Northeast
MD Gov. Moore commits to using data-driven policies to fight poverty, enhance accountability
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore rolled out a data-driven plan he will use to help meet his administration’s goals during a town hall with state employees on Thursday.
Moore, the former head of the anti-poverty Robin Hood Foundation, described the nonprofit as a data-driven organization and said he wanted to bring his experience using data as a tool from his former job to guide his leadership as governor.
“This is going to guide us,” Moore, a Democrat, said. “It’s going to show exactly how we need to move, and it’s going to make sure that we have core benchmarks as to what success looks like … and we’re going to have data that backs up our process.”
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Moore pivoted from his State of the State address a day earlier to describe how his data-oriented plan will help meet four goals he has been highlighting: improving public safety, making Maryland more affordable as well as more competitive for business, and encouraging public service.
The governor said there were 10 priorities to help get there, with addressing child poverty at the top of the list. The plan calls for using data to help people access available tools to fight poverty, such as the earned income tax credit, child tax credits and Pell grants.
“The reason that we have to have a focus on true measurements of economic mobility and sustainable economic mobility is because we are watching how generations of concentrated poverty continue to impact every single prospect that we have as a state,” Moore said.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore is seen here during the State of the State address in Annapolis, Maryland, on Feb. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Steve Ruark)
The other priorities the governor focused on included education, the economy, jobs, safer communities, making housing more affordable, advancing infrastructure to better connect the state’s residents to opportunities, the state’s health care system, clean energy and public service.
Moore said much of the framework to improve education already has been created with the state’s Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. That’s the state’s sweeping education reform law that focuses on expanding early childhood education, increasing teachers’ salaries, and providing aid to help struggling schools adequately prepare students for college and careers.
“We want to make sure that education is going to be the pathway to long-term economic success and long-term competitiveness for our state,” Moore said. “We have to invest in it clearly, and we have to use data and metrics to be able to show that it’s working.”
He also underscored using data to enhance accountability in the expensive K-12 funding law that is being phased in at higher costs in future years.
“Everything has to have accountability to it,” Moore said. “This cannot just be about funding numbers. That’s not the only number that’s going to matter. We need accountability. We need transparency.”
The Governor’s Office of Performance Improvement will continue to work on data availability, enhancing transparency, and elevating the use of data to drive decision-making, the governor’s office said in a news release. The office will begin publicly reporting progress on key performance indicators in early 2025.
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Northeast
From palace to prison: Venezuelan strongman Maduro locked in troubled Brooklyn jail
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Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, are spending their days for the foreseeable future at a notorious jail in Brooklyn known for housing high-profile defendants awaiting trial in New York City.
The Metropolitan Detention Center, known as MDC Brooklyn, is a sprawling, industrial-style facility that has faced a series of scandals in recent years involving assaults and poor prison conditions. Maduro, the Venezuelan leader arrested in his home in Caracas by the U.S. military over the weekend, is now being held at the jail on narco-terrorism conspiracy, cocaine importation and weapons charges.
MDC Brooklyn currently holds more than 1,300 inmates, according to the Bureau of Prisons. A BOP representative confirmed to Fox News Digital that Maduro and his wife were among that figure.
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Federal officers stand guard outside the Department of Justice next to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after the U.S. captured Nicolás Maduro and his wife, in New York City, Jan. 3, 2026. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
MDC Brooklyn inmates include little-known defendants and prominent ones, and they face a range of mild to serious charges.
Maduro is likely to be held in what is known as the “VIP section” of the jail, according to Renato Stabile. Stabile is a New York-based criminal defense lawyer who represented former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández, who was also held in MDC Brooklyn before he was freed in December as a result of Trump granting him a controversial pardon.
Stabile told Fox News Digital the VIP section is part of the east side of the jail, where high-profile figures like Hernández, rap artist Sean “Diddy” Combs and convicted crypto fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried were once held. Others at MDC Brooklyn include Luigi Mangione, the 27-year-old accused of murdering a top health insurance CEO. Jeffrey Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, was also held there.
People celebrate in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn on Jan. 3, 2026, after the capture of Nicolás Maduro. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
Those on the east side will be “hanging out together every day and watching TV together and playing pingpong together and doing whatever they do on that side,” Stabile said. He said the west side, where general population inmates are held, might be more crowded but that treatment of them was likely otherwise the same.
One reason inmates are segregated based on their notoriety could be that they are more vulnerable to violence or extortion, he said.
