Tag Archives: Baltimore Maryland

Protecting The Public From Fraud

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On Sunday, Townhall posted an article about the recent success of a combination of the U.S. Secret Service, alongside local law enforcement and state agency partners in ending a credit card skimming operation in Baltimore, Maryland.

The article reports:

Personnel visited 493 businesses and removed 22 illegal skimming devices, preventing an estimated potential loss of nearly $22.9 million. More than 3,000 point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs were inspected.

Teams also distributed educational materials about Electronic Benefit Transfer fraud and skimming to businesses to help them better identify the warning signs of illegal skimming devices in their point-of-sale terminals, gas pumps and ATMs.

This outreach operation was conducted by the U.S. Secret Service, along with the Annapolis Police Department, Baltimore Police Department, Bel Air Police Department, Cecil County Sheriff’s Office, Harford County Sheriff’s Office and Howard County Police Department. Personnel from the Maryland Department of Human Services also took part in the operation.

The article concludes:

EBT fraud targets the nation’s most vulnerable communities. Each month, money is deposited into government assistance accounts intended to help families pay for food and other basic items. This enables criminals who steal card information to time their fraudulent withdrawals and purchases around the monthly deposits.

There are several precautions consumers can take to protect themselves:
• Inspect ATMs, point-of-sale terminals and other card readers. Look for anything loose, crooked, damaged, or scratched. Do not use a card reader if anything appears unusual.
• Whenever possible, use tap-to-pay technology or use debit and credit cards with chip technology.
• If using a debit card at a gas station, run it as a credit card to avoid entering a PIN number. If that is not an option, consumers should use their hand to hide their PIN to block scammers who may be using tiny pinhole cameras above the keypad area to record entries. Use ATMs in a well-lit, indoor location, which are less vulnerable targets.
• Be alert for skimming devices in tourist areas, which are popular targets.

Being an alert consumer can save you a lot of money and hassle!

When Education Fails

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Most of us are aware of the failure of our public education system to educate our children and prepare them to be successful in life. As we continue to point out the failure, we need to find a solution to something has been a problem for at least a generation.

On Saturday, Zero Hedge reported:

President Trump’s executive order earlier this year to dismantle the Department of Education comes as the president highlighted a disturbing and inconvenient truth about Baltimore City’s Democratic Party-run “failure factory” school system: 40% of public high schools have zero students proficient in math. This damning statistic follows eight years of Fox45 investigative reporter Chris Papst’s coverage of the crime-ridden city’s education crisis. Keep in mind, the metro area is mainly controlled by leftists at City Hall, with virtually no diversity when it comes to Republicans holding positions of power.

A new report by Papst released this past week may catch the White House’s attention, highlighting yet another inconvenient truth about the stunning failure of Baltimore City Public Schools in terms of academic outcomes, proving that simply throwing more taxpayer funds at the problem is not a viable solution.

The article concludes:

Baltimore is an easy layup for the White House to convey to the American people during the Midterm election cycle just how terribly the Democratic Party has transformed once vibrant cities across America into what the president describes as “hellholes.”

What are the consequences of a failing education system? People who graduate from high school without basic skills in mathematics and English have a difficult time finding jobs. If they find jobs, chances are that they are low-paying and below what is needed to enjoy the basic necessities of life. This easily leads to discouragement and a search for other options to raise money–some of which may not be legal.

Improving our schools would be a step toward a safer, more productive society. Someone who knows that they need to be rested and sharp at their job in the morning is less likely to be out robbing people or stealing things in the middle of the night. I don’t want a federal takeover of education–we have already tried and failed at that. What I do want is for voters to hold every city’s leadership accountable for the condition of its schools.

The Carrot And The Stick

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President Trump’s move to place the National Guard has had a mixed reaction. The residents of the parts of the city where crime has been a problem are now enjoying the downward trend in crime. Those who were not impacted by the high crime have enjoyed the luxury of criticizing the move. Washington, D.C., is a unique case–because it is under federal jurisdiction, the President has the authority to send in the National Guard. Whether or not he has that authority in other high-crime cities is questionable. However, one Governor is willing to discuss the issue (on his terms).

On Thursday, Red State reported:

President Donald Trump has found massive success in the nation’s capital with cutting crime after the federalization of law enforcement in D.C., and now Maryland’s Democrat Governor Wes Moore admits he would love Trump’s help on crime. But there’s a catch.

Speaking to Fox News’ Will Cain on “The Will Cain Show,” Moore was asked why he wouldn’t welcome the “President of the United States” to help with crime in Maryland, with Baltimore ranking “third in the nation in violent crime rate per capita.”

“The truth isn’t partisan, and the truth is most of the major cities in the United States are run by Democrat governors,” the Fox News host added. “And they are also the highest-rate crime cities in the country.”

