Latest news with #Alsobrooks
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Year of special elections ends Tuesday in Prince George's, with election for county executive
A drop box in a parking lot next to Prince George's County Board of Elections on May 30. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters) Prince George's County's year of cascading special elections is almost over. More than 62,000 Prince George's County voters had dropped off mail-in ballots as of Friday, ahead of Tuesday's special election to choose a new county executive and a new District 5 council member, a county election official said. In-person turnout was light — just 307 voters on Wednesday, the first day of early voting and 396 on Thursday — but county Election Administrator Wendy Honesty-Bey attributed that to the week's rainy weather. 'It's been expected,' she said Friday. There is one more day of early voting Monday before Election Day on Tuesday. The voting caps a year of upheaval in the county, where the election of a new U.S. senator and the criminal conviction of a sitting council member created openings that had a domino effect, as county officials moved in to new positions. The parade of elections began with the conviction last year of former At-large Council Member Jamel 'Mel' Frankin, who was convicted in a campaign theft scheme, setting up an August primary and a November election. When District 5 Council Member Jolene Ivey won Franklin's seat and County Executive Angela Alsobrooks won a U.S. Senate seat in November, it set up a March primary and Tuesday's general election for those seats. In the executive's race, voters are choosing between State's Attorney Aisha Braveboy, the Democrat, and Republican nominee Jonathan White to fill out the remaining two years of Alsobrooks' term, who stepped down in December to take her Senate seat. The county's chief administrative officer, Tara H. Jackson, who has been acting county executive since Alsobrooks stepped down, chose not to seek the seat. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE Braveboy, who was endorsed by Gov. Wes Moore (D), easily won a March primary over a field of nine Democrats, including former County Executive Rushern L. Baker III, who had the endorsement of state treasurer and county resident Dereck Davis (D), and At-Large Council Member Calvin Hawkins, who was endorsed by Alsobrooks. Ivey was briefly a candidate in the executive's race but withdrew before the primary — and still managed to finish fourth. By withdrawing, Ivey spared county residents the prospect of another special election for her at-large council seat. Should Braveboy win the executive's race, the county's circuit court judges will select a replacement to serve out the remaining two years of her term. In heavily Democratic Prince George's County, Braveboy is the favorite to win. In a victory party after her March 4 primary win, Braveboy acknowledged as much when she told the crowd, 'I can't wait to serve as your next county executive.' Voters in council District 5,which includes Bladensburg, Cheverly and Glenarden, are also choosing between former school board member Shayla Adams-Stafford, a Democrat, and Republican Fred Price Jr. to replace Ivey. Adams-Stafford, a former school board member, won the Democratic nomination by slightly more than 2,000 votes against four other candidates. A fifth Democratic challenger, former Cheverly Mayor Kayce Munyeneh who lost reelection in last month's city election, dropped out the County Council race. As with Braveboy, Adams-Stafford is the likely favorite in the heavily Democratic county. The council make up could become more progressive with Adams-Stafford on the council, who also received support from Council Chair Edward Burroughs III and Vice Chair Krystal Oriadha. About three weeks after Braveboy won the special primary, Burroughs became the youngest chair in the county's history at age 32. Honesty-Bey said counting ballots for Tuesday's special general election should be completed by June 13. The winners in both races are scheduled to be sworn in June 19, the federal holiday of Juneteenth, also observed by the state and county, when government offices will be closed. For more information on where to drop off mail-in ballots and nine of the vote center locations, go to here. Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Polls will open Tuesday on Election Day from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Boston Globe
20-05-2025
- Health
- Boston Globe
Maryland senator's resolution to formally condemn Robert F. Kennedy Jr. squashed by Republican
