Maryland
Takeaways from Maryland men’s basketball’s impressive weekend performance
![Takeaways from Maryland men’s basketball’s impressive weekend performance Takeaways from Maryland men’s basketball’s impressive weekend performance](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/KOy16NXs31PJAPNruTrk6D8_F1I=/0x1031:8060x5251/fit-in/1200x630/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24214019/1443077581.jpg)
Maryland males’s basketball placed on a present this weekend, dominating each Saint Louis and Miami to say the Corridor of Fame Tip-Off title and make an announcement about what the staff could also be able to this 12 months.
Listed below are three takeaways from the weekend.
The offense flowed freely and effectively
The high-paced offensive set that Maryland head coach Kevin Willard has preached all offseason and within the early going of the season was executed about in addition to it might have been over the weekend.
After a couple of video games of difficulties hitting exterior pictures, Maryland got here out with a vengeance and commenced to hit three-pointers at a harmful clip. The Terps went 13-of-32 towards Saint Louis and 9-of-21 versus Miami, a 41.5% three-point proportion over the 2 video games. With fast possessions and a excessive quantity of scoring alternatives, that could be a recipe for achievement on the offensive finish.
Don Carey was the poster youngster of Maryland’s three-point taking pictures woes coming into the weekend — he was taking pictures simply 14% — however flipped that narrative on its head in two video games, going 8-for-19 from past the arc and showcasing why he has developed a status as a sharpshooter from his earlier stints at different colleges.
Fellow graduate guard Jahmir Younger continued his excessive stage of play, main his coach to reward the manufacturing from the guard place.
“I feel I’ve the very best backcourt within the nation proper now … I assumed these two younger males simply performed off the charts,” Willard mentioned.
The pick-and-roll with Julian Reese was additionally a dependable possibility, as he and Younger or whichever different ball-handler ran it with him confirmed prowess across the rim and completed as a rule.
Lastly — however actually not least — Donta Scott had two of the very best offensive performances of his profession over the weekend, tying his profession excessive with 25 factors Saturday and following that with a team-leading 24 Sunday. After a disappointing junior season, Scott has emerged as a viable high scoring possibility in his senior 12 months and is the undisputed chief of the group.
“They share the ball extraordinarily nicely. They’re a very good staff,” Miami head coach Jim Larrañaga mentioned. “And so they have the proper mixture of dimension to rebound and rating on the rim, and perimeter taking pictures that makes you stretch your protection out.”
Maryland performed with excessive ranges of power and depth
No matter whether or not or not the Terps’ pictures are falling or in the event that they’re main on the scoreboard, it’s develop into very clear that they play extremely exhausting for Kevin Willard. His hard-nosed, intense teaching model has evidently rubbed off on his gamers they usually appear purchased in to his system of suffocating protection and high-tempo offense.
“We have now unbelievably excessive character children who need to win, they usually perceive what it takes to win they usually’re bringing it each evening they usually’re getting rewarded,” Willard mentioned.
In Maryland’s first recreation of the weekend towards Saint Louis, the Terps merely took the combat to the Billikens and dared them to match their depth. They did the identical towards Miami and had resounding success in each video games.
“We get after it in follow, that builds our chemistry so much,” Carey mentioned. “I really feel like we’re nonetheless rising, we nonetheless have so much to, , get below our belt and nonetheless bought so much to study. So, it’s good getting the primary 5 wins and we simply bought to maintain going from there.”
Even whereas turning the ball over extra instances than Willard wish to see, Maryland was scrappy and did the little issues proper, crashing the boards, boxing out opponents and enjoying a bodily model of basketball that led to a 25-rebound benefit over the 2 video games. The Terps had been continuously making use of on- and off-ball strain, forcing Saint Louis and Miami to accept tough pictures and contesting them nicely.
“I feel , Julian, Donta and [Patrick Emilien] are all enjoying actually bodily inside. And I feel our guards are doing an awesome job … it’s not simply our large guys doing it,” Willard mentioned.