MDC Brooklyn is a male and female jail, but the inmates are not intermixed by sex, so Maduro and his wife might not be able to interact much there, except during joint meetings with their lawyers.
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NYPD officers stand guard on a blocked road outside the MDC Brooklyn on Jan. 5, 2026, in New York City. (Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)
Maduro is being represented by New York-based attorney Barry Pollack, who previously represented WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Maduro and his wife pleaded not guilty in court on Monday and now await their next court appearance, slated for March 17.
MDC Brooklyn has repeatedly come under scrutiny for its troubles, including a week-long power outage in the winter of 2019 that left inmates in freezing conditions, multiple inmate murders and assaults in 2024, and several allegations of inhumane conditions, including inadequate medical staffing and unsanitary food.
Stabile said, in his view, the facility is “run fairly efficiently.”
“But I can tell you that the east side is run a lot more efficiently than the west side, just because there are less people,” he said, noting that lawyers can see their clients with less hassle.
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Boston, MA
Boston City Hall intruder who stole from employees nabbed by police, after shoplifting arrest: BPD
Boston Police said they have nabbed the masked suspect who entered private office suites in City Hall during work hours and stole wallets stuffed with cash and credit cards from multiple employees.
The Boston Police Department identified Darrin O’Neil, 60, of Lowell as the suspect involved in the City Hall thefts, which occurred last month, on Dec. 1.
O’Neil was already being held after a prior shoplifting arrest at DICK’s House of Sport on Boylston Street when he was identified as the alleged perpetrator of the City Hall crime, following what the cops described as an “extensive investigation,” Boston Police said on Wednesday.
Three City Hall employees reported that their wallets, which contained cash, credit cards, health savings account cards, and personal ID were stolen from their offices, per Boston Police reports.
One woman who had her wallet snatched out of her purse with two credit cards, her City Hall ID, Massachusetts driver’s license, insurance and library cards, and $100 in cash told police two of her coworkers saw an unknown man “in the area who was wearing a brown beanie, dark jacket, sweatpants, and a blue face mask.”
Two other employees told police that not only were cash and credit cards stolen from their offices, but the thief used the cards to rack up hundreds of dollars in unauthorized purchases — totaling $1,500 at Macy’s and Walgreens.
The incident led to calls from two city councilors, Ed Flynn and Erin Murphy, for the city to tighten up security protocols in light of the intrusion and theft, which occurred during work hours and was described by both as a “security breach.”
Mayor Michelle Wu’s office said a day later that steps have already been taken to increase security after the incident, which involved unauthorized access to “several” office suites that are restricted to authorized personnel only.
Municipal Protective Services, which provides security for city buildings, has increased internal patrols throughout City Hall as a result of the incident, the mayor’s office said.
O’Neil was arrested on shoplifting charges on Dec. 27 at 760 Boylston St., after he was seen inside DICK’s House of Sport concealing merchandise, police said.
Police said they had responded to the store at 11:39 a.m. for a report of a theft in progress.
While police approached, O’Neil was seen exiting the sporting goods store. The cops “were able to quickly stop the suspect and could see clothing with tags affixed to them inside of a bag,” police said.
During a search, about $408 of stolen merchandise was recovered, police said.
For the shoplifting incident, O’Neil was arrested and charged with larceny under $1,200 and being a common and notorious thief, police said.
After further investigation, police said they determined that O’Neil had seven active warrants for his arrest for charges of four counts of larceny from a building, three counts of receiving stolen property under $1,200, two counts of larceny of a credit card, shoplifting by asportation, credit card fraud under $1,200, and shoplifting by concealing merchandise.
After O’Neil was identified as the alleged City Hall thief, police said they sought additional criminal complaints in Boston Municipal Court on charges of two counts of larceny from a building, two counts of credit card fraud under $1,200 and being a common and notorious thief.
O’Neil is expected to be arraigned at Boston Municipal Court at a later date.
Following BPD’s announcement on Wednesday, Flynn said “larceny and retail theft must be a top priority for our city.”
“We must have zero tolerance for any type of theft and those arrested must be held accountable in our court system for their criminal behavior,” Flynn told the Herald.
Murphy said, “This incident was unacceptable, and I am glad the individual responsible has been arrested. My focus throughout has been on employee safety and securing City Hall offices. City Hall must be a safe workplace, and this incident underscores the importance of secure offices and prompt action.”
Mayor Wu’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on police identification of the alleged City Hall larceny suspect.
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