Advertisement An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Such resolutions are symbolic and entail no direct consequences. Alsobrooks requested unanimous consent to approve the resolution, a privilege afforded to individual senators, which requires just one senator present in the chamber to object. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up It was Senator Mike Crapo, Republican of Idaho, who spoke up to object to Alsobrooks' resolution after she filed it. Crapo praised Kennedy's leadership, saying he has been 'open and transparent' about the department's efforts and has committed to addressing failures in the public health system. 'Secretary Kennedy and his team deserve time to deliver on the promise of putting patients first, promoting transparency, and following the science,' said Crapo. The resolution represented the latest escalation in the first-term Maryland Democrat's emerging opposition to Kennedy. Alsobrooks' home state hosts the headquarters of the National Institutes of Health, which has suffered severe staffing cuts under Kennedy's watch. Advertisement Last week, Alsobrooks called for Kennedy to resign, and when he testified in front of the Sam Brodey can be reached at
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
RFK Jr. Insists He Hasn't Fired 'Any Working Scientists' ― After Firing Hundreds Of Them
WASHINGTON ― During a Senate committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) had a strange clash with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over the massive cuts he's overseen at his agency, including to personnel. 'You made it very clear here today you have no knowledge whatsoever of the absolutely amazing scientists and researchers who you have callously fired,' said Alsobrooks. 'I didn't fire any working scientists,' Kennedy said. 'That, sir, is not true either,' replied Alsobrooks. 'It is true,' repeated Kennedy 'It is not true,' Alsobrooks said, moving on. He made the same claim when the Maryland senator later brought up a 30-year program he axed at his agency, the Safe to Sleep campaign, along with all of its staff. He said it again to Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the chairman of the committee, at the start of the hearing. 'The cuts we have made to date are administrative cuts. As far as I know we have not fired any working scientists,' said Kennedy. 'There are some people who were scientists that were doing IT or administration ... who did lose their jobs. But in terms of working scientists, our policy was to make sure none of them were lost and that that research continues.' That sounds nice. But also it is not true. Kennedy has been firing hundreds, if not thousands, of scientists and researchers doing critical work at various agencies under HHS. It's not even as if he's been doing this in secret; it's been widelyreported for months. Under his direction, the National Institutes of Health, the world's top biomedical research agency, axed 1,200 employees in February. A doctor behind award-winning research on Parkinson's disease was among the leading NIH scientists pushed out in April. Top scientific leaders at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and at the Food and Drug Administration were reassignedto remote Indian Health Service regions. Key scientists working on the bird flu at the Center for Veterinary Medicine were fired, as were nearly a dozen in-house senior scientists at NIH who worked on neuroscience. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month carried out mass firings that included a group of scientists who researched traumatic brain injury. Still more CDC scientists were fired after their entire lab tracking STIs and hepatitis outbreaks was axed. It's not clear if Kennedy is intentionally lying about not firing scientists or doesn't understand the scope of damage he's causing to the work of HHS, or if this a matter of semantics. Maybe he's bristling at the verb 'fire' to describe how he has been aggressively dismissing scientists from their employment or ordering scientists to give up their jobs. An HHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Alsobrooks said Kennedy is just lying, even as it's so absurdly obvious. 'I think that RFK Jr. clearly believes that the more he tells a lie, the more it becomes the truth,' she told HuffPost on Thursday. Kennedy's claim that HHS scientists have all kept their jobs 'flies in the face of the reality that there are hundreds of scientists from the NIH, CDC and FDA who have lost their jobs as a part of his plan to overhaul the department.' The Maryland senator should know. NIH is based in her state, and she's been hearing from scientists ― constituents ― for months who have lost their jobs or grants at various HHS agencies. She heard from some of those fired scientists after Wednesday's hearing, when Kennedy insisted he hadn't fired them. 'One is working specifically – or was working, before his untimely termination – on Parkinson's, and the other was working on doing some critical research around hepatitis,' said Alsobrooks. 'They heard the lie, you know, or the misrepresentation, should we call it, when he said working scientists had not been fired when they, in fact, have been.' HuffPost heard from some fired federal scientists after Kennedy's hearing, too. One, who'd been an epidemiologist working on infectious diseases, said they were fired by Kennedy along with their entire team, which was dozens of epidemiologists and health scientists. 