Reese was arguably essentially the most spectacular participant on protection, imposing his will down low and shutting off drives to the ring whereas standing his floor towards fellow forwards. Emilien additionally offered precious minutes and was hustling everywhere in the courtroom, locking up opponents and snatching clutch rebounds. He and Reese look to be a feisty one-two defensive punch down low for opponents to take care of.
12 months one of many Kevin Willard period is off to a blazing sizzling begin
It’s solely been 5 video games, however Maryland seems to be harmful — way more harmful than anticipated.
It was exhausting to take a lot from video games towards Niagara, Western Carolina and Binghamton, however Saint Louis and Miami offered the primary actual challenges for Willard’s first staff in Faculty Park. Saint Louis was a top-35 staff at KenPom coming into the sport and Miami was coming off an Elite Eight run. Each are NCAA Event-caliber squads.
If that’s the case, Maryland has an actual argument as not solely a staff that’s higher than its preseason bubble expectations, however a high 25 one when the AP ballot is launched on Monday. Coming into the 12 months, the Terps had been checked out as a staff with loads of query marks on the roster and one with ambitions of doubtless making the NCAA Event, which might be thought of by most to be successful of their first 12 months below a brand new head coach.
“I feel we’re actually not fearful about signature wins or the place we’re,” Willard mentioned. “I feel we’re, we nonetheless have a protracted technique to go. I imply, we’re good. We have now nice gamers, however we’re — they’re — nonetheless making an attempt to study this method.”
The season is barely one-seventh or so carried out now, so no particular conclusions could be drawn up to now apart from the truth that the Terps, at a minimal, have the upside to make some noise. When the pictures are falling and the protection is aggressive, Willard’s system seems to be like a factor of magnificence. It’s calculatedly chaotic. If its defensive strain and velocity is flustering an opponent, Maryland can compete with any staff.
Saint Louis and Miami are in no way the 2 greatest groups that the Terps will play this season. Not even shut. However, their end-to-end domination was a formidable assertion that exhibits that despite the fact that its play isn’t a completed product, Willard has his staff heading in the right direction.
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Maryland
Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers.
![Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers. Guns flood the nation’s capital. Maryland, D.C. attorneys general point at top sellers.](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/03/USAT/75064386007-53969346285-3-e-86-bcd-864-b.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1023,576,x0,y53&format=pjpg&width=1200)
The lawsuit announced on Tuesday claims three stores sold one person 34 guns over six months and ignored the buyer’s red flags.
Gun trafficking: How guns travel illegally on the iron pipeline
Here’s how guns legally bought in one state are smuggled illegally into another on the iron pipeline.
Just the FAQs, USA TODAY
The nation’s capital is grappling with a deadly flood of weapons. Prosecutors are pointing fingers at three federally licensed gun stores in Maryland.
Attorneys general of Maryland and Washington D.C. filed a lawsuit Tuesday against three gun shops for selling firearms to a straw purchaser – the same stores identified as the top retailers of recovered crime guns in Maryland between August 2020 and July 2021, according to a report commissioned by the state attorney general’s office.
According to the lawsuit, the three stores in Montgomery County, Maryland, roughly 25 miles northwest of Washington D.C., collectively sold 34 semiautomatic pistols to one person in six months. Only two remained with the purchaser, while the rest are presumed to be trafficked, prosecutors said.
Some have been recovered from people accused of assault, a stabbing, and drug distribution, the lawsuit added, while most remain unaccounted for.
“Federally licensed gun dealers know the law and they know what to look for to spot possibleillegal trafficking. As this lawsuit demonstrates, gun dealers cannot just choose to ignore these warning signs and guardrails,” said Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown. “Let this be a warning to other dealers who put public safety at risk to make a profit: We are watching, and we will hold you accountable for illegal conduct that fuels gun violence across our region.”
