Maryland
Woman indicted for hit and run murder of girlfriend in Md.
Incident took place on Baltimore-Washington Parkway last November
A federal grand jury in Maryland on Feb. 3 indicted a Florida woman on a charge of second- degree murder for allegedly fatally hitting her girlfriend with her car on Nov. 24, 2021, along the side of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway where U.S. Park Police later found the girlfriend’s body.
Records from the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland show that Janice Martina Mason, 28, of Melbourne, Fla., is being accused by federal prosecutors of killing Sharisse Denise Carr, 26, with her car on land “within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States.”
The Baltimore Sun reports that Mason was initially charged with murder by local authorities in Anne Arundel County where the case was brought before the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. The Sun reports that the case against Mason in county court remains open but a spokesperson for the Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney’s Office said federal prosecutors would assume prosecution of the case soon.
The Sun reports that charging documents filed in the Circuit Court show that Park Police linked Mason to the case shortly after Carr’s body was found along the side of the parkway when Mason called police to report that her phone had been thrown out of the window of her car on the highway and she tracked it back to the police.
The court records show Park Police interviewed Mason and she told them she and Carr were girlfriends for about two months and the two got into a physical fight and she left Carr on the side of the parkway before driving away, the Sun reports. Park Police detectives, after determining there were inconsistencies in Mason’s story about what happened, called her back for another interview and informed her they observed damage on her car “consistent with striking a person,” according to the Sun’s story on the case.
Mason then changed her story by saying Carr began assaulting her while Mason was driving and the two continued to fight after Mason pulled the car over to the side of the highway, the Sun reported the Circuit Court documents as saying. Mason said Carr then got out of the car and picked up what “appeared to be a rock or a brick” and started back toward the vehicle while wielding the object, the charging documents obtained by the Sun state.
Mason told police investigators she thought her “life was in jeopardy,” the Sun says the charging documents say.
The federal grand jury indictment says Mason “did on lands within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, with malice of aforethought, unlawfully kill Victim 1.”
The Sun reports that Mason is being held at the Anne Arundel County Detention Center in Annapolis.
Maryland
A Baltimore theater educator lost jobs at Johns Hopkins and the Kennedy Center
Tavish Forsyth concluded they could not work for Trump
BY WESLEY CASE | Tavish Forsyth had come to a conclusion: They could not work for President Donald Trump.
So the 32-year-old Baltimore resident stripped down, turned on their camera, and lit their career on fire.
“F—— Donald Trump and f—— the Kennedy Center,” a naked Forsyth, an associate artistic lead at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute, which is run by the Kennedy Center, said in a video that went viral. The board of the nation’s leading cultural institution had elected Trump just weeks prior as its chairman after he gutted the board of members appointed by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.
The rest of this article can be read on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
Md. schools plan to comply with federal DEI demands
Superintendents opt for cooperation over confrontation
By LIZ BOWIE | Deciding not to pick a fight with the Trump administration, Maryland school leaders plan to sign a letter to the U.S. Department of Education that says their school districts are complying with all civil rights laws.
The two-paragraph letter could deflect a confrontation over whether the state’s public schools run diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that the Trump administration has called illegal. The Baltimore Banner reviewed the letter, which was shared by a school administrator who declined to be identified because the letter has not yet been sent.
Maryland school leaders are taking a more conciliatory approach than those in some other states. Education leaders in Minnesota, New York, Colorado, Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin said they will not comply with the federal education department’s order, the demands of which, they say, are based on a warped interpretation of civil rights law.
The rest of this article can be found on the Baltimore Banner’s website.
Maryland
FreeState Justice: Transgender activist ‘hijacked’ Moore’s Transgender Day of Visibility event
Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs describes Lee Blinder’s comments as ‘call to action’
FreeState Justice on April 11 released a statement criticizing the way that Trans Maryland Executive Director Lee Blinder treated Gov. Wes Moore during a Transgender Day of Visibility event.
FreeState Justice was extremely disappointed with the criticisms of Moore on the Transgender Day of Visibility, saying it was “hijacked by public hostility” by Blinder. The Baltimore Banner reported how Blinder “laid out how the Democratic governor has let down transgender Marylanders by not putting money in the budget and not backing needed policy changes.”
The Washington Blade interviewed Blinder after the March 31 event.
“The intention of what I shared is to show to the governor that this is a community in distress. You know, we are in a real state of emergency for the trans community and there are very few opportunities that the community has to share this directly with the governor.” Blinder told the Blade. “We’re really grateful to the governor for everything that he’s done in the past for this community, but the circumstances have changed and we really need to see very specific actions taken in order to ensure this community has the ability to exist in public space.”
FreeState Justice said Moore did not deserve such criticisms during the event and added in a Blade oped it is “time for new leadership on the Maryland LGBTQIA+ Commission. Leadership that values and prioritizes coalition over conflict. Leadership that invites feedback and shares power. Leadership that understands how Annapolis operates, how budgets are constructed, and how community victories are won.”
“We’re not saying don’t challenge power. We’re saying do it with purpose. Do it with facts. Do it with a strategy. If you’re going to call yourself a leader in this movement, show us the policy platform. Show us the data. Show us the budget line. Show us the work,” wrote FreeState Justice.
The Maryland Commission on LGBTQIA+ Affairs has met to address FreeState Justice’s statements.
“During the Transgender Day of Visibility ceremony at the State House, the commission’s chair offered remarks reflecting the real fears, concerns, and hopes of the trans community. These remarks were not a call-out, but a call to action,” the commission said in their call to action statement it sent to the Blade. “The chair’s words echoed the thousands of voices we’ve heard across the state through phone calls, emails, and messages on social media to our staff, commissioners, and their affiliated organizations.”
The statement outlines what the call to action entails, addressing what the commission found to be the most pressing issues for transgender Marylanders. They include a lack of dedicated funding, barriers to affirming healthcare, housing insecurity and homelessness, discrimination in education and employment, and escalating violence, harassment, and hate.
“We remain deeply committed to working in partnership with the Moore-Miller administration, the General Assembly, state agencies, nonprofit organizations, and community partners to ensure LGBTQIA+ Marylanders are seen, protected, and supported in policy, budget, and in practice,” reads the statement.
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