiscal 2026 budget he signed turned a $3 billion deficit “into a budget surplus” without raising state income taxes for most Marylanders. Republicans have called this messaging misleading and pointed to other tax and fee increases — such as the state’s new 3% sales tax on technology services and increased vehicle registration costs — as measures Moore used to balance the budget.

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Scott said the “Infrastructure Academy,” as the program is known, was inspired by the vacancies within the Department of General Services’ fleet division, which repairs city-owned vehicles. Apprentice students will get experience working on the vehicles and be primed for employment upon completing the program, the mayor said during a news conference Thursday in Park Heights.

“Everyone who finishes the program and graduates high school gets a job after. I mean that,” said Scott, a Democrat. “There is no way, there is no if. It is, you will [get a job] when you go through this program.”

The mayor said students interested in learning about apprenticeship opportunities — especially those from Edmondson-Westside, Forest Park and Mergenthaler (Mervo) high schools — should speak with guidance counselors, visit BaltimoreIsHiring.com, or message @BaltimoreDGS on Instagram or X.

Scott’s Infrastructure Academy announcement came one day after his call for greater regional collaboration between Baltimore City and its surrounding counties on issues ranging from public transportation to climate change — an idea that continues to draw some opposition from Republicans statewide.

Maryland Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey objected to Scott calling out former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan for canceling the proposed Red Line light rail project through Baltimore in 2015. Scott said Hogan canceled the project because he “didn’t like the city.”

“The Red Line wasn’t canceled out of spite — it was a bloated, inefficient project that wouldn’t have solved the city’s unemployment or transit problems,” Hershey, a Republican representing Caroline, Cecil, Kent and Queen Anne’s counties, told The Baltimore Sun, arguing Scott was “pointing fingers at everyone but himself” for Baltimore’s transit shortcomings.

Hershey also objected to Scott’s suggestion that federal inaction on climate change issues during the Trump administration has hurt the city’s ability to respond to increasingly common severe weather events. Such inaction requires more proactive collaboration between state and local governments on the issue, Scott argued Wednesday.

“Broken pipes, clogged storm drains, and deteriorating roads aren’t climate policy issues, they’re basic governance failures,” Hershey said. “The mayor should stop deflecting and start delivering.”

State Sen. J.B. Jennings, a Republican representing Baltimore and Harford counties, was more skeptical than critical of the mayor’s push for infrastructure projects to deal with climate change.

“Climate change is a global challenge, and while local efforts can contribute, the real impact comes from national and international collaboration,” Jennings told The Sun. “I’m not sure how much meaningful change we can drive at the local level alone, but know that systems are in place to do what’s possible.”

Jennings added that, while the term “infrastructure” has a broader meaning in Baltimore City, it primarily refers to roads in his district. He believes more employers encouraging remote work could reduce congestion on roads in both the city and Baltimore County, thus giving infrastructure investments a longer shelf life.

Mathew Schumer contributed to this article. Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@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.

Scott headlined Wednesday morning’s panel at the inaugural Baltimore City Regional Infrastructure Summit, alongside four other Democrats: Maryland state Sens. Dalya Attar, Antonio Hayes and Mary Washington, as well as state Del. N. Scott Phillips, who moderated the panel. All discussed the need for improved regional cooperation on various issues.

“Baltimore County, Howard County, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, they never really thought about why it was important for them to be aligned and work together. I had the blessing of coming in at a time where we had no choice but to do that,” Scott said, referring to the coordination required to distribute federal COVID-19 relief funds.

Hayes, who represents West Baltimore, said the influence of the city’s delegation to Annapolis has “shifted dramatically” because of population declines in recent decades, meaning fewer senators and delegates represent Baltimore statewide. He believes the lack of a “binding authority” on public transportation projects is hurting the area.

“There’s no binding authority, decision-making authority regionally that is really [deciding] things,” Hayes said. “There [have] been some suggestions, some ideas about how we go about doing that. But right now, I think that’s one of the challenges we have as far as moving forward as a region.”

Eager to weigh in while the state senator spoke, Scott joked that Hayes was “too nice” in his assessment of state politics and took a shot at former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan for canceling the proposed Red Line light rail project through Baltimore in 2015. The mayor suggested Hogan was motivated to cancel the Red Line because he “didn’t like the city.”

“We all should be riding the Red Line right now, not talking about when and if we’re gonna be able to build the Red Line,” Scott said. “And the reality of that is the outdated structure that we had … allowed that to happen.”