The lawsuit comes as public health experts and gun safety advocates warn about an alarming level of gun violence across the nation — guns are the leading killer of children in the U.S. and kill nearly 50,000 people a year. Lawsuits in other states have also targeted sellers and traffickers as culprits in gun crimes, including New Jersey, Michigan, and Philadelphia.
Lawsuit: Man bought 34 guns in 6 months
Three federally licensed gun stores – Engage Armament, United Gun Shop and Atlantic Guns – collectively sold Demetrius Minor, an “obvious straw purchaser,” 34 guns between April 6 and October 5, 2021, according to the lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court.
According to Engage Armament’s records cited in the lawsuit, Minor spent more than $31,000 at the one store for at least 25 guns. In July 2021 alone, he came to the store at least four times and bought five guns, prosecutors said.
Minor gave many of the weapons to a relative, Donald Willis, a Washington D.C. resident with a record of violent felonies, the lawsuit said, and Willis then spread the guns to other “dangerous individuals.” Minor has been convicted for his role in the straw sales. But Tuesday’s lawsuit said the stores “who chose profits over safety” have faced no consequences for their “critical role in fueling gun violence” in the D.C. metro region.
At least nine of the weapons, which the lawsuit contends were “illegally sold,” were found at crime scenes in Washington D.C. and surrounding Maryland suburbs. “Many more are likely in the hands of other individuals legally barred from possessing firearms and will be used in future crimes,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit cites a federally required form to buy a gun — the ATF firearms transaction record — which is used to determine whether a gun sale is legal. The form notes that straw purchases are illegal, meaning the firearm must go to the person who legally bought it. It also states that the seller is responsible for ensuring the sale is legal, and simply conducting a background check does not fulfill obligations.
The lawsuit notes that just as straw purchases are illegal, it is also against the law for a firearm dealer to help advance illegal sales, and federal law requires licensed dealers to report when an unlicensed buyer purchases two or more handguns within five days.
Atlantic Guns denied the straw sales allegations in a statement to USA TODAY on Tuesday.
“Atlantic Guns, Inc. has never and will never knowingly sell to someone who we have reason to believe is committing a straw purchase,” the store said, declining to comment further before review of the lawsuit.
Engage Armament and United Gun Shop didn’t immediately return USA TODAY’s requests for comment.
Cities and states across U.S. go after sellers to battle gun violence
The lawsuit Tuesday is the latest to sweep the nation as cities and victims of shootings target firearm stores and traffickers to battle gun violence.
Last July, Philadelphia announced a lawsuit against three vendors that the city said were the source of more than 1,300 crime guns between 2015 and 2019. The weapons were used in shootings, a home invasion, drug crimes, vehicle theft, and more, according to the city.
Three Missouri men were charged earlier this year for illegally selling guns to the people who fired shots into the Super Bowl victory parade that killed a mother and injured over 20 people earlier this year.
In Michigan, the parents of a 14-year-old Oxford High School student who was severely injured in a 2021 mass killing, named a gun store as one of the defendants in a lawsuit, alleging Acme Shooting Goods negligently and illegally sold the firearm used in the school assault that killed four people and wounded seven others. Acme sold the gun to the shooter’s father while ignoring signs it was a straw purchase, the lawsuit alleged.
In July 2023, a northern Indiana gun shop that police called a key supplier of Chicago’s criminal firearms market announced it was closing its doors after Chicago sued Westforth Sports in 2021 over what it said was a pattern of illegal gun sales.
A USA TODAY investigation earlier this year found the majority of guns used in crimes are sold by a small fraction of the nation’s gun shops. Two of the Maryland gun shops named in Tuesday’s lawsuit – United and Atlantic – were on a list by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of stores that sold at least 25 guns traced to a crime over a year that were purchased within the past three years.
