Police describe the suspects only as two Black males aged 18 to 20. If you have information that can help identify these suspects, call police at (301) 279-8000.
Contrary to government declarations, the vaccine did not prevent the recipient from contracting the virus. And reports of vaccine injuries, increasing vaccine skepticism, and the Biden administration's 2022 declaration that "COVID is over" proved to be the final nails in the vaccine coffin.
The failure of one of BioNTech's new cancer treatments in testing earlier this year was apparently the last straw, as the company has now chosen to not pursue that product line any further. BioNTech's announcement was a body blow to Montgomery County and Maryland elected officials. Biotech is the only real bright spot in the otherwise-moribund Montgomery County economy, which has failed to attract a major corporate headquarters in over 25 years, and is at, or near, rock-bottom in the region by every relevant metric of job creation, new business starts, and business growth, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The bill would prohibit the sale of invasive bamboo, which is a rapidly-spreading plant. It would also establish penalties for doing so. A public hearing on the bill has been scheduled for July 22, 2025 at 1:30 PM at the County Council chambers.
Most people would probably agree that bamboo is an aggressively invasive plant. Maybe it should be banned, or maybe it should have been banned a long time ago. But one can't help but notice the many crises the County is facing, and wonder why bamboo is the top priority of the County Council. The current Council hasn't passed a single bill to address our moribund economy or sustained violent crime wave. Montgomery County hasn't attracted a single major corporate headquarters in over 25 years. And we are currently facing fiscal oblivion in the coming years, regarding the County's structural budget deficit and debt. This is a part-time Council that is absurdly unserious in its legislative pursuits. We can't go on like this.
Moore's move to join fellow White House aspirants Jared Polis, Ritchie Torres, and Ro Khanna in the abundance lane for 2028 is a remarkable gamble. With that being only a partial list of corporate-backed Democrats who will be crowding into that niche during the primary season, there will be much more competition for staff and donors. Recent polling has shown that "abundance" policies are not popular among Democratic and independent voters. And many prominent progressives in the party have come out strongly against the astroturfed abundance campaign.
This only complicates Moore's task in 2028. Maryland's finances have tanked during his first term, as Moore squandered a budget surplus he inherited from former Gov. Larry Hogan, and is facing a $6 billion deficit by 2030. Despite a much-trumpeted career on Wall Street, and big ticket fundraisers among late-stage capitalist titans on Martha's Vineyard and in the Hamptons, Moore has been unable to attract any major corporations to Maryland. And he has no major policy victories, even as he gears up to run for reelection next year.
That last fact makes running on the abundance agenda even more daunting for Moore. It is progressives who have the momentum and the crowds in the Democratic party right now. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have had no trouble drawing mobs of progressives to their Fight Oligarchy tour stops, at which Sanders appears to be symbolically passing the torch to AOC. She, in turn, is clearly testing the waters for a potential 2028 presidential run. AOC's agenda may be controversial in many quarters, but she has a concrete set of policies she would seek to implement, including Medicare-for-All, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, a federal jobs guarantee, and free college. Even failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz has a record of major progressive legislative wins as governor in Minnesota.
Moore, by contrast, is fighting to...become president? He has no signature suite of policies, much less ones that have been signed into law. What legislation has passed during his term has only benefitted small identity groups, leaving out the majority of voters, or raised fees on everyone. Hogan was able to do very little with a hostile, Democrat-controlled legislature - but what little he did usually applied to everyone in the state, like blocking tax hikes and lowering bridge tolls.
That blank slate agenda, combined with abundance bro status, tags Moore as a corporate shill - an identity easy for his rivals to reinforce by emphasizing his Wall Street past, celebrity backers and tycoon associates, and his proposed giveaway of taxpayer money and prime public land to Baltimore developers. Moore would essentially be replicating the Kamala Harris "joy and excitement" campaign of late summer 2024. That didn't work out very well.
Harris had celebrities (check), billionaire friends like Mark Cuban and Michael Bloomberg [a major financial backer of the abundance movement, coincidentally] (check), and some vague promises (check) about "not going back." Not going back to what? Low inflation? Low gas prices? World peace?
Ironically, Harris and Walz had their greatest success right at the start of their brief campaign, when her selection of the Minnesota governor as running mate suggested she would be more progressive than Joe Biden, and she rolled out a short list of specific socialist promises like price fixing and giving everyone $25,000 to buy a home. The abundance neoliberals in the press and corporate boardrooms predictably lost their minds, and Harris quickly dropped the concrete policy goals, falling back on a vacuous campaign of "joy," twerking rappers, and the daughter of Uber Villain and war criminal bogeyman Dick Cheney. Progressives and the working class quickly fell off the bandwagon.
Even Moore's pal Oprah couldn't save Harris. Will appearing on Radio Abundance save a foundering Moore? Not likely. For Radio Abundance is the latest example of "every accusation is a confession." Corporations setting our regulations, and seizing power over local decisions away from citizens, is indeed "fascism coming to America."
