Delegate Tiffany Alston, who has been fighting a legal battle against charges she used campaign funds to pay for her wedding, was stripped of her bar license by the Maryland Court of Appeals today. In a ruling today the court upheld the ruling from a lower court that said Alston expedited “repeated lack of cooperation and the continual habit of lateness, non-responsiveness, and dilatory practices.” The ruling was in response to charges she faced for mismanagement of funds dealing with one of her clients. After a complaint Alston was ordered to pay that client $5,000, about half of what she was paid. According to court documents she has yet to do so.
Earlier this year Alston was found guilty of using money for her official office to pay a staff member working in her law firm. The judge in that case postponed sentencing until after her final trail on the campaign funding case. Following sentencing it is likely Alston will be removed from her seat in the House of Delegates she was elected to in 2010.
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Earlier today subscribers to updates from the PGCPS Board of Education received the following email from Henry Armwood:
On Monday, August 20, we will kick off the 2012-13 school year. I am excited about what this year has in store for students and families.Our county schools are moving in the right direction, both inside and outside of the classroom. Elementary and middle school performance on the Maryland School Assessment have greatly improved since 2008 in math and reading. Our Secondary School Reforminitiative will expand to more schools this year to fulfill our goal of preparing students for college and careers.
Enjoy these last few days of summer vacation. I hope to see you at the Back to School Fair on Saturday, August 18. If you have any questions, feel free to reach me at henry.armwood@pgcps.org.
Then we received the following email from Vice Chair Peggy Higgins:
On Monday, August 20, we will kick off the 2012-13 school year. I am excited about what this year has in store for students and families. Our county schools are moving in the right direction, both inside and outside of the classroom. Elementary and middle school performance on the Maryland School Assessment have greatly improved since 2008 in math and reading. Our Secondary School Reforminitiative will expand to more schools this year to fulfill our goal of preparing students for college and careers.
Enjoy these last few days of summer vacation. I hope to see you at the Back to School Fair on Saturday, August 18. If you have any questions, feel free to reach me at peggy.higgins@pgcps.org.
Subscribers also received identical emails from Carolyn Boston, Amber Waller, and Rosalind Johnson.
Someone would have to explain to us how a 13 person department, four of whom directly are responsible for communications or outreach, couldn’t write specific updates for these board members tailored directly to the communities they represent. In fact maybe someone can inform us why the board members themselves, who should have insight about changes coming to schools in their area. Peggy Higgins for instance represents Greenbelt. Middle school students at Greenbelt Middle School are going into a new $32 million dollar building this fall. No mention of that in her letter. Rosalind Johnson is stepping down from the Board of Education in December. This fall will be the last school opening for her. No mention of that in her letter.
We know there are some who would say give the Board credit. Patricia Eubanks, Verjeana Jacobs, and Edward Burroughs didn’t even send welcome back letters. However this is not even trying.
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The conservative blog Red Maryland has done a very detailed and stunning investigation on the finances of Prince George’s Executive Rushern Baker. If their report is proven to be true, Mr. Baker may have a lot of questions to answer.
Public documents show Prince George’s County Executive Rushern Baker did not answer county financial disclosure forms accurately.
And Mr. Baker, a lawyer in a very public state political fight to bring an $800 million casino to National Harbor, won’t explain why. He did not respond to multiple requests to answer questions about the 2010 and 2011 forms as well as inquiries about his campaign finance disclosures and prior work experience.
That Mr. Baker, whose predecessor Jack Johnson is serving time in federal prison for bribery, would not do everything in his power to clean up the image of county politics sullied by the continuing corruption scandals tied to Mr. Johnson is surprising. Most recently, news broke in May that the county spent hundreds of thousands to settle a lawsuit from a developer alleging a large bribery scheme involving county officials.
To read more about the article yourself and view their supporting documents go to their site at http://redmaryland.blogspot.com/
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Maryland PSC Schedules Derecho Storm Hearings Commission to Hear from Customers and Utilities
Meeting in Prince George’s County will be held Wednesday, August 8th 7:00PM
Prince George’s Community College – Rennie Forum
(Baltimore)—The Maryland Public Service Commission will convene a series of hearings as part of its review of the performance of Maryland’s electric utilities in connection with the widespread power outages after the June 29, 2012, Derecho storm. Legislative-style hearings are scheduled for Thursday, September 13, 2012, and Friday, September 14, 2012 (if needed), to review the major outage event reports, which will be filed by the applicable electric distribution utilities. These hearings will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the Commission’s 16th Floor Hearing Room, William Donald Schaefer Tower, 6 St. Paul Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202.
In addition, eight evening public hearings will be held during August 2012 in the service territories of Baltimore Gas and Electric Company, Potomac Electric Power Company, Potomac Edison Company and Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative, Inc. The
Commission will issue a notice identifying the dates and locations of the public evening hearings as soon as possible.
“We have scheduled the public hearings in advance of the hearings with the utility companies so that we can hear customers’ concerns and use that information as we question the utilities and evaluate their storm reports,” says Commission Chairman
Douglas R.M. Nazarian.
Written public comments in this proceeding may be submitted by September 10, 2012, to David J. Collins, Executive Secretary, Maryland Public Service Commission, William Donald Schaefer Tower, 6 St. Paul Street, 16th Floor, Baltimore, Maryland 21202, and
should reference Case 9298. Individuals who wish to review filings related to this matter may enter the case number in the Case Search window on the Commission’s website, http://www.psc.state.md.us.
Verjeana Jacobs, chair of the Prince George’s County Board of Education, released the following public service announcement in the hopes of getting community support and input in the search for the next superintendent of schools.
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Purpose: Fill vacancy on the Prince George’s County Board of Elections Democratic Alternate Position.
