Police describe the suspects only as two Hispanic males of unknown age. If you can assist detectives in identifying either of these suspects, call police at (301) 279-8000.
Moore's move to join fellow White House aspirants Jared Polis, Ritchie Torres, and Ro Khanna in the abundance lane for 2028 is a remarkable gamble. With that being only a partial list of corporate-backed Democrats who will be crowding into that niche during the primary season, there will be much more competition for staff and donors. Recent polling has shown that "abundance" policies are not popular among Democratic and independent voters. And many prominent progressives in the party have come out strongly against the astroturfed abundance campaign.
This only complicates Moore's task in 2028. Maryland's finances have tanked during his first term, as Moore squandered a budget surplus he inherited from former Gov. Larry Hogan, and is facing a $6 billion deficit by 2030. Despite a much-trumpeted career on Wall Street, and big ticket fundraisers among late-stage capitalist titans on Martha's Vineyard and in the Hamptons, Moore has been unable to attract any major corporations to Maryland. And he has no major policy victories, even as he gears up to run for reelection next year.
That last fact makes running on the abundance agenda even more daunting for Moore. It is progressives who have the momentum and the crowds in the Democratic party right now. Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have had no trouble drawing mobs of progressives to their Fight Oligarchy tour stops, at which Sanders appears to be symbolically passing the torch to AOC. She, in turn, is clearly testing the waters for a potential 2028 presidential run. AOC's agenda may be controversial in many quarters, but she has a concrete set of policies she would seek to implement, including Medicare-for-All, repeal of the Taft-Hartley Act, a federal jobs guarantee, and free college. Even failed vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz has a record of major progressive legislative wins as governor in Minnesota.
Moore, by contrast, is fighting to...become president? He has no signature suite of policies, much less ones that have been signed into law. What legislation has passed during his term has only benefitted small identity groups, leaving out the majority of voters, or raised fees on everyone. Hogan was able to do very little with a hostile, Democrat-controlled legislature - but what little he did usually applied to everyone in the state, like blocking tax hikes and lowering bridge tolls.
That blank slate agenda, combined with abundance bro status, tags Moore as a corporate shill - an identity easy for his rivals to reinforce by emphasizing his Wall Street past, celebrity backers and tycoon associates, and his proposed giveaway of taxpayer money and prime public land to Baltimore developers. Moore would essentially be replicating the Kamala Harris "joy and excitement" campaign of late summer 2024. That didn't work out very well.
Harris had celebrities (check), billionaire friends like Mark Cuban and Michael Bloomberg [a major financial backer of the abundance movement, coincidentally] (check), and some vague promises (check) about "not going back." Not going back to what? Low inflation? Low gas prices? World peace?
Ironically, Harris and Walz had their greatest success right at the start of their brief campaign, when her selection of the Minnesota governor as running mate suggested she would be more progressive than Joe Biden, and she rolled out a short list of specific socialist promises like price fixing and giving everyone $25,000 to buy a home. The abundance neoliberals in the press and corporate boardrooms predictably lost their minds, and Harris quickly dropped the concrete policy goals, falling back on a vacuous campaign of "joy," twerking rappers, and the daughter of Uber Villain and war criminal bogeyman Dick Cheney. Progressives and the working class quickly fell off the bandwagon.
Even Moore's pal Oprah couldn't save Harris. Will appearing on Radio Abundance save a foundering Moore? Not likely. For Radio Abundance is the latest example of "every accusation is a confession." Corporations setting our regulations, and seizing power over local decisions away from citizens, is indeed "fascism coming to America."
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| Future lobby entrance |
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| Balcony view |
This means a double payday for developers. The state - a.k.a. you, the taxpayer - will have to pay rent to house thousands of government employees in privately-owned office buildings around Charm City. And, developers will acquire valuable downtown property at - based on what we've seen in previous government dispositions of real estate in Montgomery County and Maryland - discount rates, compared to the value they will realize with redevelopment as luxury apartment buildings.
Some have theorized that there are an infinite number of realities. In none of those realities is leasing market-rate office space, over 20 years, cheaper than renovating and continuing to operate buildings you own. But it is a good program for elected officials to help fill the vacant office space owned by developers who have contributed fat checks to their campaigns. It's good to have friends in high places.
The payout bonanza won't end with Maryland handing your money over to developer sugar daddies for market-rate office leases all over Baltimore. That's because a valuable cache of state-owned buildings and prime downtown land is about to be added to their portfolios at value prices.
