Maryland Muckraker

06/10/2023

"We see a heavy influence of Baltimore”

Carroll State’s Attorney Haven Shoemaker and Sheriff Jim DeWees both voiced their frustration with the forces from outside the county that work against law enforcement in it, while a new poll shows that black Democrats in Maryland want stricter penalties for criminals than white ones do — all pa...

02/10/2023

Hahn explained “We are not trying to ban books, we just want material in our schools to be educational and age-appropriate.”

Harford County Board of Education Vice President Melissa Hahn recently confirmed there are age-inappropriate books available in Harford County public school libraries for middle and high school students, despite many out there claiming otherwise. She said the below six books are indeed still accessi...

25/09/2023

“Those are things we will not be going back to”

New Carroll County Commissioners Mike Guerin and Joe Vigliotti both recently confirmed their position against a return to mandating masks and COVID vaccines for county government employees, a view that contrasts with the policies of the previous Commissioners who were comparatively hawkish on the me...

12/09/2023

Johns Hopkins accused of denying gender-affirming surgery to trans-woman who was 'being aggressive': https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/johns-hopkins-accused-of-denying

31/08/2023

First books reviewed by CCPS to be retained, but now Media Director appears reassigned: https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/first-books-reviewed-by-ccps-to-be

30/08/2023

Domotor resists appointments of CAMO members to town commissions in Mt. Airy https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/domotor-resists-appointments-of-camo

14/08/2023

Jozkowski, Zepp speak out against book removals requested by Moms for Liberty https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/jozkowski-zepp-speak-out-against

05/08/2023

On Twitter, err X, now
https://twitter.com/MD_Muckraker

31/07/2023

'Media bu****it': Jason Aldean thanks sold-out Merriweather crowd for seeing through it. https://rb.gy/ea3bh

26/07/2023

93.1 WPOC has only played Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" once today, at 1:52am (middle of the night).

It is the #1 country song in America right now according to Billboard, & Aldean is scheduled to perform at Merriweather Post Pavilion tomorrow.

Luke Combs's "Fast Car", the #3 song, has been played four times today, at 8:06am, 10:33am, 1:20pm, & 4:00pm.

Tyler Hubbard's "Dancin' In The Country" has also been played four times today, at 8:35am, 11:19am, 1:54pm, & 3:50pm.

Baltimore's leading country music station is underplaying Aldean's tune about small town values. When they do play it, it is in the middle of the night.

More details here:
https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/baltimores-biggest-country-music

Data sourced from:
https://wpoc.iheart.com/music/recently-played/

25/07/2023

Of the 4 times the song has been played in the last 7 days, 3 were in the middle of the night

93.1 WPOC, Baltimore’s biggest country music station & its second rated radio station overall, is measurably suppressing what has been the #1 song in America, Jason Aldean’s “Try That In A Small Town”, according to public data visible on the local iHeartRadio affiliate’s website

21/07/2023

Where Dan Rodricks can find fascism & censorship in Carroll County: https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/where-dan-rodricks-can-find-fascism

07/07/2023

Sykesville “filled with immense pride” during 4th of July weekend parade: https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/sykesville-filled-with-immense-pride

04/07/2023

Was at the Moms For Liberty National Summit in Philadelphia on Friday.

After seeing Trump & DeSantis up close, my main takeaway was this:

Trump stole the show and it makes DeSantis look overmatched.

Last year it was DeSantis who was the toast of the Summit in Tampa after co-founding Moms & fellow Floridians Tiffany Justice & Tina Descovich awarded the Governor a “Liberty Sword” for his success liberating students in the sunshine state from lockdowns & woke ideology while championing the emerging parental rights movement nationwide.

Governor DeSantis & Moms For Liberty appeared in lockstep, poised to export the policies & ideas that made covid-era Florida great to the remainder of the country still suffering under complete progressive institutional capture.

One Florida politics beat writer reacted at the time saying the Summit “had the feel of a DeSantis campaign event”.

There was no such feeling Friday. Trump captured the energy that was DeSantis’s to lose.

It was Trump who spoke as the evening keynote after hours of anticipation heightened by a secret service security sweep & a long shoulder-to-shoulder entry-line through a metal detector bursting with eager fans like so many recent Taylor Swift concerts, while DeSantis was relegated to a comparatively lull prior morning session after a brisk stroll right in.