'RFK seems unaware of what programs were actually affected by the [Reduction in Force],' said this scientist, who requested anonymity to speak freely. Asked what they made of Kennedy's repeated claims that he hadn't fired any 'working scientists,' this fired scientist simply said, 'It is not true.' 'This has consequences for public health as the programs are suddenly eliminated or severely reduced,' they said. 'It also severely affects the thousands of scientists who suddenly lost our careers and faced a challenging job market with so many public health cuts damaging our field.' A local chapter of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union that represents more than 700,000 federal employees and D.C. government workers, caught Kennedy's comments, and pushed back with data and charts. 'We find that approximately 1,586 civil servants affected by the RIF were scientists, medical professionals, veterinary professionals, engineers, and other STEM leaders,' reads a Wednesday post on AFGE Local 2883's website. 'These cuts were scientific, not administrative and not 'fraud, waste, and abuse.'' Their website offers lots of data related to HHS cuts, including on personnel cuts at CDC. One chart, for example, offers a rough estimate on the number of health scientists who have been fired as of mid-March: 605. Alsobrooks said she hopes that any fired federal scientists who heard Kennedy's claims know that she and other senators see through his nonsense and plan to keep highlighting the damage he's causing. 'We know the truth,' she said. 'That's what these hearings are about, exposing these mistruths and letting the public understand the consequences of the disastrous decisions and dangerous decisions made by Secretary Kennedy. And we're going to continue to do that.'
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dems, GOP form rare alliance on youth homelessness bill as crisis impacts nation
More than 4 million youth and young-adult families face homelessness, statistics show, prompting rare bipartisan action in Congress to expand federal support and address the growing crisis. Sens. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., and Katie Britt, R-Ala., will introduce the Homeless Children & Youth Act on Wednesday, which is the former's first piece of major bipartisan legislation in her short tenure since being sworn-in in January. Officials must ensure that children experiencing homelessness can get the support they need to exit that situation for good, Alsobrooks told Fox News Digital. "This legislation will begin to close the barrier to services for many young families and is a true action to one of my guiding principles: 'love your neighbor as yourself.' No person deserves to experience homelessness, and HCYA is an important step in ending homelessness in our communities and breaking generational cycles," she said. New Law Clamps Down On Homeless As Blue City Advocate Admits The 'Frustration' Is Justified An Oakland, California, homeless encampment. Britt added, "No child should be prevented from receiving the critical assistance they need," and that the bill will "streamline" the definition of homelessness across all federal agencies. Read On The Fox News App The bill seeks to better define homelessness in a federal context in order to provide fuller resources. In that current code, in some areas of government, it excludes counting youths who stay with people other than their parents or live in motel rooms as experiencing homelessness, while other federal programs consider them so. It would also "improve visibility and understanding" of the issue, as proponents said youth are often overlooked as a bloc of people that can face homelessness. By standardizing the definition of youth homelessness, and also opening up more federal resources to affected people, the bill will help communities break the cycle, proponents said. Trump Says Dc Mayor Bowser Must Clean Up Homeless Encampments In The Capital Sen. Angela Alsobrooks. Youth homelessness has been an issue in the Washington, D.C., area, where Alsobrooks led a collar county for several years prior to defeating former Gov. Larry Hogan for her current seat. During her time as Prince George's County executive, the county established the Youth Action Board, which aims to directly address the crisis from a young person's perspective. In 2024, Alsobrooks credited the Department of Housing and Urban Development for an additional $2 million grant to assist organizations in Prince George's that combat youth homelessness. Sen. Katie Britt speaks at a podium. In nearby Frederick County, north of the nation's capital, one homeless assistance group praised the legislation. "Programs like ours could serve these youth immediately upon experiencing homelessness," Melissa Muntz of Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership of Frederick told Fox News Digital. "Shortening a young person's period of homelessness by providing immediate support increases the likelihood that the youth will remain connected to school," Muntz said. "We know that youth who do not graduate from high school are significantly more likely to experience homelessness as adults, making this an early intervention to prevent adult homelessness." At least 15 other homelessness advocacy groups have also endorsed the act, according to its sponsors. Original article source: Dems, GOP form rare alliance on youth homelessness bill as crisis impacts nation
