Maryland

In Chicago, Moore is helping the national ticket and helping himself – Maryland Matters

Published

2 years ago

August 22, 2024

In Chicago, Moore is helping the national ticket and helping himself – Maryland Matters

CHICAGO — Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) is hardly anyone’s idea of an inspiring orator.

The 72-year-old former classroom teacher and principal may be a canny enough politician to have won statewide office in a swing state five times, including two terms as governor. But when he finished his vanilla speech to his home state delegation at the Democratic National Convention earlier this week, the delegates in the room could barely muster a half-hearted chant of “Tony! Tony! Tony!”

The mood in the room changed dramatically moments later, when Wisconsin Democratic Chair Ben Wikler introduced a visitor.

“I can hear the hubbub,” Wikler said as the next speaker entered the room.

“Our next governor is a dynamic leader — he’s one of our party’s greatest champions,” Wikler said, calling the invited speaker “an honorary Badger.”

With that, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) strode to the hotel ballroom stage.

“WHAT’S UP, WISCONSIN?” he shouted after embracing Wikler, his smile a mile wide, arms waving like one of those guys who runs through the crowd at sporting events to whip up enthusiasm.

Moore went on to describe a recent three-day visit to the Dairy State, where “I saw public service at its best.” He recounted how, in the hours immediately after the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge outside Baltimore, he received supportive calls with offers of help from “my friend and your governor, Tony Evers,” from Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D), and from “my friend and your former lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes.”

Moore also talked about the importance of Wisconsin in the Electoral College calculus. He exhorted the crowd of Democratic activists to do the work necessary to elect Kamala Harris president. And he vowed to visit Wisconsin again soon, to help them knock on doors and turn out the vote.

“When the story of this election is written, it’s going to be run through Wisconsin,” he said.

The crowd went wild. Moore left the stage and was instantly mobbed by well-wishers seeking hugs and selfies and offering praise. When New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) took to the stage to speak to the Cheeseheads — a purple state gets a lot of attention from national pols — Moore was still greeting his admirers.

This scene has been repeated, with small variations, throughout the convention week.

Moore has stopped by at least seven state delegation breakfasts so far, and the ritual each time is very much the same: An enthusiastic introduction from a party leader. A high wattage greeting from Moore. A recollection by the governor of a recent visit and/or a connection to the state — before the Georgia delegation on Wednesday morning, for example, he recounted his basic Army training at the former Fort Benning.

“I left a lot of sweat and tears in that soil,” he said.

Moore then will recall the generous offers of help from state leaders after the Key Bridge disaster — and he’ll add that Vice President Harris very quickly made a similar call. He’ll remind the Democratic activists to do the work this fall and talk about the political stakes for their states in this election. That’s followed by another swarm of well-wishers.

The energy level, at each of Moore’s breakfast appearances, on a scale of 1 to 10, is somewhere around a 26 — from the governor himself and from the audience.

When they can, the phalanx of Moore aides who are traveling with him throughout the Windy City try to find a space in a nearby hallway and ask his admirers to line up there for greetings and pictures. After he spoke to a joint meeting of the South Carolina and Tennessee delegations Wednesday morning, at least 40 people queued up, the line snaking through the hotel hallway and almost running into the Alaska delegation’s buffet table.

“I’m going to marry him!” one young woman exclaimed to her friends after she bounded away from Moore following a photo.

“He’s great, he’s just great,” said the woman, Kathryn Winsley, a Memphis resident and a member of the Tennessee Young Democrats, in an interview. “He really got the crowd going. He talked about important things in a really relatable way.”

Ambitious, young, high-profile Democrats, part of the next generation of possible contenders for national office some day, are all making the scene around Chicago this week — ostensibly as surrogates for Harris, but to boost their own profile as well. It’s a time-honored tradition of political conventions. In fact, Moore, 45, ran into Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), another up-and-comer, making the same rounds in the same hotel Wednesday morning, and the two men embraced. (The hotel, in fact, is owned by Pritzker’s family.)

