[VIDEO] Baltimore Reaches 200 Murders So Far This Year…

Black Lives Matter and their white social justice warrior allies unavailable for comment.

Timothy Smith was shaving the gray stubble from his face Monday afternoon when he heard the gunshots. He dropped the razor and sprinted downstairs and out the door.

The 48-year-old said he’d been inside his Northeast Baltimore home only a moment to get ready for work, temporarily leaving three of his grandchildren riding their bikes in the street outside. His worst fears were assuaged — the pre-teens were OK — but in an alley nearby lay a man, shot to death in Baltimore’s 200th homicide this year.

The city didn’t hit 200 homicides last year until Dec. 7, when police said 19-year-old Tymaine Sellman was gunned down in the 500 block of Edgewood St.

A wave of killings the likes of which hasn’t been seen in four decades followed the unrest over the death of Freddie Gray, with more than 40 people killed in both May and July. So far in August, about one person has been killed per day in Baltimore. Police have partially blamed the influx of prescription drugs stolen from looted pharmacies for the violence.

Via Baltimore Sun:

Continue Reading.... 

Defense says prosecutor steered police away from evidence Freddie Gray had history of 'crash for cash' schemes

The police detectives who investigated the death of Freddie Gray were told that he had a history of participating in "crash-for-cash" schemes — injuring himself in law enforcement settings to collect settlements — but were advised by a state prosecutor not to pursue the information, according to defense attorneys for the six officers charged in Gray's arrest and death.

Via: Baltimore Sun

Continue Reading....

Washington’s Obamacare Exchange Is Losing A Top Insurer In 2016

A top insurer is dropping from Washington, D.C.’s Obamacare exchange in 2016, leaving customers with fewer options than ever in the nation’s capital.

Aetna Life Insurance will no longer offer individual plans on D.C. Health Link, Washington’s own Obamacare exchange, in 2016, The Washington Post reports. Aetna is sending letters to customers notifying them that their plans will be canceled at the end of this year. The company says it has “determined we can no longer meet the needs of our customers while remaining competitive in the market.”

That will leave just one company on the exchange, CareFirst, that provides Preferred Provider Organization plans, or PPOs, which offer a wider choice of approved doctors and hospitals to customers. Just two other companies currently offer health maintenance organizations, HMOs, on the exchange.

That will leave customers looking for greater choice in their health care options with just one insurance company, CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, which is drastically hiking premium rates across the region.

CareFirst has already proposed rate increases from 3 percent to 17 percent, according to the Post. In nearby Maryland, CareFirst has requested that state regulators allow it to hike rates by up to 30.4 percent in 2016, The Baltimore Sun reports.

DC Health Link’s director, Mila Kofman, told The Post that the shrinking number of options isn’t a loss for the competitiveness of the exchange and that Aetna’s decision to leave the exchange won’t harm residents.

“When you have products when there’s not a whole lot of interest to buy, that’s the market telling the carrier what they are selling, people can’t afford. So in terms of competition, it’s not a loss,” Kofman said. “I don’t consider that real competition.”

Aetna will continue to offer employer-provided plans on the exchange — including for Congress and its staff. Federal employees make a large part of Washington’s Obamacare customers, as they are required by the health care law itself to purchase coverage on the exchange.

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading.....

Marilyn Mosby’s Gag Motion Denied After Filing in Wrong Court

Judge Charles J. Peters denied the Baltimore State’s Attorney’s motion on Tuesday for a gag order relating to the prosecution of six officers involved in the arrest of Freddie Gray. Marilyn Mosby‘s request was denied on the grounds that her staff sent the request in the wrong court at the time.

Mosby’s motion was filed in Baltimore’s circuit court on May 14, and was meant to forbid any public disclosure about the Gray case by any witnesses, attorneys and police involved. Peters declared that the motion lacked standing in the proceeding because until the officers’ May 21 indictment, the case was still under the jurisdiction of the District Court.

Prosecution spokeswoman Rochelle Ritchie, refused to say whether the state had any plans to file a new motion. “We’re not going to litigate this case in the media and discuss our trial strategy,” Ritchie said, in line with the gag request’s intended objective.