Contributing: Nick Penzenstadler and Grace Hauck, USA TODAY
Maryland
Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters
![Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters Declines in revenue, federal aid drive cuts in proposed transportation projects – Maryland Matters](https://marylandmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/DSC_0311-scaled.jpeg)
Transportation projects around the state will be put on hold as officials grapple with ongoing budget constraints and a growing list of expensive projects.
A combination of budget pressures has created a $1.3 billion funding gap over a six year period, which Transportation Secretary Paul Wiedefeld said forced his department to defer projects across the state.
“We just don’t have enough dollars to do what we have to do within our means. So that’s what we’ve had to do,” he said.
The agency Tuesday released a draft of its latest Consolidated Transportation Program, a six-year budget that contains $19 billion in projects around the state. Wiedefeld said the draft required tough choices to address the budget gap, a “historical issue” that continues.
Wiedefeld said the state’s transportation funding shortfall is driven, in part, by an end to federal COVID-19 aid. Other factors include inflation, increased construction costs, less than expected revenue from the state’s gas tax, and reduced federal funding.
“The biggest one we do is we take a look at our financial forecast and all the ups and downs that may occur in the financial forecast,” Wiedefeld told reporters during a briefing Friday. “And so, in doing that, what we learned was that some of the projections that we had in terms of the growth of some of our sources were not growing at that rate, particularly our largest source of revenue, the motor fuel tax. There were some others that were either not growing or remaining flat again, not growing to the level that we’d hoped for.”
Wiedefeld said that resulted in roughly a $350 million decline in projected revenues over the six-year period of fiscal 2025-2030.
“At the same time, our operating costs continue to grow at a rate a little bit more significant that we have projected,” said Wiedefeld, adding $300 million in projected costs over the six-year period.
Counties scramble for answers, options as state signals deferral of transportation requests
Additionally, lawmakers earlier this year restored proposed cuts in state aid to local governments as part of Highway User Revenues as well as proposed cuts to transit systems run by 23 counties and Baltimore City. Restoration of those proposed cuts added another $400 million over six years, Wiedefeld said.
“So those three things basically are our realities that put pressure on the financial forecast,” he said.
Finally, Wiedefeld said the amount of federal aid is falling short of expectations.
“We were pushing all the modes to really buckle down and see where else we could get federal dollars for delivering projects,” he said. “We were shooting for roughly 80% federal, 20% local match, overall for the program. Basically, we were not able to achieve that, and we’re probably not going to be able to achieve that into the future.”
Instead, Wiedefeld said the state now expects a 75-25 split. “That 5%, although it sounds small, is significant, obviously, when you think of the amount of federal dollars that would bring down,” he said.
The resulting lack of revenue means counties will see priority projects not already underway slowed down or paused
“In effect, projects that are into the future — larger projects that we want to construct — we have to slow those down in terms of the process to get them to construction, until we have available dollars to pick that back up,” Wiedefeld said.
One large project that could suffer is the proposed widening of the American Legion Bridge.
“So, on the American Legion bridge, obviously, we have the record of decision for this, you know, larger improvement there,” said Wiedefeld. “But given the stress that we’re under, we’re going to have the state highway particularly focus on the pure state of good repair issues around the American Legion bridge.”
The state applied for a federal grant to help pay for the costs of repairing “structural issues with the bridge,” he said. “So that’s where we’ll be focusing,” Wiedefeld said.
News of the delays was delivered to county leaders by Wiedefeld and transportation officials during the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference last month.
The transportation secretary said he will also seek to slow down the purchase of zero-emissions buses in the coming years, as some major bus manufacturers are having issues with the performance of electric buses, as well as availability.
Moore warns of difficult fiscal decisions ahead
A new clean diesel bus costs the state $750,000. A hybrid bus costs about $1 million each. A new electric bus costs $1.4 million each.
“So, as you play that over the program period, if you defer that, it actually saves a lot of dollars,” Wiedefeld said. “It allows us not to dig deeper into operating cuts, that we would have to do, or system preservation cuts.”
