Repealing LEOBR and Montgomery County Community Solar
In this Episode, Vito takes a look at how repealing the Law Enforcement Officer’s Bill of Rights is going in Maryland and how Community Solar didn’t quite get the start we needed in Montgomery County.
Opioid-related deaths in Montgomery County increased 34% through the first quarter of 2020. Experts attribute the increase to pandemic related stressors and lack of access to treatment due to pandemic shutdowns.
According to preliminary data provided by the Vital Statistics Administration (VSA) of the Maryland Department of Health (MDH), there were significant increases in unintentional intoxication fatalities related to nearly all major drug categories in Maryland through the second calendar quarter of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has very likely contributed to and compounded these trends. Taken together, the associated social isolation, disruptions of support, impeded access to care, and economic distress have helped to create an extremely dangerous environment for those suffering from substance use disorder (SUD).
UPDATE: The Board of Education has asked the SRO Workgroup to reconvene given the concerns raised by 6 members of the workgroup. The Workgroup was tasked with seeking out community input and will reissue their recommendations in May. However, they did not address the composition of the workgroup, which is fundamentally flawed and biased towards the SRO program.
In a letter posted to Moco Against Brutality’s Twitter account, 6 members of the MCPS BOE workgroup to study School Resource Officers state that the workgroup was “flawed and oppressive,” stating that:
“Signed onto this letter are 6 members of the MCPS SRO Workgroup. We wish to bring your attention to the flawed and oppressive nature of the Workgroup, which we believe was not effective in its task of crafting representative, informed, and accurate recommendations and findings regarding the School Resource Officer Program. We found that by the design of the Workgroup, its composition was heavily skewed, our perspectives were actively ignored, and the appropriate data was not considered, leading to the failure of the Workgroup to complete its goal outlined in the June 11th memorandum.”
The workgroup members outlined several issues with the Workgroup, including:
only 5 members of the 25 were students of color, 20 were adults most of whom were biased favorably towards SRO programs, and of those 20, 7 were law enforcement officers
only pro-SRO articles were reviewed, not empirical evidence or studies that were more critical of SRO programs
calls for discussions for alternatives to SRO programs were ignored
It is incredibly disingenuous of the MCPS BOE to create a Workgroup primarily of individuals that have no stake in the outcomes of the School Resource Officer program, and further outrageous that so many members of law enforcement, who have a vested interest in keeping the SRO program as is. To say that this is disappointing is an understatement. MCPS and the Board of Education has failed, again, students of color.
The individuals signed onto the letter are urging the County Council to not use the recommendations presented to them by the MCPS Workgroup.
See the two-page letter below.
If you feel that this helped you in any way, consider buying MoCo Local a coffee or beer. You can do so through Venmo (@Vito-Anastasia).
The lawsuit against Montgomery County’s most recent indoor dining ban brought by the Restaurant Association of Maryland with several local restaurants signing on as Plaintiffs will be heard on Wednesday.
Despite contact tracing data showing that many cases within Montgomery County have come from indoor dining, as well as additional data and guidance from the CDC and elsewhere, these restaurants argue that there isn’t sufficient evidence to warrant indoor dining closure.
The restaurants who have signed on in the lawsuit are:
Silver Diner – Multiple locations
Outta the Way Cafe in Rockville
Gringos & Mariachis – Multiple locations
Olazzo – Multiple locations
Duck Duck Goose in Rockville
Trattoria Sorrento in Takoma Park
Social Heights Restaurant, LLC which owns Tommy Joe’s in Bethesda
DTI, LLC which includes restaurants like Cava Mezze
Medium Rare in Bethesda
Il Pizzico in Rockville
BTI Hospitality, LLC which includes owns Julii
Coty Group, LLC, Quincy Group, LLC, The Rat Pack of MD, LLC, The Rat Pack of MD II, LLC which owns Quincy’s South in Rockville
Bassett’s Restaurant in Poolesville
Raw Bar LLC in Baltimore
The Barking Dog in Bethesda
Potomac Pizza in Chevy Chase, Potomac, and Traville
Clementine Cafe in Chevy Chase
D.G. Holdings which owns Raku in Bethesda
Sheger Spring Cafe in Silver Spring
Palisades Lounge in Silver Spring
Barrell and Crow in Kensington
JMGM Group LLC which owns Dogfish Head Alehouse in Gaithersburg
Clare, Inc which owns Lahinch Tavern in Potomac
Unique Asset, LLC which owns Persimmon in Bethesda
While 35 restaurants in the county have signed onto the lawsuit as Plaintiffs, only a few are currently known: Tommy Joe’s in Bethesda, Duck Duck Goose in Bethesda, and Seibel’s Restaurant and UpTown Pub in Burtonsville.
If you feel that this helped you in any way, consider buying MoCo Local a coffee or beer. You can do so through Venmo (@Vito-Anastasia).
If you receive SNAP benefits in Maryland, you can now use the service. You will need to have a debit or credit card attached to your account to pay for taxes, any non SNAP-eligible items, the delivery fee, and any driver tips.
To successfully use your EBT card, a credit or debit card must also be linked to your Instacart account to cover fees, bottle deposits in some states, taxes, delivery tips, and any other non-EBT SNAP-eligible items you may want to purchase.
COVID-19 Exposure Notifications are now available for Maryland. The notification system is an API developed by Apple and Google in conjunction with health departments to help alert individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19. For privacy reasons, these alerts are turned off by default but you can turn them on if you’d like to be notified.
On iOS, go to Settings -> Exposure Notifications
On Android, go to Settings -> Google -> COVID-19 Exposure Notifications
Shebra Evans has won re-election to the Board of Education District 4 seat over challenger Steve Solomon by 80,169 votes. This was the highest margin between two candidates in any of the Board of Education races this year.
The race for the District 2 seat in the Montgomery County Board of Education race saw the least amount of total votes across all of the Board of Education races showing that voters weren’t really excited to vote for either candidate. Unofficial vote counts show that Rebecca Smondrowski beat challenger Michael Fryar by 51,799 votes to win re-election to the District 2 seat.
The Montgomery County Board of Education race was one of the most controversial races I’ve ever seen in local politics. Two of the pro-equity candidates moved on from the Primary, Sunil Dasgupta and Lynne Harris. Unofficial vote counts were released by the Montgomery County Board of Elections last night showing that Lynne Harris has won by 23,280 votes.