The attorneys representing the six officers had asked the court to strike the motion on procedural grounds. The Baltimore Sun and several other media outlets also filed motions opposing the order.

This is not the first procedural misstep made by Mosby’s office on this case. Mosby has been the subject of criticism and calls for removal from the case since an incident on May 1, when her office listed the wrong addresses for two of the charged officers, causing a media frenzy when the charges were directed to two people sharing the same names. She has also been described as an inexperienced prosecutor with a greater interest in activism than in the procedures of legal justice.

Other gag orders recently filed by Mosby include a request to block the release of Gray’s autopsy and other “sensitive” documents. The defense team has called this order “unfair”, claiming it would excessively include references made to the sensitive information in documents otherwise deemed non-sensitive.

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading....

Marilyn Mosby Seeks Protective Order To Block Release Of Freddie Gray’s Autopsy

Baltimore state attorney Marilyn Mosby speaks on recent violence in Baltimore, Maryland in this May 1, 2015 file photo. REUTERS/Adrees Latif/Files
Baltimore City state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby hopes to block the release of the autopsy of Freddie Gray and other documents related to the investigation into the 25-year-old’s April 19 death.

The protective order, filed Monday and reported by The Baltimore Sun, is raising accusations from an attorney for one of the six officers charged in the Gray case that Mosby’s request shows that the autopsy is her case.

When Mosby announced charges against the officers on May 1, she said that Gray sustained a broken neck while riding in the back of a police transport van. She also said his death was ruled a homicide and that officers failed to properly restrain him and to provide him with adequate medical attention.

Gray’s autopsy was released only to Mosby’s office, as required by state law. The Baltimore police department, which was conducting a parallel investigation at the same time Mosby’s investigators were conducting one of their own, was not provided the results of the autopsy.

If Mosby’s request for the protective order is granted, only the state’s attorney’s office and defense attorneys would be allowed to view the autopsy results and any other new filings in the case.

Ivan Bates, the attorney for Alicia White, the lone female officer charged in the case, told the Sun that Mosby’s motion indicates “there is something in that autopsy report that they are trying to hide.”

“Mrs. Mosby is the one who did an announcement discussing what she said the evidence was in a nationally televised speech, and now that it is time to turn over the evidence, to ask for a protective order is beyond disingenuous,” Bates told the Sun. “It’s as if she wants to do everything to make sure our clients do not get a fair trial.”

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

Baltimore MD., City school credit, procurement cards show culture of spending

Nearly $500,000 in charges include expensive dinners, extensive travel, and student lunch at Hooter's

Jerome Oberlton, the head of the Information Technology Department, will have to personally reimburse the system $5,000 for charges school officials deemed inappropriate. (Barbara Haddock Taylor, Baltimore Sun / April 26, 2012)

Despite tightening school budgets and a perpetual rallying cry for more funding, Baltimore school administrators spent roughly $500,000 during the past year and a half on expenses such as a $7,300 office retreat at a downtown hotel, $300-per-night stays at hotels, and a $1,000 dinner at an exclusive members-only club, credit card statements show.

City school officials defend the majority of the credit card expenditures — outlined in statements and receipts obtained by The Baltimore Sun through a Maryland Public Information Act request — as "the cost of doing business," saying only a handful of "outliers" show questionable judgment or disregard for taxpayer money.

"We are working around the clock to engage our partners and move our agenda forward," said Tisha Edwards, chief of staff for the school system. "Every transaction has a business purpose in mind."

Among those transactions were a $450-per-person office retreat at the downtown Hilton, during which the 16 employees of the Information Technology Department were also treated to a $500 dinner at Brazilian steakhouse Fogo de Chao; and a $264 lunch for students at Hooter's.

A review of credit card transactions and receipts by The Sun found that the bulk of the expenditures — about $300,000, generated by 16 central office employees — were made under a new procurement-card program that has operated with virtually no controls or oversight since it began in January 2011.

Card statements show that many of the expenditures violated the school system's own protocols and restrictions for use of the cards, such as a prohibition on using them for travel or to buy gifts for employees.

Via: The Baltimore Sun

Continue Reading...