Wiedefeld said he will not request cuts to his department’s operating budget as he did last year when he cut 8% across the board. He will also not request cuts to county aid or local transit networks.
“What we’ve done is we’ve gone through all those projects, and we’re going to defer those projects at a logical deferred point,” Wiedefeld said. “So basically, some of those projects were in different levels of study. We want to make sure that they stop at a point where we don’t lose any of the effort that we had done, but we don’t have the available funds right now to continue those projects. What you’ll see in the capital program is basically those projects that will be deferred.”
A year ago, Wiedefeld proposed cuts to county shares of highway user revenues and to local transportation networks.
Highway user revenues — decimated in cuts more than a decade ago — had yet to be restored to previous levels. Proposed cuts, nixed this spring by the General Assembly, would have eliminated planned increases in future years.
“Even so, the fiscal 2025 funding for HUR (highway user revenues) falls significantly short of Maryland’s appropriate and historic funding levels, even without adjusting for inflation,” the association of county governments said in a post on its website. “This gap becomes even more pronounced when accounting for rising road maintenance and materials costs.”
The association said it would continue to seek restoration of state highway aid.
“MACo and county leaders will continue urging Maryland policymakers to advance a sustainable plan to address critical infrastructure needs across the state,” the group said in its statement. “Proper restoration of the HUR formula should be a priority in advancing solutions that create sensible and reliable support for all locally maintained roadways.”
Maryland
University System of Maryland to only allow university-sponsored events on October 7
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University of Maryland President William Pines announced this weekend that only university-sponsored activities “that promote reflection” will be held on October 7th.
The day will mark one year since Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel killed around 1,200 people and took around 250 hostages. Israel retaliated, declaring war on Hamas, which has resulted in more than 40,000 people dead, according to Gaza health officials.
This came after the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) group had reserved the McKeldin Mall and Jewish organizations on campus had reserved Hornbake Plaza on October 7th to mark the day.
The announcement cancels both of these events.
“Jointly, out of an abundance of caution,” wrote Pines in an email to the campus community, “we concluded to host only university-sponsored events that promote reflection on this day. All other expressive events will be held prior to October 7, and then resume on October 8 in accordance with time, place and manner considerations of the First Amendment.”
This policy is in place for all University System of Maryland Schools.
“The intent is not to abridge students’ right to free expression; the intent is, instead, to be sensitive to the needs of our students. Our university communities may use this day to safely come together to reflect and to share, to learn and to listen, and, yes, to challenge one another. That’s the premise—and the promise—of higher education.”
-University System of Maryland Statement
SJP wrote in a statement on its Instagram account: “We as Students for Justice in Palestine are deeply angered, though not surprised, by the University of Maryland administration’s decision to cancel our reservation for a vigil at McKeldin Mall on October 7th.”
It continues, “Rest assured that we will find ways to mark this one year of genocide and one year of resistance.”
University of Maryland students worried about antisemitism on campus
The Jewish Student Union also posted a statement to its Instagram account.
“We are reassured to learn that Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Maryland will no longer be permitted to host their event on McKeldin Mall, or anywhere on campus, on October 7th,” the organization writes.
“Only university-sponsored events will occur on October 7th,” they continued. “While this is not an ideal situation, it ensures that our physical and psychological safety is protected on this day of grief.”
In the email from Pines, he noted that a safety assessment had been done and that there was “no immediate or active threat.”
The Jewish Student Union added that they would be holding an event to memorialize the day at Maryland Hillel, a center for Jewish life and students, which is located just off campus.
The UMD Chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace also released a statement standing with SJP “in their anger with the university admin’s decision to cancel our registration to hold a joint vigil on October 7th.”
The email from Pines added that “we encourage our entire community to mark the anniversary of October 7 with remembrance and reflection.”
At the moment, it’s unclear what university-sponsored events will take place on October 7th, at the College Park campus.
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