As of Sunday afternoon, Walker was scheduled to meet with four council members Monday and Tuesday: Council chair Mike Ertel, a Towson Democrat; Councilman Izzy Patoka, a Democrat from Pikesville; Councilman Pat Young, a Catonsville Democrat; and Councilman Wade Kach, a Republican from Lutherville-Timonium.

Klausmeier’s administration is working to schedule meetings with the three remaining councilmen, as well, said Erica Palmisano, her spokeswoman.

The meetings precede the work session at 4 p.m. Tuesday, where Walker will answer questions before the council. The seven-member council is responsible for confirming her to the inspector general role at an upcoming meeting.

Walker spent more than two decades in the federal government. Her most recent role was working as a deputy assistant inspector general for audits, inspections and evaluations at the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of Inspector General. Before that, she spent more than two decades with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in various auditing roles.

However, multiple County Council members have said they would prefer to keep Kelly Madigan, the county’s current inspector general, on the job — a potential roadblock to Walker’s appointment.

Patoka, Kach and Councilman David Marks, an Upper Falls Republican, have said they will only support Madigan.

Some area residents plan to rally at 3 p.m. Tuesday, immediately before the work session, to urge the Council to reject any nominee who isn’t Madigan and demand a transparent, independent selection process.

The Council is also expected to discuss a charter amendment introduced by Patoka that would create an independent board to appoint and reappoint the county’s inspector general to remove political influence from the process in the future.

Have a news tip? Contact Natalie Jones at najones@baltsun.com.

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.

The decision has sparked debate over who should pay for disaster relief — the federal government, states, or both. What do you think?

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The association offers a chance for governors from all 55 U.S. states, territories and commonwealths to convene and discuss policy solutions, as well as work through shared challenges and shape federal policy, according to its website. The bipartisan organization offers convenings, programs and task forces for governors, in addition to conducting research and data development.

Moore was elected vice chair for the 2025-2026 cycle and will assume the role of chair for the 2026-2027 term, according to a news release. The chair position rotates annually between the two major political parties, and the vice chair automatically succeeds the chair at the completion of their term, according to the NGA’s website.

The organization meets twice per year, and each meeting’s agenda is set by the chair with consultation from the vice chair. The chair, again with input from the vice chair, also makes all committee and task force assignments.

As vice chair, Moore will oversee the NGA Center for Best Practices, the only research and development office directly serving state governors, where he will work alongside other governors to develop solutions to policy changes nationwide, the release says.

He will also work alongside the chair-elect, Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, in his yearlong chair’s initiative: Reigniting the American Dream, which focuses on economic development, education and the future of artificial intelligence, the release says.

Each chair has the opportunity to highlight an issue throughout their one-year term in order to foster awareness and bipartisan policy solutions, the NGA website says.

Two cycles ago, Moore joined the Disagree Better initiative, which encouraged conversations across differences without being divisive, spearheaded by Gov. Spencer Cox, a Utah Republican. That initiative encompassed several events and created community resources, such as a parenting toolkit and a video starring Moore, titled “Being Different, Not Divisive,” according to its website.

“We all want to create a brighter future for our states, and the nation,” Moore said in the release. “I’m looking forward to collaborating with my fellow governors to build stronger on-ramps to opportunity so every person in our states has a shot at success – no matter how they define it.”

Have a news tip? Contact K. Mauser at kmauser@baltsun.com.

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.

Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.

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.

Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore has claimed there’s no evidence that his accelerated green energy agenda is increasing electricity bills for residents, despite concerns from PJM Interconnection that a shrinking energy supply is colliding with rapid economic growth.

Spotlight on Maryland asked PJM on Thursday whether Maryland’s energy generation shortfall specifically increased demand on regional energy costs, which drove up its capacity auction prices to a record high earlier in the week.

“Existing supply has been leaving the system due primarily to state and federal decarbonization policies and some economics,” PJM spokesman Jeffrey Shields said in an email. “In any market, when demand is up and supply is down, there will be an increase in pricing.”

“PJM has been warning of this eventuality for several years now, specifically as it relates to the impact of these supply/demand fundamentals on our ability to reliably operate the power grid,” Shields added.

On Tuesday, PJM announced its capacity auction price for 2026 had jumped to $329.17 per megawatt (MW) — a 22% increase from the previous year and more than 1038% higher than the $28.92 per MW clearing price in 2023, when Moore took office. Some customers’ electricity bills will increase 1.5% to 5%, PJM said.

What’s a capacity auction?

PJM conducts annual auctions to ensure utilities can secure enough electricity when demand spikes, such as during heat waves or severe storms. The price determined in these auctions affects the cost of electricity for customers across 13 states and Washington, D.C.

As traditional power plants retire faster than replacements come online, PJM says the system is becoming more fragile — and expensive.

“Generators are retiring in Maryland due to a mixture of economic and policy justifications and without replacement generation in place,” PJM warned in a two-page brief after last year’s first record-breaking capacity auction. Maryland, which already imports the majority of its energy, has lost 6,000 MW of electricity since 2018, while adding only 1,600 MW, the brief said.

Moore’s green energy push

At an unrelated event in Baltimore on July 17, Spotlight on Maryland asked Moore if his green energy agenda is disrupting the state’s energy market and costing Marylanders, as they are experiencing a tough state economy.