But while Pritzker is also a fiery speaker, and a billionaire who talks like a populist and looks like a beer-swilling blue-collar worker, a few dozen people aren’t lining up to take his picture at any given time.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) speaks to the Georgia delegation to the 2024 Democratic National Convention on Wednesday. Photo by Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder.

Beyond these delegation appearances, Moore has found time to raise money and do media hits, and he also spoke Tuesday at a forum sponsored by the Black Economic Alliance, where he discussed economic disparities and his desire to expand job opportunities, increase wages, and create more wealth in communities of color. He’s speaking to the Democratic National Committee’s Veterans and Military Families Council on Thursday. And, of course, he’s found time to be with Maryland’s convention delegation, speaking at the first breakfast of the week and sponsoring the first late-night after-party at a fancy billiard hall.

But all of these activities have largely been geared to political insiders and influencers. On Wednesday night, he delivered a speech on the floor of United Center that millions of TV viewers were expected to watch.

Moore’s remarks undoubtedly sounded familiar for politically attuned Marylanders. But for the national TV audience, they may have been a revelation.

Moore begin his seven-minute speech also talking about the Key Bridge collapse and Harris’ early call offering assistance. He mentioned his military service and the important lessons he observed.

“My training taught me you never learn anything about anybody when times are easy,” Moore said. “You learn about them when times are hard. And America: Kamala Harris is the right one to lead us in this moment.”

Moore is an integral part of the Democrats’ attempts to reclaim patriotism from the Republicans, who have tried to monopolize the term and the sentiment for decades.

“We are a nation of patriots who serve when the mission is hard and the destination is uncertain,” he said. “And I know our history isn’t perfect. The unevenness of the American journey has made some skeptical. I’m not asking you to give up your skepticism. I just want that skepticism to be your companion, and not your captor — and I’m asking that you join us in the work.

“Because making America great doesn’t mean telling people: You’re not wanted. Making America great means saying: ‘The ambitions of this country would be incomplete without your help.’”

[subbed] ‘He knows he has a significant role to play’ [/subhed]

This was not Moore’s first Democratic convention — or his first convention speech. That occurred in 2008, when he had only recently left the Army.

In an interview this week, he recalled that he had been part of a group of young military veterans who were providing policy advice to both then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, the Democratic presidential nominee, and the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee.

Obama invited Moore to speak at the Democratic convention, and he readily accepted. While McCain came from a long line of Navy commanders, and his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam was legendary, Moore said he found Obama’s desire to dive into policy admirable.

“I had a deep respect for the fact that while he hadn’t served in the military, he was so unbelievably, intellectually curious about it,” Moore said.

During his speech at that 2008 convention, Moore gave both a nod to the historical nature of Obama’s campaign and also suggested that his candidacy created historic opportunities to get things done.

“This election is not about history,” Moore said then. “This election is not about making history. This election is about seizing history and forging a proper course for our country for the next century.”

The message was remarkably similar to one he delivered during his 2022 campaign for governor — an acknowledgment that while he would be making history if he was elected, “that’s not the assignment.”

Moore’s experience at that Denver convention mainly involved him hanging out with fellow veterans, he recalled, so as a result, “This convention really feels like my first.”

If that’s the case, it’s quite a debut.

“It’s really exciting,” Maryland Democratic Chair Ken Ulman said in an interview. “We’re really proud of him. He’s so focused on being a great governor and being a great leader for Maryland Democrats. But he knows he has a significant role to play in helping elect the next president.”

U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), who is Black, spoke at one of the Maryland Democrats’ breakfasts this week and discussed the symbolic importance of Moore. He said he and his 5-year-old daughter were watching Moore on TV the other night and she was amazed to learn that he was only the third elected Black governor in U.S. history.

“Having a congressman from Colorado talking about how important Wes Moore is to his daughter reminds us of the role Wes Moore plays in national politics,” Ulman said.

