While Mayor Brandon Scott has faced criticism from advocates and researchers about the effectiveness of the controversial youth curfew, he has pushed ahead with an approach that emphasizes social services while aiming to minimize teen interactions with police.
The status update on spending of Baltimore’s $641 million in COVID-19 recovery aid comes as the city’s spending has chugged along gradually but as looming federal deadlines could prompt the city to reassess parts of its spending plan.
Messaging from Mayor Brandon Scott’s administration in the days leading up to Memorial Day weekend — when enforcement of the city’s long-standing curfew kicks off again — has been muddled and at times misleading.
Mayor Brandon Scott’s controversial decision to reinstate curfew enforcement on weekends and holidays this summer comes in response to the city’s recent surge in teen gun violence.
The first-term mayor has doubled down on plans to enforce a youth curfew despite concerns from criminal justice researchers and advocates that it could criminalize kids.
City officials called on the environmental agency to reconsider its mandate to finish the Lake Ashburton and Druid Lake reservoir projects by the end of the year, calling the order “much harsher and more burdensome” than the agreement the two sides had been negotiating.
The EPA cited last September’s E. coli scare in West Baltimore as among its justifications for the end-of-year deadline and required the city to complete monthly tests for bacterial contamination.
The departure of Director Shantay Jackson, who has led an office with tens of millions in federal funds for alternative approaches to violent crime, marks the latest in a string of high-profile departures from the mayor’s administration.
Wednesday’s discussion touched on unsolved homicides, staffing issues, youth gun violence, the Group Violence Reduction Strategy and a newly proposed arsonist registry.
At a bill signing ceremony this week, Gov. Wes Moore highlighted one of the measures receiving his signature: the Maryland Sign Language Interpreters Act.
The bills, which follow the expiration of a city moratorium on facial recognition technology, would grant City Council authority to approve agency purchases of surveillance tech and impose strict regulations on their use by both the government and the private sector.
A meeting of the city’s Board of Estimates on Wednesday offered the first public forum for other elected officials to weigh in on the mayor’s spending plan for the budget year beginning July 1.
Assessments shared with agencies and nonprofits give a glimpse at the risk Baltimore could run into problems or miss deadlines for spending pandemic relief, but also the ambition of the city's plans for the money.
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. on Easter evening in the 400 block of East Pratt Street near Shake Shack, as police were arresting an individual they said was involved in a large fight.
Archbishop William Lori's homily at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen came just four days after the release of the Attorney General's years-long investigation into sexual abuse and cover-up in Maryland churches.