“Not at all,” said Moore, a Democrat. “There is no data that can actually reinforce that being able to say we believe in solar, and wind, and nuclear, and all the different, all-of-the above energy assets, that in any way, is actually hurting ratepayers. In fact, it’s actually helping.”

“The best thing you can do is provide more options for ratepayers. If you provide more options, it’s simple supply and demand, it brings prices down. So what we are interested in is making sure the ratepayers are supported and we can do that while also protecting the environment,” Moore added.

But PJM contends that current green energy initiatives aren’t keeping up with the demand — and new supply is lagging. Shields noted that while PJM has approved 46,000 MW of new generation, much of it remains unbuilt due to global supply chain issues, state and federal permitting delays, and financing challenges.

Offshore wind faces setback

Moore has made offshore wind a cornerstone of his clean energy plan. He signed three green energy bills in April 2023, including the Maryland Promotion Offshore Wind Energy Resource Act, or the POWER Act. During the bill signings, the governor announced his accelerated net-zero emissions target for Maryland, aiming to reach 100% carbon-free energy generation by 2035 — a full decade ahead of the state’s statutory requirement.

The governor said that offshore wind would be crucial for the state to replace fossil fuel plants with clean, renewable energy.

“The POWER Act will nearly quadruple our offshore wind goals so we can build off the great work of our partners at Tradepoint Atlantic, our partners at Orsted, and our partners at US Wind to make Maryland the offshore capital of the United States,” Moore said in April 2023.

Spotlight on Maryland reported in early July that the sites previously scheduled to open in summer 2025 remain mostly unchanged since the governor broke ground at the facilities.

When Spotlight on Maryland asked Moore how offshore wind will increase the supply that he says his administration is seeking to accomplish in his all-of-the-above generation approach, he said:

“Well, when you’re talking about all-of-the-above energy options, that includes solar, that includes wind, that includes nuclear, that includes all of the various options that we have on board to make sure we are increasing supply,” Moore said. “If you are having increased demand, as we are seeing in the state of Maryland, you have to increase supply.”

“If you do not increase supply, then you will end up having jacked up prices, and that means all the ratepayers get hosed, so what we are trying to do is just provide every single option possible and make it available to people at a scalable way that both brings prices down and bring inventory up,” Moore added.

Moore’s response comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demanded two weeks ago that Maryland regulators fix its offshore wind permits, which it said were issued incorrectly. The EPA added that failure to reissue permits in compliance with its terms could void Maryland’s offshore wind approval.

New York utility regulators revoked their permits for a multibillion-dollar offshore wind project last week, citing a shift in federal energy priorities and the need to protect the state’s electricity ratepayers.

“What we’ve seen over the last several months from the federal government hasn’t been a simple change in policy, but a wholesale departure from long-established norms,” said Rory Christian, New York Public Service Commission chairman. “In time, the winds of national policy will shift. When they do, we will be ready. But in the meantime, we have to focus our attention on building the clean energy infrastructure we need.”

PJM’s warning

The grid operator outlined three key points for Maryland policymakers to focus on in its publication to reduce record-high energy costs, warning them not to shut down energy sources until replacements are in place.

“Avoid efforts meant to push generation off the system until an adequate quantity of replacement generation is online and operating,” PJM said.

Shields reiterated the warning about green energy solutions being pursued across the region in his email response Thursday to Spotlight on Maryland.

Meanwhile, Del. Chris Tomlinson, a Republican representing Carroll and Frederick counties, said he is not confident Maryland is on the right path to protect ratepayers, instead remaining overly focused on green energy solutions as the rest of the nation shifts.

“I don’t think any of the bills that we passed are going to make a dent in what we are seeing on our [electricity] bills month after month,” Tomlinson said. “I don’t ever like to think there is no hope, so I don’t want to say that, but unfortunately, I think it is going to have to get worse until Democratic leadership finally wakes up and says we are going to have to make major changes.”

Follow Gary Collins with Spotlight on Maryland on X and Instagram. Do you have news tips on this story or others? Send news tips to gmcollins@sbgtv.com. Spotlight on Maryland is a collaboration between FOX45 News, WJLA in Washington, D.C., and The Baltimore Sun.

If approved by the county council, Walker would replace Kelly Madigan, who has served in the role for the past five years.

Callers on Kim Klacik Live expressed their outrage, with Klacik insisting, “This is ridiculous. Kathy Klausmeier needs to resign. The fact she’s playing games and then comes out with a name Khadija Walker …?”

Former State Senator Jim Brochin criticized the move, calling it “an insult to every Baltimore Countian” and “comical” compared to retaining Madigan. Brochin alleged that the decision was influenced by former County Executive, now Congressman, Johnny Olszewski, whom he described as “the puppetmaster.”

“Johnny’s clearly the puppetmaster,” Brochin said. “He’s told multiple people it’s the biggest mistake he’s ever made cause what he got was good government… and he got a watchdog.”

Olszewski, however, denied any involvement in the decision and indicated his support for Madigan.

Madigan will continue as the county’s inspector general until the county council confirms the new appointee.

Brochin noted that there is no requirement for the council to vote on the appointment, suggesting, “The right thing to do in my opinion is to do nothing. You just don’t bring the appointment up… you say appreciate it, interim county executive, but we’re gonna take a pass for the next 16 months.”

Have a news tip? Contact Jeff Abell at jabell@sbgtv.com and follow him on X at @JeffAbellFOX45

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.

Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.