Category Archives: Maryland

Aipac hails Democrat’s defeat for not being sufficiently pro-Israel

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Donna Edwards, leading contender in Maryland primary for safe seat, lost after pro-Israeli groups poured millions to block her

Pro-Israel groups have heralded the defeat of a leading Democratic contender for Congress after pouring millions of dollars into blocking her election, for failing to be sufficiently supportive of Israeli government policies.

Donna Edwards, who was for months the favourite to win the primary for a safe seat in Maryland, lost to Glenn Ivey on Tuesday after the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and allied groups waded into the race.

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Man arrested near Brett Kavanaugh’s home charged with attempted murder

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FBI affidavit says suspect Nicholas Roske traveled from California ‘to kill a specific United States supreme court justice’

A man has been charged with attempted murder after he was arrested near the home of Brett Kavanaugh, the US supreme court justice, on Wednesday.

Nicholas Roske, 26, was armed with a tactical knife, a Glock 17 pistol, pepper spray, zip ties and a hammer, the FBI said.

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Maryland expands abortion access as lawmakers override Republican governor

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Midwives, nurses and physician assistants authorised to perform abortions after lawmakers approve bill vetoed by Larry Hogan

Maryland has become the 15th US state to allow health professionals other than doctors to carry out abortions, as part of a bill expanding access to reproductive rights for women.

Under the new law, midwives, senior nurses and trained doctor’s assistants will be authorised to perform medical abortions from 1 July. The bill also directs the state to ring-fence $3.5m a year for abortion-care training.

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Ever Forward ship still stuck in Chesapeake Bay after three weeks

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Officials opt for new approach to moving sister vessel of Ever Given, which blocked Suez canal for a week

A cargo ship has been stuck in the Chesapeake Bay for more than three weeks, and after two unsuccessful attempts to free it, officials are pivoting to a new approach.

On Monday, the US coast guard announced that containers would be removed from the Ever Forward to lighten the load before another try.

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Maryland judge rules Democratic-drawn electoral map is unconstitutional

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Legislature was accused of gerrymandering after substituting its own new district maps for ones drafted by outside commission

A Maryland judge ruled on Friday that the state’s new congressional map is unconstitutional, the first map by a Democratic-controlled state legislature to be struck down by a court this redistricting cycle.

So far courts have intervened to block maps they found to be GOP gerrymanders in North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania, infuriating Republicans and leading conservatives to push for the US supreme court to limit the power of state courts to overturn maps drawn by state legislatures.

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Ever stuck: Suez container ship’s cousin runs aground in US harbor

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The 334-metre Ever Forward ran into trouble in the Chesapeake Bay, a year to the month after its cousin blocked the canal in Egypt

A year to the month after the Ever Given blocked the Suez canal for a week – prompting global fascination and countless memes – the container ship’s cousin has run aground in the Chesapeake Bay.

Officials are now scrambling to refloat that container ship, ironically named the Ever Forward, after it got stuck on Sunday night as it tried to head from the Port of Baltimore to Norfolk, Virginia, Bloomberg reported.

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First person to receive heart transplant from pig dies, says Maryland hospital

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  • David Bennett dies two months after groundbreaking surgery
  • His condition began deteriorating several days earlier

Two months after a pioneering operation, the first person to receive a heart transplant from a pig has died, the US hospital that performed the surgery announced on Wednesday.

A handyman by trade, David Bennett, 57, had undergone the experimental procedure in Baltimore, Maryland, after suffering from heart failure and being out of other options.

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Nor’easter lashes eastern US with snow and wind gusts near hurricane force

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  • Philadelphia, New York and Boston in path of storm
  • Flooding, high winds and cold weather expected

A nor’easter with hurricane-force wind gusts battered much of the US east coast on Saturday, flinging heavy snow that made travel treacherous or impossible, flooding coastlines and threatening to leave bitter cold in its wake.

The storm thrashed parts of 10 states, with blizzard warnings from Virginia to Maine. Philadelphia and New York saw plenty of wind and snow, but Boston was in the crosshairs. The city could get more than 2ft of snow by early Sunday.

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Why pig-to-human heart transplant is for now only a last resort

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Analysis: As doctors monitor world’s first human recipient of pig heart, safety and ethical concerns remain

The world’s first transplant of a genetically altered pig heart into an ailing human is a landmark for medical science, but the operation, and the approach more broadly, raise substantial safety and ethical concerns.

Surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center spent eight hours on Friday evening transplanting the heart from the pig into 57-year-old David Bennett, who had been in hospital for more than a month with terminal heart failure.

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Maryland doctors transplant pig’s heart into human patient in medical first

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Patient is doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery, doctors say, though it’s too soon to know if it is a success

In a medical first, doctors in Maryland have transplanted a modified pig’s heart into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life.

Doctors at the University of Maryland medical center said Monday that the patient was doing well three days after the highly experimental surgery, though it is too soon to know if the operation has been a success.