Democrats from South Carolina and Tennessee line up to have photos taken with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) Wednesday in Chicago. Photo by Josh Kurtz.

Moore has talked at length about Harris, and the importance of the partnership the state has forged with her and President Joe Biden since he became governor. But in a conversation with reporters earlier this week, he also discussed the kinship he feels with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), Harris’ running mate.

“Gov. Walz is just like a real dude and I thought that from the first time I met him,” Moore said. “He didn’t come from that political background. He was an Army guy, the way I was an Army guy. He’s a true patriot, someone who is decent-hearted, of the people.”

Moore has also talked at length about the message of hope he believes Harris and Walz are offering the American people, and like every other Democrat in Chicago, said he detects a dramatic shift in tone in the White House campaign. Asked in an interview why he thinks former President Donald Trump is still essentially running even with Harris, Moore replied, “I think the country is still deeply divided. I think [Republicans] have done a really good job of infusing misinformation into the campaign.”

But Moore remains convinced that undecided voters will respond to the Democrats’ “unique vision of hope.”

As for the convention itself, Moore said he’s amazed at how quickly and efficiently organizers pivoted after President Biden chose not to seek reelection and Harris immediately emerged as his preferred successor.

“There’s going to be such an amazing story to be told about this campaign,” Moore said — without acknowledging that he’s playing a role in it.

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Maryland

50 years on the run: Maryland family killing suspect still never caught

Published

30 seconds ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

50 years on the run: Maryland family killing suspect still never caught

There’s one thing that almost everyone who has touched the William Bradford Bishop cold case agrees with: He killed his family.

In the 50 years since the brutal murders in Bethesda, Maryland, many investigators have painstakingly gone through the boxes and boxes of evidence to piece together the crime.

Multiple alleged sightings of Bishop around the United States and even overseas in Europe have been followed up on. Yet two big questions remain: Why did he do it and where did he go?

News4 sat down recently with former and current investigators in the case.

“We knew who did it. That wasn’t the question. We just need to find where this guy is,” said retired Montgomery County Detective Brain Stafford.

“I would like him to face justice for what he did,” said retired FBI Special Agent in Charge Steve Vogt.

“The fact that this hasn’t been resolved, it does, I think, eats at us,” said Montgomery County Sheriff Maxwell Uy.

The Crime

According to investigators, on March 1, 1976, Bishop left his job at the State Department, telling his boss he wasn’t feeling well. He drove to Sears at Montgomery Mall and bought a gas can and a short-handled sledgehammer and then headed to Potomac Village, where he purchased a shovel and a pitchfork at Poch’s Hardware. Police say Bishop used that sledgehammer to kill his wife, Annette; their three boys, Brad, Brenton and Geoffrey; and his mother, Lobelia.

Bishop then drove six hours to the small town of Columbia, North Carolina, where he dumped the bodies in a shallow grave and burned them.

The family station wagon was eventually found almost two weeks later in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. Police think Bishop left it there after driving eight hours from Jacksonville, North Carolina, where a store owner remembered a man with a dog buying a pair of Converse tennis shoes.

Steve Vogt recalls first seeing the killings mentioned in the newspaper as an 11-year-old. He eventually got the chance to work on the case years later.

“Throughout my life after that, I was just tied to the case. It never left me,” he said.

Vogt told the I-Team he believes the last known sighting of Bishop was at a nearby hotel in the days around when the car was discovered in the mountains.

“The guy had checked in with a California driver’s license, a passport and he had a revolver on his bed. No one knew Bishop was carrying a California DL [driver’s license],” he said.

As for the motive, Vogt thinks it was about money and that Bishop wanted to start his life over. He said weeks before the killings, Bishop was passed over for a work promotion and that the family was having financial problems and missed a mortgage payment.

“They talk about narcissistic personality disorder. The guy saw his family as just, they’re his property, “ said Vogt.

Where did Bishop go?

How is it possible that with so many investigators on the case over the last five decades, Bishop has never been found?