At the time, Hogan argued that constructing the Red Line would be financially wasteful and distract from his top priority of fixing roads. And as a U.S. Senate candidate last year, Hogan told The Baltimore Sun he would not prioritize funds for the revived Red Line project if elected.

“The Red Line has always been a deeply flawed multibillion-dollar boondoggle of an idea that neither the state nor the city could afford — which is exactly why Governor O’Malley didn’t build it and why Governor Moore won’t either,” Doug Mayer, former senior staffer for Hogan and a GOP strategist, said on Wednesday. “It didn’t make sense for Baltimore and its residents 15 years ago and doesn’t make sense now.”

Del. Matt Morgan, a Republican from St. Mary’s County, said the plea for more state help for mass transit is flawed. The Maryland Transportation Trust Fund already allocates more money for mass transit than for roads and bridges.

“It’s time that mass transit starts paying for itself,” he said.

Water infrastructure

Scott spoke about regional collaboration in terms of shared water infrastructure between Baltimore City and Baltimore County, which has led to recent utility rate increases in both jurisdictions.

He said the 1971 agreement allowing the county — which then had a much smaller population than the city — to use city-owned water infrastructure “makes no sense in 2025,” and argued the city should look at ways to change the structure of the agreement.

“People are gonna be mad, there’s gonna be some resistance because some people, well, you’re gonna have to pay more,” Scott said. There’s no way that we can continue to stuff the investment that has to go [into water infrastructure].”

On the other hand, Scott said collaboration between Baltimore City and Baltimore County was more positive in responding to Friday’s water main break in Hunt Valley. The mayor said he got a text from Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier praising the work of the city’s Department of Public Works at the scene of the break.

Climate change

Scott believes state and local governments should acknowledge that the federal government under President Donald Trump will not support climate change initiatives, meaning more regional collaboration is needed.

“The federal government is not gonna help, it’s just not. So we have to take that responsibility, at the local and the state level,” the mayor said.

Scott added that the extent of climate change is evident by the increased intensity of summer thunderstorms in Baltimore over the last five years.

“Literally, whenever we are having big storms come in, there are roads that immediately [that] I direct the emergency management teams to close,” he said. “… People still drive through the barricades, [but] that’s a whole other conversation.”

Morgan said Scott should focus on Baltimore, not the federal government.

“Donald Trump has bigger fish to fry, and so does the mayor of a city with the fourth-highest crime rate in the country,” the delegate said, referring to a recent U.S. News and World Report ranking.

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Ranked in fourth place, the city trails only Memphis, Tennessee, Oakland, California; and St. Louis, Missouri — all cities that have historically been high among the top 25.

U.S. News’ website shows the rankings are “determined by FBI crime reports” on murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people. Susannah Snider, the outlet’s Managing Editor of Money, told The Baltimore Sun that the 2025-26 list saw changes due to “data shifts to consider more granular city data.”

“Historically, U.S. News only considered a city’s murder and property crime rates per 100,000 people, determined by FBI crime reports,” Snider said in an emailed statement. “In 2025, U.S. News partnered with Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS) to supplement non-U.S. News data points used to determine rankings, which includes FBI data and local crime data in its CrimeRisk Index.”

During his 2025 State of the City address, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott spoke about the city’s absence from last year’s U.S. News’ list of most dangerous places. At the time, Scott said, “This is not a moment for celebration” because the city still has more work to do.

Asked if anything had changed that would impact Baltimore’s ranking on the list, the mayor’s office referenced his work to reduce violent crime.

“Through July 21st homicides in Baltimore are down another 25% from last year and are at its lowest number of homicides through that date on record. Our focus is to continue to work with everyone involved in our Comprehensive Violence Reduction Plan to continue that historic progress and nothing will change that focus,” a Scott spokesman said in an emailed statement to The Sun.

The city saw a 22.7% reduction in homicides and 19.6% reduction in non-fatal shootings through the first half of 2025 compared to 2024. Property crime also dropped 11% through July 12 compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis published by The Sun Monday.

Despite the decrease in crime overall, a June 3 presentation by the Baltimore Police Department showed that juvenile offenders were making up a greater percentage of those arrested for crimes such as robbery and handgun-related offenses. Lisa Reynolds, chief of BPD’s Youth and Community Partnerships Division, testified that the department has identified about 50 “repeat” juvenile offenders who are committing increasingly serious crimes.

A spokesman for Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates declined to comment on the U.S. News ranking. A spokesman for Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.

This story was updated to include a statement from Susannah Snider.

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