CBS News
11-04-2025
- Health
- CBS News
Maryland senators raise concerns about alleged inhumane conditions at Baltimore ICE facility
Maryland Senators Chris Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks contacted federal officials to raise concerns about "unacceptable conditions" that detainees are facing at the Baltimore U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office. The Democratic senators sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem and ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons about the conditions in the ICE Office of Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) facility. The letter came in response to reports that detainees are being held in rooms that do not meet their basic needs. The senators said concerns include overcrowding in holding cells, no bed space, lack of adequate food service and lack of on-site medical staff. In their letter, the senators called on Noem and Lyons to stop holding people in temporary holding rooms for more than 12 hours in accordance with ICE standards. Senators Van Hollen and Alsobrooks said members of their staff visited the ICE Baltimore facility in March. During their visit, they noted that detainees were being held for about a day and a half, which is longer than the six to eight hour duration the facility is equipped for and longer than the 12 hour ICE standard. Staff members also found that the facility recently held 54 people at once, which they considered concerning due to the size of the rooms. The staff members also noted that there was no infirmary or medical staff on site and that ICE staff have been making sandwiches or ordering from McDonald's to serve at mealtimes. According to the senators, the holding rooms in the Baltimore ICE facility do not have bed space, so emergency foil blankets and inflatable beds are being used instead. "While the local ICE personnel are making an effort to accommodate detainees' needs during longer stays, it is clear that the directives from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE Headquarters in service of President Trump's mass deportation agenda are resulting in unacceptable harms inflicted on those being detained in the BHR [Baltimore Holding Rooms]," Sens. Van Hollen and Alsobrooks said in their letter. During their visit, the senators' staff members also noted that the only oversight at the Baltimore ICE facility was a self-inspection program. "Subjecting detainees to such inhumane and unsafe conditions does nothing to improve our border security or deter illegal immigration – it only puts people's health and safety at risk," Sens. Van Hollen and Alsobrooks said. Since the Trump administration began cracking down on illegal immigration in the U.S., community activists have held a few protests over conditions at the Baltimore ICE facility. In mid-March, a group of activists stood outside the George H. Fallon Federal Building in Baltimore to protest the "unlawful and inhumane detainment of immigrants." "You're making some people sleep on the floor —men and women sleep on the floor. I heard a story that someone soiled themselves because they didn't have access to a bathroom," one protester told WJZ. During another protest, an immigration advocate said detainees at the Baltimore facility "are forced to endure meals of insufficient food, barely any water, and, most appallingly, people like my daughter are being denied the vital medications they need for their health and well-being." A spokesperson with ICE responded to WJZ's questions about the protests, saying it only operates a holding room in Baltimore, which is not held to the same standards as a detention facility. In the statement, ICE said the facility complies with federal laws to "uphold the well-being and dignity of those in our custody." The statement also said the ICE Health Service Corps is on-site and able to provide necessary medical services. "In the event of a medical emergency, detainees are promptly transported to nearby hospitals to receive immediate and appropriate care," the statement said. "ICE remains dedicated to transparency and accountability in our operations." Senators Van Hollen and Alsobrooks included several questions for DHS Secretary Noem and ICE Acting Director Lyons in their letter. The senators further requested that federal officials provide a waiver for the 12-hour holding rule and provide answers to their questions by April 24. The senators included the following questions: WJZ has reached out to Baltimore ICE officials for a statement, but has not yet heard back.