State Center Complex: (201 W. Preston St., 300 W. Preston St., 301 W. Preston St., 100 N. Eutaw St.)
State Center has been one of the biggest ongoing development scams in Baltimore for a couple of decades. What started as one developer giveaway turned into developer lawsuits against the state when they couldn't have things their way. Then, last November, the developers got $58.5 million from you - the taxpayer - for...nothing. The Moore administration paid off the developers with nearly $60 million just to end the legal battle - a battle the state would likely have won if the case had gone to trial.
So, as a taxpayer, you're already out $58.5 million for nothing at State Center. That was just the appetizer. Here comes the main course, courtesy of Gov. Moore: the complex will still be sold off to developers, who will redevelop the site with thousands of luxury apartments.
A solid low-rise government building with parking lot. Sure to be a teardown and redevelopment for luxury apartments.
William Donald Schaefer Tower (6 St. Paul Street)
One of the tallest buildings in Baltimore, 6 St. Paul Street was only built in 1986. I was inside this building about twenty years ago, and it looked very modern and new even at that point. Now the state is claiming the building is facing "catastrophic failure?" This is a potential Trump Tower-style conversion to luxury condos, that will pay off handsomely for the developer fortunate to acquire it under a political fake "fire sale." The Maryland cartel again disrespects former Gov. Schaefer, who was treated very badly in his final years by the political machine.
310-311 W. Saratoga Street
Another prime property, right on top of the Lexington Market subway station. This guarantees maximum density will be allowed to the prospective developer, which means maximum profit.
They don't build 'em like this anymore. A prime conversion candidate for apartments, or a wasteful teardown - the option will be up to the buyer. Located right across from CFG Bank Arena (a.k.a. the Baltimore Arena). Unlike Camden Yards, you can still see the Bromo Seltzer Tower from inside 200 W. Baltimore Street. Maximum profits await!
Another "they don't make 'em like they used to" architectural gem.
The worst part of this latest corruption scheme isn't the fake, inflated claims of savings. It's that the $326 million is over twenty years, while the state is facing a potential $6 billion shortfall in 2030. Aging buildings, even assuming the state has criminally failed to properly maintain them, aren't the source of Maryland's budget woes. It is astronomical overspending that has brought us here, and the Maryland legislature made clear this spring it has no intention of stopping that anytime soon.
Our local media appears too starstruck and weak-in-the-knees around Gov. Moore to challenge him on this real estate portfolio giveaway, and massive new expenditures in leases at empty office buildings owned by developer sugar daddies. They have simply accepted the poorly-documented claims of "savings" at face value, and have chosen to parrot the governor's message of "nearly four-hundred million in savings!!!!"
Unlike the local media, let's follow the money in the coming months and years. What will the sale prices of the government buildings be, compared to their true market value? Who will acquire them, and how much have they donated to Gov. Moore, Comptroller Brooke Lierman, and members of the legislature?
Montgomery County elected officials have been giving away County-owned properties at discount rates - and sometimes even for free (!!) - for many years this century. Conversely, they are glad to overpay for rents in private office space owned by their developer sugar daddies (witness the Board of Education's move from a building owned by Montgomery County Public Schools into a glossy new office building, despite MCPS owning numerous vacant school buildings and other properties across the county. And just this week, the County government revealed it purchased a bank property in Olney that mysteriously gained over $1 million in value just since 2021, an additional cost the County was delighted to pay with taxpayer funds.
Also interesting: Just four years ago, Capital One sold the property to a shell company called "SpartanGeorgia, LLC" for only $1,306,000. Whoever is behind the shell company made a significant profit of over $1 million, thanks to you, the taxpayer. Public notice of the purchase was published in The Washington Times, meaning very few residents would have seen it.
A candid and frank report in the Blake student newspaper last year noted an increase in marijuana use by Blake students, citing the legalization of marijuana for recreational use as having boosted its availability. "You’ll almost always catch a whiff of marijuana walking down certain halls," the article noted. "With the legalization of the drug, more and more students indulge for no other reason than because they can. Marijuana consumption has affected Blake in many ways; bathrooms get locked, hall passes are cut down, and students aren’t as focused and ready to learn more than usual."
You have to ask yourself why your elected officials want you - and your kids - zonked out on drugs. There aren't any answers to that question that would reflect well on our politicians. Heckuva job, Brownie!
