Prince George’s County Government Angela D. Alsobrooks (D) has requested the Maryland State Board of Schooling to evaluate ethics allegations which have roiled the county faculty board. File photograph by Danielle E. Gaines.
Prince George’s County Angela Alsobrooks (D) held a press convention on Labor Day to announce a controversial resolution to implement a youth curfew that begins Friday.
Alsobrooks, a local of Prince George’s, which is Maryland’s second largest jurisdiction, posted a number of statements this week on Twitter explaining her reasoning.
“Whereas there are some who disagree with a 30-day curfew, I’m responding to the residents of Prince George’s County who’ve requested what extra will be completed to guard their youngsters,” she stated. “The residents of our neighborhood deserve each freedom and justice…”
State regulation permits native governments authority to deal with public security issues.
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As well as, a house rule constitution permits counties native authority.
“Maryland regulation fairly clearly grants its dwelling rule counties, together with Prince George’s County, quite a lot of deference and authority to deal with native issues, together with particularly sustaining the well being and welfare of the county. That’s the county’s job,” Michael Sanderson, govt director of the Maryland Affiliation of Counties, stated in an e-mail Thursday.
Additionally on Thursday, Alsobrooks introduced a youth management institute for youngsters ages 14 to 17 in grades 9 via 11.
Youth who apply for the Alsobrooks Youth Management Institute should attend seven of 9 basic conferences, three of 5 neighborhood occasions and acquire a minimal grade level common of two.5.
Curfew abstract
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In the meantime, the county’s curfew requires youth 17 years and youthful to be off the road between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sunday via Thursday and 11:59 p.m. and 5 a.m. Friday and Saturday.
Exceptions will embody youth with an grownup, coming from a job, or different circumstances.
Dad and mom and guardians will first obtain a warning. If a teen will get caught with out a legitimate motive, a father or mother can be fined $50. A second positive will increase to $100 and subsequent offenses improve to $250.
The curfew can be in impact for 30 days, which Alsobrooks categorized as “a cooling off interval.”
The curfew begins the identical weekend because the county truthful in Higher Marlboro, which hasn’t been held in-person for 2 years.
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The county govt and Prince George’s County Police Chief Malik Aziz summarized some statistics to help the curfew resolution, noting that two 15-year-old boys have been shot at a comfort retailer Saturday. Police stated one of many youngsters, De’Andre Johnson of neighboring Washington, D.C., died from his accidents.
August marked the deadliest month within the county’s historical past with 24 homicides.
“That quantity is just unacceptable.” Aziz stated Monday at a press convention with Alsobrooks, a number of County Council members and police supervisors.
Aziz stated 438 juveniles have been arrested in Prince George’s to date this yr, greater than double the full from all of final yr.
Carjackings stay essentially the most frequent critical offense offense for juveniles, he stated. Eighty-four juvenile arrests for carjacking have been made within the county to date this yr. Aziz stated about 15 of these juveniles have prior arrests for gun possession and three of them had been arrested for carrying weapons 4 instances.
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County Council Chair Calvin Hawkins (D) had sturdy statements for these within the judicial department.
“To a few of you judges who’re letting these people out,” he stated. “You’re going to must cope with this county council as a result of we don’t need you presiding over these sorts of circumstances which are placing perpetrators on the road which are rising the crime in our neighborhood.”
‘A publicity stunt’
Prince George’s County State’s Legal professional Aisha Braveboy (D) held a digital press briefing Tuesday to deal with the curfew and rise in violence within the county.
Braveboy, who wasn’t invited to Monday’s press briefing with Alsobrooks, stated county leaders ought to convene in a manner much like what former County Government Rushern L. Baker III (D) had them do greater than 10 years in the past.
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“Management shouldn’t be about pointing fingers,” stated Braveboy, additionally a county native. “Management is about determining how we work with everybody to make the system higher.”
Native activist Qiana Johnson, who hardly ever agrees with Braveboy, helps the state’s lawyer on this subject.
Johnson, govt director of Life After Launch, which assists previously and at present incarcerated people with a wide range of providers, stated the curfew offers police freedom to hurt Black youth.
“[Alsobrooks] is giving the brutal, racist police division a cross or name to exit locally and be rogue,” Johnson stated Thursday. “She is placing the youth in danger with this. It is a publicity stunt. This isn’t going to curtail any violence.”
Maryland’s and Prince George’s County’s public defender places of work launched a joint assertion Wednesday opposing the curfew.
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“Prince George’s County’s youngsters don’t want additional arrest or incarceration that may consequence from a curfew,” stated Melissa Pryce, the district’s public defender. “Our communities deserve a response that’s reflective of the info and analysis, none of which recommend that punishing youngsters for being outdoors late at night time is efficient.”
Proud Montgomery County, MD resident Gavriella Kaufmann (Potomac) won her episode of FOX’s game show “Name that Tune”, which aired last week.
Kaufmann, who was born and raised in Potomac and graduated from Churchill High School in 2015, stated in an interview with FOX 5, that she has always been into music and referred to herself as a music and game show savant. When she saw an ad on LinkedIn about being on season 4 of the game show, she immediately knew she had to do it.
“I’ve loved game shows for as long as I can remember, and music has always been a huge part of my life. Being on Name That Tune was the perfect combination of both passions—it was like a dream come true.” Kaufmann told us.