“I would absolutely welcome federal support,” the Democrat governor said.

Moore’s response clearly shocked Cain, who said, “There we go. You would welcome the federal support. That’s wonderful to hear. I’m sure the president will be happy to hear that.”

The two men ended up mostly talking over each other, making it hard to hear what they were saying. However, it sounded like Moore said that while he would “absolutely welcome the federal support,” there was a big “but” in there, that it was going to be on his terms.

Moore would accept federal support, but this is the catch:

“But I also know what federal support is going to be necessary and required,” the governor said. “It’s the reason that I said we would love to have additional support for license plate readers. Things that we know can actually stop crimes as they are happening, and making sure the people are brought to justice.”

License plate readers are not the answer. The public does not need every move they made surveilled by the government. I believe that license plate readers are a violation of the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution. This is simply another example of Democrats wanting to control the movements of everyday Americans.

This Might Be Part Of The ‘Wealth Gap’ Problem

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On Saturday, The New York Post posted an article about students in Baltimore, Maryland, schools and their mathematics test scores.

The article reports:

Something doesn’t add up.

None of the students at 40% of Baltimore’s public high schools tested proficient on the state math exam given this past spring — with a staggering three-quarters earning the lowest possible score, an alarming report revealed this week.

At 13 of the school district’s 32 public high schools, 1,295 students of the 1,736 who took the exams scored a 1 out of 4, meaning they were nowhere close to proficiency, Fox 45 reported.

“This is educational homicide,” Jason Rodriguez, deputy director of the Baltimore-based nonprofit People Empowered by the Struggle, told the outlet.

The results were shockingly low even at the city’s top high schools, where just 92 students, or 11.4% of the 809 students who took the exam, tested proficient, the outlet later found.

This is obviously an education problem, but is it also a cultural problem? Have we stopped teaching children that they need certain skills to prosper in life? How many of these students assume that they will be supported by social programs all of their lives and really don’t need an education or need to get a job? How many of these students are growing up in families that encourage them to do well in school and support those efforts?

We know from the story of Ben Carson that growing up poor in a one-parent family does not mean a life of little accomplishment and lots of poverty. Most of us have heard the story of Ben Carson’s illiterate mother requiring Ben and his brother to read a book every week and give her a book report. They had no idea that she couldn’t read the reports.

Our schools need to do better, but so do our parents and our culture. Doing well in school shouldn’t be a negative thing in any culture, and we need to make sure that it is not. The parents and the community can turn this around if they choose to.

This Really Isn’t A Surprise

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On Wednesday The Washington Free Beacon posted an article about a recent poll in Maryland.

The article reports:

According to internal polling obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, 88 percent of black voters support Maryland governor Larry Hogan’s (R.) effort to “re-fund the police,” an initiative state Democrats denounced as “divisive” and “misguided.”

The poll, which was provided by an outside group aligned with Hogan, shows that 64 percent of likely black voters in the state “strongly support” the governor’s proposal to “provide greatly increased funding to state and local police agencies,” while 24 percent “somewhat support” the policy. Hogan’s initiative enjoys similar support across racial lines—89 and 74 percent of white and Hispanic voters support it, respectively.

Those numbers contradict state Democrats’ criticism of the plan. After Hogan announced his proposal to invest an additional $150 million into local and state police, state house speaker Adrienne Jones (D.) accused the Republican of working to “politicize” public safety.

…In addition to his plan to increase police funding, Hogan said Tuesday he will introduce two emergency bills to combat violent crime in Baltimore. The move comes one week after the city experienced its 300th homicide for the seventh year in a row—victims include a 69-year-old woman who was stabbed to death inside a church, a 5-year-old girl, and a 13-year-old girl.

“People are being shot nearly every single day in Baltimore City, and we all have an obligation to do something about it right now,” Hogan said in a statement. “With all of the actions we have announced today, I want those families and all of the victims of this violence to know that we will not stop pursuing those criminals who are terrorizing our community.”

The article concludes:

During his Tuesday press conference, Hogan also announced a review of state funds provided to Baltimore prosecutor Marilyn Mosby, one of many progressive prosecutors across the country with ties to liberal billionaire George Soros. Homicides have skyrocketed since Mosby took office in 2015, and she will now have to provide data on cases her office chose not to prosecute in order to see its funding returned.

“As I have repeatedly said, we also need a prosecutor who will actually prosecute violent criminals,” Hogan said Tuesday. Mosby’s office responded by pointing the Free Beacon to a statement that called the Republican’s press conference “a political stunt with no basis whatsoever.”

We won’t have law and order in America until those who break our laws pay a price for what they did. Governor Hogan seems to be moving in a direction that will restore some semblance of order to Baltimore.