This means a double payday for developers. The state - a.k.a. you, the taxpayer - will have to pay rent to house thousands of government employees in privately-owned office buildings around Charm City. And, developers will acquire valuable downtown property at - based on what we've seen in previous government dispositions of real estate in Montgomery County and Maryland - discount rates, compared to the value they will realize with redevelopment as luxury apartment buildings.
Some have theorized that there are an infinite number of realities. In none of those realities is leasing market-rate office space, over 20 years, cheaper than renovating and continuing to operate buildings you own. But it is a good program for elected officials to help fill the vacant office space owned by developers who have contributed fat checks to their campaigns. It's good to have friends in high places.
The payout bonanza won't end with Maryland handing your money over to developer sugar daddies for market-rate office leases all over Baltimore. That's because a valuable cache of state-owned buildings and prime downtown land is about to be added to their portfolios at value prices.
State Center Complex: (201 W. Preston St., 300 W. Preston St., 301 W. Preston St., 100 N. Eutaw St.)
State Center has been one of the biggest ongoing development scams in Baltimore for a couple of decades. What started as one developer giveaway turned into developer lawsuits against the state when they couldn't have things their way. Then, last November, the developers got $58.5 million from you - the taxpayer - for...nothing. The Moore administration paid off the developers with nearly $60 million just to end the legal battle - a battle the state would likely have won if the case had gone to trial.
So, as a taxpayer, you're already out $58.5 million for nothing at State Center. That was just the appetizer. Here comes the main course, courtesy of Gov. Moore: the complex will still be sold off to developers, who will redevelop the site with thousands of luxury apartments.
A solid low-rise government building with parking lot. Sure to be a teardown and redevelopment for luxury apartments.
William Donald Schaefer Tower (6 St. Paul Street)
One of the tallest buildings in Baltimore, 6 St. Paul Street was only built in 1986. I was inside this building about twenty years ago, and it looked very modern and new even at that point. Now the state is claiming the building is facing "catastrophic failure?" This is a potential Trump Tower-style conversion to luxury condos, that will pay off handsomely for the developer fortunate to acquire it under a political fake "fire sale." The Maryland cartel again disrespects former Gov. Schaefer, who was treated very badly in his final years by the political machine.
310-311 W. Saratoga Street
Another prime property, right on top of the Lexington Market subway station. This guarantees maximum density will be allowed to the prospective developer, which means maximum profit.
They don't build 'em like this anymore. A prime conversion candidate for apartments, or a wasteful teardown - the option will be up to the buyer. Located right across from CFG Bank Arena (a.k.a. the Baltimore Arena). Unlike Camden Yards, you can still see the Bromo Seltzer Tower from inside 200 W. Baltimore Street. Maximum profits await!
Another "they don't make 'em like they used to" architectural gem.
The worst part of this latest corruption scheme isn't the fake, inflated claims of savings. It's that the $326 million is over twenty years, while the state is facing a potential $6 billion shortfall in 2030. Aging buildings, even assuming the state has criminally failed to properly maintain them, aren't the source of Maryland's budget woes. It is astronomical overspending that has brought us here, and the Maryland legislature made clear this spring it has no intention of stopping that anytime soon.
Our local media appears too starstruck and weak-in-the-knees around Gov. Moore to challenge him on this real estate portfolio giveaway, and massive new expenditures in leases at empty office buildings owned by developer sugar daddies. They have simply accepted the poorly-documented claims of "savings" at face value, and have chosen to parrot the governor's message of "nearly four-hundred million in savings!!!!"
Unlike the local media, let's follow the money in the coming months and years. What will the sale prices of the government buildings be, compared to their true market value? Who will acquire them, and how much have they donated to Gov. Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman, and members of the legislature?
Montgomery County elected officials have been giving away County-owned properties at discount rates - and sometimes even for free (!!) - for many years this century. Conversely, they are glad to overpay for rents in private office space owned by their developer sugar daddies (witness the Board of Education's move from a building owned by Montgomery County Public Schools into a glossy new office building, despite MCPS owning numerous vacant school buildings and other properties across the county. And just this week, the County government revealed it purchased a bank property in Olney that mysteriously gained over $1 million in value just since 2021, an additional cost the County was delighted to pay with taxpayer funds.
Police describe the suspects only as two Black males of unknown age. If you can assist detectives in solving this case, call police at (301) 279-8000.
For options on how you can participate by walking, or virtually from home, or to register, visit the website of The Camino of Maryland.
Image via The Camino of Maryland
A couple of interesting notes about this case: The press release stated that DUI test results for the driver "are pending at this time." It does not indicate what type of test what administered to determine blood alcohol level of the driver. A breathalyzer test would have provided instant results; blood test results would indeed take weeks, if not longer. Second, the driver's name and hometown were not provided in the press release, even though the driver is 18 years old - an adult.