It was Trump who the popular Florida congressman Byron Donalds declared would be the next president from the elevated podium draped in American flags, while DeSantis was without a comparably capable hype-man to be the alley to his oop.

And it was Trump whose trademark one-liners & zingers drew the crowd to excited applause over and over again while DeSantis’s faster pace of speech leaves less time for onlookers to just let loose & get lost in the moment with cheer.

DeSantis did indirectly accuse Trump of overpromising & underdelivering a time or two during his morning speech, but on the day after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action & just hours after they ruled in favor of religious liberty & free speech, the barb fell flat.

If last year’s Summit was DeSantis’s backyard barbecue, this year Trump showed up & started flipping the burgers.

And though calling DeSantis’s alpha quality into question is crass & oversimple, as Logan Roy recently put it, the fictional conservative media titan at the center of HBO’s hit show ‘Succession’: “sometimes, it is a big d*ck competition”.

That seems especially true when the rival at issue is the hulking Donald J Trump.

23/06/2023

Scoop: Tonight the Carroll County Republican Central Committee of Maryland elected Sam Jones to fill the seat vacated by the outgoing Deb Thomas

Other candidates included: Alan Grasley, Bryan Thompson, Ray Fava, Robin Frazier, & Rod Harrison

31/05/2023

Boy enters girls bathroom at Century High School: https://www.mdmuckraker.com/p/boy-enters-girls-bathroom-at-century

08/05/2023

"April had lots of activities popping up all around Carroll County in our schools. Students from all around the county have been preparing for months for the opportunity to show off their memory skills. Whether it was remember book characters or becoming a character, book battles and drama productions took center stage."

April had lots of activities popping up all around Carroll County in our schools. Students from all around the county have been preparing for months for the opportunity to show off their memory skills. Whether it was remember book characters or becoming a character, book battles and drama production...

25/04/2023

"He concluded, saying constitutional principles matter, and a message accordingly always achieves something, as he channeled a verse from the book of Isaiah which says that God’s word when spoken out never returns void."

On Saturday morning, Senator Justin Ready and the entire Carroll delegation briefed County Republicans on the extreme legislative session that wrapped up on April 10th, during a breakfast hosted by Republican Central Committee Chair Joe Leeman at the Winfield Fire Hall in Sykesville.

21/04/2023

"When deliberation started on the recreational cannabis facilities, Commissioner Joe Vigliotti promptly called for zero on-site consumption..."

Michael R. Guerin, Carroll County Commissioner - District 4
Joe Vigliotti, Carroll County Commissioner, District 1

On Thursday, Carroll’s Board of County Commissioners conversed at length about how the County may handle the local zoning aspect of a new State law mandating that recreational cannabis dispensaries and groweries be allowed to operate in all parts of the state, even in localities where residents do...

20/04/2023

"Local elected officials are much more than narrow policy makers ensuring the trash gets picked up on time. They are influencers, deal makers, and culture setters.

The events they attend, the organizations they associate with, and the keywords they use in public speech and private conversation are all an expression of values that mold the community in the aggregate..."

With three seats on the Westminster Common Council up for grabs come election day on May 9th, three incumbent Council Members seeking reelection are being positioned as something of a slate to box out a fourth candidate hoping to pluck one of the three seats for himself.

12/04/2023

President Julia Jasken said she wants the “lens of DEIJ applied to every initiative” in her college’s plan because they have learned that the work of diversity is “never done”.

In October, McDaniel announced that their thirty-six member Board of Trustees voted unanimously to endorse the college’s five year strategic plan that holistically integrates diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ), into the fabric of the small liberal arts college that sits high atop a h...

04/04/2023

"...the Director of Equity and Inclusion at the prestigious McDonogh School in Owings Mills, reacted by sending an email to all upper school students where she expresses concern that a resulting increase in societal transphobia may cause more transphobic speech on the campus of the secular private school where tuition is some $38,000 per year."

Last week, after a transgender person murdered six people including three 9-year-olds at a Presbyterian school and church in Nashville, the Director of Equity and Inclusion at the prestigious McDonogh School in Owings Mills, reacted by sending an email to all upper school students where she expresse...

03/04/2023

"From special fundraisers, reading activities, and drug prevention awareness, there is no lack of school and community events popping up all over Carroll County."