“If you’re disciplined, you stay out of trouble, you don’t get fingerprinted, you create a new identity and don’t talk to anybody you ever knew before, you won’t get caught, especially in 1976,” said Vogt.

Vogt was instrumental in getting Bishop added to the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List in 2014. News4 asked him where he thinks Bishop went after leaving those mountains.

“I believe southeast, southern United States somewhere. I think that’s where he went and stayed,” he said.

But Brian Stafford, who worked the case for years as a detective for Montgomery County police, isn’t so sure. He keeps going back to a missing resolver that investigators knew Bishop had but that was never recovered.

“I honestly don’t know. I went through a long period of time thinking, we never got the revolver back. He walked off into the Great Smoky Mountains and shot himself,” said Stafford.

The tips have continued to come in over the last five decades, with sightings around the U.S. and even overseas in Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. There have also been rumors about Bishop being somehow connected to the CIA.

“I personally have not held to that theory, but we may never know,” Uy, the Montgomery County sheriff said.

No coincidences

“Everything he did, cold, calculated, obviously planned out before. I do not believe there are any coincidences in this case,” said retired detective Stafford.

It’s his belief that Bishop had been planning the crime for a while.

“Too much went right for him,” he said. “”I think that he knew when he left that house where he was going to take those bodies and where he was going after that.”

That’s a question the family of Ron Brickhouse would like answered. Back in 1976, the forest ranger was the one who discovered the bodies in that shallow grave in North Carolina. News4 spoke to Brickhouse back in 2014, years before he passed away. Even then, almost 40 years after the crime, he had a hard time talking about the case, saying it was difficult to get the images out of his head.

“It’s just bad memories,” he said. His family said that interview was the last time he spoke about the case publicly.

All these years later, they’re still hoping for some closure.

“I wish there could be, before I pass away. I was hoping that for my husband, but it didn’t happen,” said his wife, Patricia Brickhouse.

The FBI hopes the identification of a daughter of William Bradford Bishop will lead to more clues and tips in a 45-year-old cold case that has rocked the D.C. region for decades. News4’s Shawn Yancy reports investigators hope the discovery will help explain why Bishop killed his family.

The 50-year hunt

When News4 asked Stafford if he thought authorities were ever close to finding Bishop, he responded, “I don’t think we ever were.”

But five decades after the killings, the FBI said the Bishop investigation remains active and that they continue to receive a high number of tips.

Uy said he too has a deputy assigned to the case file.

“If we were to get a tip tonight, if we’re to get a tip today, the deputies in our criminal section can actively look into it,” he said.

“We did everything we could. And maybe still, maybe this 50th anniversary, maybe somebody someday will pick up the phone,” said Vogt.

All it takes is one phone call.

“I believe someone has seen him and they haven’t made the call,” he said.

While Vogt isn’t sure if Bishop is alive or dead, the case has never left him. He recently joked with a friend on New Year’s Day that his resolution was to catch Bishop this year.

“A few months back, I was in an airport and I saw somebody that looked like him,” he said.

But he doubts over the years that he’s actually ever seen the fugitive.

“No, absolutely not,” he said.

Investigators acknowledge time could be running out to resolve this case.

“I wouldn’t say that we’re past the point of getting our hopes up because we’ve seen cases resolve sometimes when we think that they’re not likely to,” said Uy. “Personally, he would be 89 years old if he was still alive today, and I really do not believe he’s still alive.”

But Stafford still wants answers for the five people brutally killed, the people who still remember them and every investigator who has worked the case over five decades.

“The question is, why not just leave? Why do all this? If you’re thinking you just wanna leave, you just want to go, and you don’t want to get a divorce, you don’t wanna go through all that, you just want to disappear, get in the car and go,” said Stafford. “Why did you decide you had to kill them all?”

They’re questions police say only Bishop can provide if he’s ever caught. And if he isn’t, “Justice is never served. Ultimately, he’s gonna answer for this crime, no matter what,” said Stafford.