The episode had a happy ending, with Kaufmann winning a whopping $85,000! She added, “When I was on Name That Tune, I was so focused on doing my best and naming as many songs as possible that I completely lost track of the score. It wasn’t until Jane, the host, told me my total. I was in complete shock, but it was such an incredible moment!”
Who’s ready for Big Ten play to begin? In all honesty, I am not. I really wish Michigan State football had more tune-up games after seeing them struggle against Florida Atlantic and only win 16-10. But unfortunately, that is not how the schedule unfolds for Michigan State this season.
The Spartans will hit the road for an early Big Ten game as they face Maryland on Saturday at 3:30 pm. Going into the season I thought Michigan State and the Terps were on a pretty level playing field, but after seeing both teams play week one that doesn’t appear to be the case.
And Vegas agrees.
Michigan State opens as a 7.5-point underdog next week at Maryland. My guess is that grows to 8, 8.5.
As you all know, Michigan State only beat Florida Atlantic by six and did not look very impressive, especially on the offensive side of the ball. So it’s no surprise that MSU will be the underdog next week. But 7.5 points feels like a lot, and according to the Lansing State Journal’s Graham Couch, it likely will only go up from there.
So does Vegas have it right or are they underrating Michigan State?
Looking at Maryland’s week one game against UConn it appears Vegas has this line right. The Terps were up 23-0 at halftime and never looked back and went on to win in dominant fashion 50-7. UConn and FAU are very similar in terms of what level they’re at in college football, so that drastic of a difference in the final score is very scary.
So Vegas probably could’ve gotten away with Maryland being even bigger favorites in this one.
But maybe Vegas saw what I did and thinks a lot of Michigan State’s mistakes on Friday are easy to fix. Maybe they think Aidan Chiles will be much better next week. The Spartan’s defense was also fairly dominant so there isn’t much of a chance Maryland scores 50 points next week either.
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I tend to not bet on Michigan State games, but even if I did this would be a line that I would avoid because who knows how much Jonathan Smith’s squad will improve by next week, and who knows how much Maryland might struggle against a Power Four opponent.
The University of Maryland on Sunday reversed its decision to allow an anti-Israel protest on the first anniversary of the October 7 Massacre, following backlash from local Jewish groups.
UMD Students for Justice in Palestine and UMD Jewish Voice for Peace had been set to hold their October 7 vigil for Gazans killed in the Israel-Hamas War at the campus’s Mckeldin Mall, but the University System of Maryland (USM) said in a statement that on the day of the Hamas-led pogrom it would limit campus events requiring permits or approval to those supporting “a university-sponsored Day of Dialogue.”
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“From the beginning of the war, we have come together as a University System to urge that we use this moment to encourage conversation, compassion, and civility; to engage with one another across our differences and draw on our shared humanity and our shared values to bridge what divides us,” said USM. “These dialogues aren’t new. Many of our universities have been hosting this kind of programming for several months. Reserving Oct. 7 gives us a chance to continue these urgent conversations and to mark this solemn anniversary in a way that gives students—all students—the time and space to share and to be heard.”
USM said that its intent was not to infringe of the free expression and speech of students, but to be sensitive to the needs of students as October 7 was a “day of enormous suffering and grief for many in our campus communities.”
UMD Jewish Student Union, Maryland Hillel, Terps for Israel, and Israeli American Council Mishelanu at Maryland welcomed the USM decision and thanked UMD leadership in a joint social media statement on Sunday.
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The campus of the University of Maryland in College Park. (credit: Courtesy)
“October 7, the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, is a day of mourning for the Jewish and Israeli community,” said the UMD JSU. “We are relieved that SJP will no longer to be able to appropriate the suffering of our family and friends to fit their false and dangerous narrative.”
The Jewish groups said that it was distraught that the decision to only hold university-sponsored event had to be made at all, and wished to used the campus space to “grieve together as a community” to promote unity at the university. The unideal situation was necessary, according to the Jewish groups, to ensure the physical and psychological safety of students on the day of mourning.
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UMD JVP and SJP attacked the decision to cancel the event, claiming that the vigil for Palestinians killed since the October 7 Massacre was attacked without familiarity of the content. The anti-Israel groups said that the discourse was “the continuation inherently racist, Islamophobic, and dehumanizing rhetoric surrounding Palestinians.” JVP and SJP said that the actions against their event were an attempt to paint “Muslim, Arab, and anti-Zionist Jewish students as barbaric.”
The anti-Israel groups asserted that their vigil for Palestinians who died in the war was no threat to the campus’s Jewish community, but conflation of Zionism and Judaism did threaten UMD and the Jewish community.
“To claim that Palestinians cannot hold a day of remembrance in mourning one year of genocide, or lay claim to that date is an insult to every life lost in the Zionist entity’s genocidal campaign,” UMD SJP and JVP said on Instagram on Sunday. “The disproportionate scale of suffering experienced by the Palestinians over the past year necessitates their remembrance and our solidarity on this day. The suffering of all innocents killed must not be monopolized and necessitates a fair and just representation.”
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SJP and JVP demanded the right to organize and exercise their right to free speech, accusing Zionists of attempting to stifle Palestinian voices.
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The organizations indicated on their Sunday Instagram post that they still planned to hold their all-day event at Mckeldin Mall, and on Monday a link to register still active and listing the campus building as the rally location.
UMD Jewish groups said that they would be holding their own event to memorialize the victims of the October 7 pogrom at the Maryland Hillel.