The spring season is finally here. Even though there was a lack of snow (personally I don’t care for the snow), there were lots of activities in March across Carroll County Public Schools (CCPS), and even more to come. From special fundraisers, reading activities, and drug prevention awareness, th...

27/03/2023

“As the victim was 17 years old at the time of the communications, although they were highly immoral and morally repugnant, Ms. Speert did not commit a criminal act. Had the victim been below the age of 16, (even if she had been 15 years and 364 days old) the analysis would have been totally different.”

Katie Speert, the twenty-something Founder and Executive Director of the Westminster youth non-profit Together We Own It, who last year ran for Carroll County Board of Education but bowed out when her organization secured a moneyed contract with Carroll County Public Schools, has been named as the s...

25/03/2023

'It is at least the second time the statewide organization has quoted the muckraking English pamphleteer who triggered the American revolution, the first being a billboard in Eldersburg last year that read: “If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace”.'

Conservative author Ryan Anderson deconstructs the transgender craze

20/03/2023

"Cullison confirmed that yes, a penectomy can be reversed: 'Surgeons currently reconstruct pen*ses all the time for folks who identify as male and want to have that organ, or if it was damaged in some way, so yes it is possible'."

Why Aldous Huxley would be proud

13/03/2023

I went deep undercover this weekend to see it all for myself:

There must have been 200 people there

09/03/2023

“I make a motion to preserve the Flat Iron building” she concluded. And when the Council agreed, applause broke out in the room.

Marking a win for the Flat Iron Task Force

04/03/2023

"Potentially catching the developer in non-compliance with County code was Kathy Martin, who read aloud the regulations governing self-storage facilities, one of which requires them to be screened from view offsite so as not to be an eyesore all the time. “I would like to know how you plan to screen from view a structure that is on a hill, that is fifty feet tall”, she asked, drawing immediate applause."

Skyscraping storage facility is under contract to be built

26/02/2023

"Mt. Airy is a small town where big things are happening. A Town Council in open opposition to its Mayor. A Task Force set on saving a historic building from the heap. A local residents group resisting a series of landscape changing overdevelopments. And a looming municipal election that could change the trajectory of it all. "

A small town where big things are happening

25/02/2023

From Tara Battaglia-Carroll County Board of Education member on Maryland Muckraker, Carroll County students moving full STEAM ahead: ·

Students moving full STEAM ahead

20/02/2023

May their new home always have bread, wine, and salt:

Bread, wine, and salt for this new home

16/02/2023

Ed Rothstein Carroll County Commissioner - District 5 lashes out at Carroll County Observer for doing volunteer journalism, asking reasonable and obvious questions:

Resorting to personal attacks means Observer is onto something

14/02/2023

"In June of last year, when Carroll County’s Family Life Advisory Committee decided to reduce the County health curriculum’s focus on gender identity and systemic oppression, the Maryland State Board of Education forced them to make it a focus anyway."

Local autonomy continues to erode

06/02/2023

Annapolis comes to Westminster

30/01/2023

When a Maryland company with a serious mission adopts a culture of silliness:

Hank becomes Helga

27/01/2023

Howard County, where the grass may not be greener, but is certainly more rainbow colored:

Judith Jones presumably received the news warmly

25/01/2023

Looking for writers to work on a recently acquired entertainment news website that will be adopting a red-state / conservative point-of-view on culture.

Property was once owned by a publicly traded communications company, and is supported by pages with >10M followers in aggregate.

Is a good opportunity for someone just starting out, re-entering the workforce, or who otherwise wants to break into writing / media.

Property is now owned by the same company that partially sold OutKick by Clay Travis to Fox News in 2021.

Brought someone on last week who was a connection through local politics.

Is paid work, either by article, or can work out something full-time / near full-time with a salary etc.

Welcome to direct message Maryland Muckraker if know anyone.

21/01/2023

Senator Justin Ready and Moms for Liberty - Carroll County, MD collaborate on new Parental Bill of Rights coming to the Maryland General Assembly.

"He described the concept of a message bill, one you introduce to express certain values with the intention of swaying the conversation over the long haul, of shifting the Overton window."

And a gender ideology summit comes to Sykesville

10/01/2023

Another instance of Diversity & Equity institutional capture in Maryland's public school system, all predicated on the loose notion of "hate speech":

Plus: Fentanyl seized in Westminster enough to kill entire County