Gov. Hogan, the Supreme Court And The Washington Post Endorses CE Angela Alsobrooks - Issue #28
Gov. Hogan, the Supreme Court And The Washington Post Endorses CE Angela Alsobrooks - Issue #28
I am resending this issue because there were some grammatical errors that I missed the first time around. I have corrected those errors. Furthermore, I am sending this directly to your email because you will not see new corrections in the email version. The new corrections are only seen in the online version.
Gov. Hogan & the Far-Right Supreme Court
Gov.Larry Hogan - who frames himself as a moderate, anti-Trump Republican - has aligned himself with a far-right Supreme Court by allowing "state police to stop enforcing a state gun law that sets restrictions around concealed-carry handgun permits."
Hogan tweeted out his decision via Twitter. From the DCist, a digital publication that covers D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.
" The decision to suspend the law comes after a Supreme Court ruling last month that found a similar New York state law restricting the right to carry a handgun outside the home to be unconstitutional. Writing for the conservative majority opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argued the law violates the Fourteenth Amendment because it prevents “law-abiding citizens” from exercising their Second Amendment right to carry guns in public for self defense.
“Today’s action is in line with actions taken in other states in response to the recent ruling,” said Hogan in a statement.
Under the “good and substantial reason” standard, Maryland law requires gun owners to provide a specific reason for why they need to carry a concealed handgun. Although the court’s 6-3 ruling focused on a New York law, Hogan described it as “virtually indistinguishable” from Maryland’s own."
Kate Ryan, WTOP reporter, added more understanding of how the law will still operate in Maryland.
*Special* Ketanji Brown Jackson Was Sworn In.
Ketanji Brown Jackson was officially sworn in Thursday as a justice on the Supreme Court, marking a historic first for an African American woman.
After receiving the required two oaths — Chief Justice John Roberts administered the constitutional oath, and outgoing Justice Stephen Breyer provided the judicial oath — Jackson joined a court in turmoil.
Opinion, Word In Black:
From the moment I met Justice Kentaji Brown Jackson, I embraced what so many Black women felt — I saw myself, my daughters, and the many generations of women who came before us all. An exceptionally qualified professional, wife and mother, Justice Jackson greeted me, my husband, and my children with grace and kindness.
On April 8, 2022, my family and I sat on the White House lawn and were witnesses to history 232 years in the making. Amid the excitement, I sat still for a moment thinking, “we will rejoice and be glad.”
On June 30 as the nation and the world watched her being sworn as the first-ever Black woman justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, we rejoiced.
We look forward to having a Justice who has shown she understands the needs of the oppressed and can implement the law to ensure environmental justice, equity, and climate justice. A strong and compassionate Court can ensure that our children have a cleaner, stronger planet for generations to come. Justice Jackson reignites joy, hope, and promise for the future.
From Vox: (Carol Moseley Braun is the first Black woman elected to the Senate. She talked to Li Zhou, politcs and policy reporter at Vox.com)
Li Zhou
What was your overall reaction to how lawmakers treated Jackson at the hearings?
Carol Moseley Braun
To suggest that she was somehow less than qualified, less than competent, when, you know, most of them couldn’t even polish your boots. But the fact of the matter is, she is eminently qualified. Everybody recognizes that. And they’ve got no place to go in terms of the qualifications game.
But, again, that harkens back to some real antique racism that makes Black people into being less intelligent and less capable and less competent than anybody else. And so that’s where they were trying to go, but it didn’t work. It didn’t stand with the harsh light of reality and her record. She’s had a tremendous record that goes back years. And she’s ruled on so many different iterations of the different questions that our country faces that there was nothing they could do with her.
PG Politics
Earlier today, among the group of those running for Prince George's County Executive, The Washington Post's Editorial Board endorsed the current County Executive Angela Alsobrooks.
Though she was expected to be a formidable candidate, she instead decided to run for a second term in her current job. It’s a race in which she is regarded as unbeatable, and for good reason: Ms. Alsobrooks has been an excellent steward of a complex jurisdiction. She has earned reelection, and we endorse her in the July 19 Democratic primary, whose winner is a shoo-in to win the general election.
The editorial board's endorsement was mainly centered on what Alsobrooks had accomplished during her tenure. The endorsement did not offer a proper critique of her entire tenure. However, the editorial board did offer a tiny critique at the end.
Granted, she has made some missteps, notably by naming a divisive, ineffectual figure, Juanita Miller, as the county’s school board chair. She has acknowledged that mistake and tried to rectify it, so far without success. Nonetheless, Ms. Alsobrooks has compiled an impressive record in her first term. She deserves a second.
Other Candidates
If you want to read about the other candidates that are running visit, my story I published months ago.
Police Accountability Bill
From The Washington Informer:
The Prince George’s County Council voted 10-1 Tuesday to implement a police accountability board in order to provide a more transparent process for reviewing alleged police misconduct.
Duties of the 11-member board include holding quarterly meetings with law enforcement leaders, reviewing disciplinary outcomes from complaints filed by residents and officers within a county or municipal police department and submitting an annual report to the county executive and council.
“This is a fresh bill. It is not perfect, but it’s something that will lead us in the right direction,” said Council member Johnathan Medlock (D-District 6) of District Heights. “I think it is a good start. Let us get from good to better to best at some point in time.”
Council member Edward Burroughs III (D-District 8) of Camp Springs voted against the measure.
The accountability board will also appoint residents to serve on an administrative charging committee and a local trial board.
Activists Respond To The New Bill
Yenta Amanuel, director of public policy at the Maryland ACLU and fellow activists were at the council offering testimony.
They also responded to the final bill. They were not pleased.
Health
Prince George's County Covid-19 Data
New Cases: 255
7-day average: 159
Total Number of Covid-19 Cases: 188,356
Deaths: 2,151
Note: Cases are under counted because it is possible that residents aren't reporting positive home testing tests.
From Eric Topol, Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Professor, Molecular Medicine, and Executive Vice-President of Scripps Research:
The Omicron sub-variant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen. It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility, well beyond Omicron (BA.1) and other Omicron family variants that we’ve seen (including BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.2.12.1, and BA.4). You could say it’s not so bad because there hasn’t been a marked rise in hospitalizations and deaths as we saw with Omicron, but that’s only because we had such a striking adverse impact from Omicron, for which there is at least some cross-immunity (BA.1 to BA.5). Here I will review (1) what we know about its biology; (2) its current status around the world; and (3) the ways we can defend against it.
Vaccine updates are becoming more urgent by the day, many scientists said. The most evasive forms of Omicron yet, known as BA.4 and BA.5, appear to be driving a fresh surge of cases across much of the United States. The same subvariants have sent hospital admissions climbing in Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium and Israel.