Maryland is house to the best per capita price of federal employees within the nation, with about 240 out of each 10,000 Marylanders working for the federal authorities. These federal employees should adhere to complete ethics guidelines designed to forestall conflicts of curiosity and insider buying and selling — and but the members of Congress these federal employees elect to characterize them should not held to those self same requirements.
Over the course of this yr, the obvious lack of congressional ethics guidelines has change into painfully apparent to the American public, and laws to rectify this has overwhelming public assist. But as legislative efforts to carry members of Congress to the identical commonplace utilized to federal employees have stalled in Congress, nearly all of Maryland’s elected representatives in Congress have been conspicuously absent from the efforts to carry some parity to this technique.
It’s exhausting to know how our representatives in Washington, D.C. can justify holding themselves and their colleagues to a monetary conflicts of curiosity commonplace a lot decrease than the one imposed on their federal worker constituents, all the way in which right down to probably the most entry-level positions.
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The 2022 midterm elections are quick approaching, and Maryland voters have essential choices to make about who they wish to characterize them in Congress. With a congressional delegation made up of 10 members — two Senators and eight members of the Home of Representatives — the Free State has a vital position to play in crafting options to a number of the nation’s largest challenges. Maryland’s congressional delegation consists of the second strongest member of the Home, Majority Chief Steny Hoyer, and the Chairman of the Senate Small Enterprise Committee, Senator Ben Cardin.
By large and bipartisan margins, the general public has made it clear that members of Congress partaking within the shopping for and promoting of shares is unacceptable and should be prohibited. On the time of this writing, Enterprise Insider has reported that a minimum of 70 members of Congress have violated the prevailing regulation meant to carry transparency to members’ monetary transactions, together with a minimum of two members of the Maryland delegation (Representatives David Trone and Jamie Raskin). Public studies of suspiciously timed inventory trades on the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic have additionally fed right into a preexisting sentiment of public mistrust in Congress, which has probably influenced a dismally low, 17% public approval ranking.
In response to the rising public outcry in opposition to congressional corruption (and the notion of corruption), a number of members of Congress have launched measures that might limit or ban inventory buying and selling by members of Congress and their fast households. These measures have garnered bipartisan assist, together with from Maryland Representatives Andy Harris, Anthony Brown, and Jamie Raskin.
Let’s pause to consider how preposterous the present scenario is: Members of Congress, who can transfer markets and straight influence share costs via their positions of legislative energy and privilege as elected officers, are free to primarily maintain any monetary investments they wish to, irrespective of how a lot of a battle of curiosity such holdings might pose. By the use of distinction, with the intention to adjust to a legal battle of curiosity regulation that Congress exempted itself from, an entry-level employee employed at a random federal company is required by the Workplace of Authorities Ethics to divest any investments that might probably current a battle of curiosity. To say that this can be a laughable double commonplace could be an insult to laughable double requirements.
And that’s to not say the divestment commonplace is just too onerous to use to federal staff. It isn’t. It’s a typical sense rule that ought to apply to each federal worker — together with members of Congress.
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Given how a lot of Maryland’s inhabitants is employed within the federal workforce, and given how a lot the general public worries about authorities corruption, it defies logic that the Maryland congressional delegation isn’t main the way in which on this concern.
As residents of this state, we’ve each cause to demand this of our elected representatives. Your complete Maryland congressional delegation needs to be leaping on the probability to assist essential laws to restrict their very own potential conflicts of curiosity. And any member of Congress who doesn’t throw their assist behind these efforts ought to have to elucidate their opposition to voters on this state.
It’s gone time for Congress to step up and maintain itself to increased requirements of moral conduct, similar to Congress requires of the hundreds of Marylanders who’re employed by the manager department. To do something much less is a slap within the face to the individuals of Maryland.
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.