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US alarm at rise in child Covid infections sees school closures back on agenda

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Omicron threat stokes fears coast to coast but leading public health expert says ‘We know how to keep schools open and safe’

As US regional health authorities reacted with alarm to a jump in child Covid infections that caused some school districts to announce returns to remote learning, a leading public health official questioned the need for schools to close, saying: “We know how to keep schools open, we know how to keep them safe.”

Over the past three weeks, as Omicron-related cases soared in New York City and elsewhere, the number of children hospitalised in New York with Covid-19 quadrupled, the state health department said.

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Homeowner trying to smoke out snake infestation burns down own house

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Maryland home suffers over $1m in damage after cunning coal-based pest control plan backfires

A homeowner in Maryland tried to fight a snake infestation with coal, only to burn their own house down, causing more than $1m in damage. Nobody was injured.

Montgomery county fire and rescue officials notified the public about the blaze right after it happened on 23 November, describing a conflagration that left a “large two-three-story single family house with heavy fire throughout structure and roof collapse”.

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One of Maryland’s escaped zebras dies in illegal trap

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Authorities have belatedly reported that one of the group of African mammals that bolted from a farm died last month

One of a group of escaped zebras that have spent almost two months running wild through the east Maryland suburbs has died, authorities said, in a blow to thousands who have followed the animals’ bid for freedom.

The fate of the zebras, who bolted from a farm near Upper Marlboro in late August, has captured the attention of people locally and beyond, with a number of Marylanders sharing videos and photos of the animals roaming and grazing on residents’ lawns.

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Hurricane Ida death toll nears 60 as states begin to comb through debris

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The US death toll from Hurricane Ida rose towards 60 on Saturday, nearly a week after one of the most powerful storms ever to hit the US mainland made landfall in Louisiana. Two more evacuated nursing home residents were confirmed to have died in the southern state.

Related: Louisiana Shell refinery left spewing chemicals after Hurricane Ida

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US coronavirus cases rise 8% in two weeks as more states ease restrictions

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Michigan, which had some of the nation’s strongest health regulations, saw its second highest single-day case total on Friday

While the United States’ Covid-19 vaccination initiative has eclipsed that of many other countries, a significant number of US cities and states remain hotspots where coronavirus continues to spread at record rates. The upticks come as more states loosen public health restrictions that have been in place to stop Covid-19’s spread.

As of 16 April, the US saw an average of 70,117 cases daily, a surge of 8% from the mean 14 days ago, with hospitalizations increasing 9%, according to the New York Times. A minimum of 21 states have seen at least a 10% increase in daily positive coronavirus cases, CNN reports of recent Johns Hopkins University data. However, deaths are down 12% in this period.

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Maryland police video shows officers threatening, screaming at crying child

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The 5-year-old boy was found a block from a Montgomery county school by officers who berated him and said, ‘I’d beat him so bad’

A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.

The video released by the Montgomery county police department shows one of the officers repeatedly screaming at the crying child, with her face inches from his.

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Trump to hold early morning sendoff ceremony on Biden inauguration day

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Outgoing president has issued invites for event taking place in Maryland at 8am on Wednesday

Donald Trump is planning an early morning sendoff event for himself at a military airfield in Maryland on Wednesday several hours before his successor, Joe Biden, is inaugurated as the 46th US president at the Capitol in Washington DC.

For his last presidential ceremony, Trump reportedly wants an ostentatious military parade and an official armed forces farewell as the commander-in-chief, as well as a large crowd of supporters, selected backers and current and former officials in his administration and their guests at a huge red-carpet affair.

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Protests in Maryland, Texas and Ohio against coronavirus stay-at-home orders – video report

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Demonstrations have taken place across the US against orders put in place to limit the spread of coronavirus. The protests were organised by the far-right media site Infowars. Rallies were held in state capitals, with more planned for next week in other states. Hundreds of people stood and chanted for the US to be reopened. Rightwing media and Donald Trump have supported the protests but they appear to represent a minority opinion


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Search continues for Kennedy relatives lost in Chesapeake Bay

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  • Maeve McKean, 40, and son Gideon, eight, are missing
  • Kathleen Kennedy Townsend speaks of ‘profound sadness’

Divers and boats will on Sunday resume their search in the Chesapeake Bay for the bodies of the daughter and a grandson of former Maryland lieutenant governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, Maryland police said.

Related: Kathleen Townsend Kennedy mourns relatives lost in canoe accident

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Man dubbed ‘largest facilitator’ of child abuse images pleads guilty

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Eric Eoin Marques, citizen of US and Ireland, faces up to 30 years in prison over web hosting service

A man once described by an FBI agent as the world’s largest “facilitator” of child abuse websites pleaded guilty on Thursday to operating a web hosting service that allowed users to anonymously access hundreds of thousands of images and videos depicting child abuse.

Eric Eoin Marques, 34, faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years after his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to advertise child abuse images. A plea agreement will ask the US district judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland to sentence Marques to 15 to 21 years in prison, but the judge is not bound by the recommendation.

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