All interested applicants should bring 30 copies of your resume and submit a letter in-person regarding your interest to serve on the Board of Elections as a Democrat member.
Please contact Norma Lindsay for more information at 240-882-0385
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Today the leaders of the Prince George’s County Young Democrats went on the offensive to capture the four seats on the Board of Education they endorsed candidates in. Before the April primary PGCYD supported David Murray in District 1, Micah Watson in District 4, Raheela Ahmed in District 5, and the reelection of Edward Burroughs in District 8. All of these candidates won huge in the primary and appear to be on the path to winning in November. With that in mind the board majority, led by chairwoman Verjeana Jacobs who will face off against Raheela Ahmed, the sister of the newly elected Student Board Member, has sought to limit the influence of future students elected to represent their peers. That all came to a head at the last board meeting when Faith Jackson, the outgoing Student Board Member, sought to engage in the tradition of passing the torch to her successor. The board said no and…well Faith set them straight. Watch her farewell speech below. We will just say, the speech was so powerful that Faith’s photo was immediately removed from the board’s website after the meeting, something that historically didn’t happen until the new Student Board Member is sworn in. That won’t happen until August.
Also stay tuned for more from that meeting. We are still getting information on the behind the scenes Executive Session that was held previous to this public session.
Letter from PGCYD President Larry Stafford
Dear Friends,
As you read this, there is a battle brewing in Prince George’s. It’s a battle for our county’s schools, and therefore a battle for the future of young people in the place we call home. Recently immediate past student member of the board, Faith Jackson, stood up against the forces that oppose progress in our county’s schools and police were summoned and she was threatened with arrest for her actions.
In her final address to the public as student board member,(which you can watch here) Faith declared “Prince George’s County Public Schools will not advance from second from the bottom until my colleagues either remove the politics or remove themselves.” Unfortunately, Faith’s colleagues have refused to remove the politics, and they will not remove themselves.
On April 3rd 2012, the tectonic plates of Prince George’s County’s political landscape began to shift. Every incumbent member of the Board of Education on the ballot for re-election minus one (who happens to be one of the progressive agents of change on the board) finished second in their races. They each were beaten by much younger and less well known candidates. This has sent shockwaves through the political establishment.
We must elect Edward Burroughs, Raaheela Ahmed, David Murray, and Micah Watson because the citizens of Prince George’s County are tired of an education system that does not put students first. Many of those who will vote in November do not know about the role of the Board of Education, or that several of its members are obstacles in the way of progress for our schools. Some of the same board members are betting on this to keep them in office in November. It’s going to take a strong grassroots campaign to spread the word about what’s going on and to move our schools forward.
Last week we published a story that was actually written much earlier about the focus the Prince George’s County Council would have this week on health. Issues around improving the access to quality health care has been a top concern of many in the county, so we were naturally very impressed to see our elected officials discussing it. unfortunately our story contained a number of significant errors. When we noticed them we wanted to fix them as soon as possible, but it was only Saturday that I received power back to my home. That is no excuse and on behalf of this blog, I apologize.
Tonight the members of the Prince George’s County Council, sitting as the Board of Health will convene a town hall on health at Harmony Hall in southern county. Dr. Joseph Wright, a consultant to the Board of Health will moderate the panel that includes Acting Health Officer Ms. Creekmur, Deputy Health Officer Dr. Ernest Carter and Deputy Health Officer Elana Belon-Butler. Some have pointed out that Ms. Creekmur is not a MD but a nurse and that is correct, but was not reported as such in our original post. They will also be joined by Dimensions Healthcare President/CEO Neil Moore and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Carnell Cooper.
Tomorrow the County Council will meet to review the nomination of Ms. Creekmur as Health Officer, the post she has acted in since Executive Rushern Baker named her last year. This was also mistakenly reported to occur today. That hearing will be tomorrow, Tuesday, July 10th at 10AM. This is a public hearing so anyone interested in testifying should contact the Clerk of the Council.
For about two years we have attempted to share with our community news about the events and issues impacting Prince George’s County. We normally get it right. On this issue we got it wrong. We apologize and will work to be better. Finally some who saw the previous inaccurate report blamed council staff and members of the county administration for “purposefully spreading false information”, that was not the case. The error in our blog is ours alone and should not be placed on the Executive, County Council, our the Department of Health.
Editor-in-Chief
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On Monday the Prince George’s County Council will be the Board of Health for most of the day. Starting at 10AM the body will meet as the council for a public hearing on Executive Rushern Baker’s nominee to be the next Health Officer. Dr. Pamela Creekmur has been serving as Acting Health Officer since Baker replaced the former head who was appointed under Jack Johnson earlier this year. That hearing will take place at the County Administrative Building in Upper Marlboro.
Individuals wishing to testify will need to sign up with the Council Clerk before the hearing.
Later that same day Dr. Creekmur will be joined by two of her deputies Dr. Ernest Carter and Elana Butler for a town hall on health in the county. The town hall will be moderated by Dr. Joseph Wright, Senior Vice President of Children’s National Medical Center. Built as a “comprehensive community conversation about the state of healthcare in Prince George’s County,” the trio of health officers will be joined by Neil Moore, President/CEO of Dimensions Health Care and Dr. Carnell Cooper, the Chief Medical Officer for Dimensions. Dimensions is the system that operates the Prince George’s Health Care centers.
This event will take place on Monday July 9th at 7PM at Harmony Hall in Fort Washington.
Monday, July 9th
7:00PM – 9:00PM
Harmony Hall
Regional Center
10701 Livingston Road
Fort Washington, MD 20744
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Because of widespread outages that remain across the region, the Prince George’s County Public Schools (which are in summer session) and the DC Public Schools will all be closed tomorrow. In Prince George’s County this also includes the administrative offices.
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