“Maybe it still will happen. Who knows. You never give up ‘til it’s over, you know,” said Vogt. “When everybody that knew Brad Bishop is gone, is no longer on this earth and nobody cares anymore, that’s when it’s over. I mean, for me, obviously, when I’m no longer here, it’s over for me. But it’s just a mystery that you’d like to solve.”

If you have any information about the hunt for William Bradford Bishop you can call 1-800-CALL-FBI.

Shawn Yancy and the News4 I-Team share how they got the interview with William Bradford Bishop’s daughter and their years covering his case.

Sign up for our free deep-dive newsletter, The 4Front, to get standout News4 stories sent right to your inbox. Subscribe here.

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Maryland

Severn scratch-off makes player a millionaire as Maryland Lottery pays $31.8M in prizes

Published

12 hours ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

Severn scratch-off makes player a millionaire as Maryland Lottery pays .8M in prizes

SEVERN, Md. (WBFF) — A scratch-off ticket sold in Severn turned one Maryland Lottery player into a millionaire, leading a week in which the Lottery paid out more than $31.8 million in prizes statewide.

Maryland Lottery and Gaming said it paid more than $31.8 million in prizes from Feb. 23 through March 1, including 36 tickets worth $10,000 or more.

The top scratch-off prize claimed during that period was a $1 million winning $1,000,000 Crossword ticket sold at the Walmart at 407 George Clauss Boulevard in Severn. Another top winner was a $100,000 Red 5’s Doubler ticket sold at the Carroll Motor Fuel station at 2535 Cleanleigh Drive in Parkville.

Other scratch-off prizes claimed Feb. 23 through March 1 included two $50,000 winners: a 200X the Cash ticket sold at the Wawa at 7501 Pulaski Highway in Rosedale, and a $5,000,000 Luxe ticket sold at the Spring Hill Lake Mini Market at 9240 Spring Hill Lane in Greenbelt. A $30,000 Diamond Bingo 6th Edition ticket was sold at Tempo Lounge at 402 Back River Neck Road in Essex.

ALSO READ | SUN | Maryland GOP unveils energy plan it says saves customers up to $40 a month

The Lottery also reported three $20,000 scratch-off winners, all on $1,000,000 Crossword tickets sold at Geresbeck’s Food Market at 8489 Fort Smallwood Road in Pasadena; Hillandale Beer and Wine at 10117 New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring; and Paddock Wine and Spirits at 7627 Woodbine Road in Woodbine.

The Lottery reminded players to sign the backs of tickets and keep winning tickets in a safe location.

The Lottery said the last dates to claim scratch-off tickets are posted on the scratch-offs page at mdlottery.com.

More information is available at mdlottery.com.

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For confidential help or information about gambling problems, visit helpmygamblingproblem.org or call 1-800-GAMBLER.

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SUN: Dozens of vehicles moved to planned Maryland ICE facility; advocates concerned

Published

1 day ago

March 2, 2026

Press Room

SUN: Dozens of vehicles moved to planned Maryland ICE facility; advocates concerned

Advocacy groups are raising concerns over a warehouse in Washington County that is slated to become an Immigration and Customs Enforcement processing facility after dozens of black SUVs were moved to the warehouse’s parking lot on Sunday.

“When federal enforcement vehicles begin lining the warehouse lot, it sends a clear message about what’s taking shape in our community,” said the organizer of Hagerstown Rapid Response, Claire Connor. “We refuse to let ICE quietly plant roots in Washington County without transparency, accountability and community consent.”

The 825,620-square-foot warehouse is located at 16220 Wright Road in Williamsport. Access to the facility was blocked by orange traffic barriers and signs outlining regulations and “governing conduct on federal property” with the Department of Homeland Security emblem at the top of the page.

In late January, Washington County issued a news release stating that on Jan. 14, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sent a letter to the county’s historic district commission and department of planning and zoning regarding the property.

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Read the full story on the Baltimore Sun’s website.

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