Developers never delivered the promised movie theater, upscale restaurant, or even the actual "town center" of Watkins Mill Town Center, but did rake in all the profits from the residential housing portion of the development. Heckuva job, Brownie! New residents did get a Royal Farms gas station, a Starbucks, and now the police station, however. They'll likely welcome the latter, given the ongoing crime wave that has bedeviled the county since the summer of 2020.
Almost 200 department staff and volunteers may be on-site at any given time. The station will serve as the base for investigative units, as well as the Central Traffic Unit, which was established in July 2021. It also features a public space "designed to foster engagement, collaboration and dialogue within the community."
There's a separate argument to be had about whether the incinerator should be, or should have already been, shut down. Surprisingly, the article did not mention that the incineration facility turns the trash into energy. Enough energy to power 27,000 houses, in fact, while getting rid of 600 tons of Montgomery County garbage each day. That's a valuable asset.
The converse argument is that the facility releases some degree of pollution into the air. Not discussed is whether or not there are further measures that could be taken to filter or capture this air before it escapes the facility. The article cites rates of respiratory illness, and colon, rectal, and prostate cancer in the Dickerson area that exceeded the overall countywide rate between 2014 and 2022.
The abundance campaign is another good example of the "now more than ever" phenomenon. No matter what the crisis of the hour might be, the same old agenda is pushed as the solution. At the moment, the crisis is the Democratic Party's identity crisis. Real estate developers who have tried several tactics to gain the right to build luxury multifamily housing in the most desirable and successful residential areas - starting with the environment, and most-recently and disgustingly glomming onto the George Floyd Revolution and Black Lives Matter movement with a racial argument for blowing up zoning codes - with relatively little success, have now put a new brand on the same old YIMBY agenda. Also on board are other corporate interests, forever seeking a reduction in regulations, and an increase in profit margins.
Klein, Thompson, and others pushing the abundance agenda have offered it as a liberal response to President Donald Trump's MAGA agenda, and a blueprint for 2028 Democratic presidential candidates. But not only is it just another case of "more cowbell," it fundamentally misfires as a quick fix for what ails the Democratic Party. Where Trump's success among Black and Latino men in 2024 was in large part the idea that he would provide them with prosperity, the abundance agenda openly and unabashedly reserves the financial benefits for wealthy developers, power companies, and Chinese solar panel manufacturers. Things will "get done," and faster alright. But none of the profits will accrue to you, and you'll give up local control over decisions that directly impact your neighborhood. Good deal, right?
Voters polled by Demand Progress seem to have been impressively quick studies of the abundance agenda. Democrats and independents responded negatively to the abundance agenda, while Republicans had a more favorable reaction. Progressive policies (oddly termed "populist" by Demand Progress) like getting money out of politics, breaking up big banks and corporations, and prosecuting corruption were seen as more favorable by 72.5% of Democrats, and 55.4% of independents, according to Axios.
When asked to make a blunt choice between abundance and populism, only 16.8% of Democrats endorsed abundance.
It's curious that Moore is one of them. Not only does the abundance agenda get a thumbs down from a majority of the voters he needs to get past the primaries in 2028, but it also puts him in a crowded lane of Democratic candidates. Among those who have also posited themselves as abundance bros are Tim Walz, Cory Booker, Jared Polis, and Kamala Harris. And Pete Buttigieg was an abundance bro before it was even a thing.
"Gone are the days when the Democrats are the party of no and slow. we must be the party of yes and now," Moore declared, which was surely music to the ears of corporate donors who want the abundance agenda to be the Democratic Party agenda. That corporate money will be an advantage for Moore, no doubt. As was seen with Joe Biden in 2020, Moore can lose Iowa and New Hampshire, and still clinch the nomination with a Jim Clyburn endorsement in South Carolina that Clyburn himself has already hinted at. And the Democratic National Committee has slammed the door on progressive upstarts in three straight elections, most notably kneecapping Bernie Sanders twice. Can the DNC do it a fourth time in a row?
Moore is in his element among the rich and famous, having raised most of his campaign cash at fundraisers in the Hamptons and on Martha's Vineyard when he ran for governor in 2022. And just this year, he closed a budget gap largely on the backs of the poor and middle class, who now must pay hundreds of dollars to register their vehicles with the state, among other regressive tax and fee hikes. The Reaganesque, Laffer Curve, trickle-down, supply-side voodoo economics of the abundance agenda are not that surprising of a platform for Moore, given that he first entered politics in college as a Young Republican.
Moore and his backers have tried to cast him as a charismatic and inspirational figure in the mold of Barack Obama. But the 2008-era Obama presented himself as a champion for the little guy, not Wall Street and real estate moguls. Once in the White House, he quickly morphed into a neoliberal and forever-war fighter, but his pre-2009 populist persona was what won him many of the same voters who would propel Trump to victory eight years later. The abundance promise of lower costs and higher profits for mega corporations might win Moore an abundance of campaign cash, but is unlikely to draw an abundance of progressive Democrat and independent primary votes.
