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Defense attorneys for the six police officers accused of killing Freddie Gray in Baltimore earlier this summer have filed a motion claiming that prosecutors tried to steer the investigation away from Gray's history of faking injuries while in law enforcement settings in order to collect settlements. From Baltimore Sun: The defense attorneys said in a court motion Thursday that Assistant State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe told police investigators working the case in its early stages not to "do the defense attorneys' jobs for them" by pursuing information they had about such schemes and evidence that Gray "intentionally injured himself at the...

In the wake of an unprecented murder spike, the Baltimore police announced Sunday that ten federal agents from a variety of agencies plus another twenty agents from the ATF will he embedded with the homicide unit “effective tomorrow.” ~snip~ The move to put federal agents into place in Baltimore also comes on the heels of a March President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing report touted by President Obama. That report called for more federal involvement with police agencies, with the president saying, “The moment is now for us to make these changes.”

Complete Headline: Defense says prosecutor steered police away from evidence Freddie Gray had history of 'crash for cash' schemes The police detectives who investigated the death of Freddie Gray were told that he had a history of participating in "crash-for-cash" schemes — injuring himself in law enforcement settings to collect settlements — but were advised by a state prosecutor not to pursue the information, according to defense attorneys for the six officers charged in Gray's arrest and death. The defense attorneys said in a court motion Thursday that Assistant State's Attorney Janice Bledsoe told police investigators working the case in...

D.C. RALLY UPDATE: The permit for the Lincoln Memorial has been APPROVED!! We're all systems GO for ‪#‎StandByTheFlag‬ ‪#‎WashingtonDC‬ ‪#‎September5‬ PLEASE SHARE THIS EVENT FLIER EVERYWHERE!!!

Former presidential hopeful Ralph Nader sent an Election Day statement to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and several of her fellow Democrats: Quit already. “Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Steve Israel should now recognize the wisdom of baseball’s ‘three strikes and you’re out’ … step down from their posts and invite fresh leadership who can save the country from the ravages of today’s Republican party,” Mr. Nader’s statement read, The Hill reported.

Montgomery County has erected a wooden box around a Confederate monument recently spray-painted with the words “Black Lives Matter,” in hopes of shielding the statue from further vandalism as officials seek to move it out of downtown Rockville. County workers put up the barrier Friday, about a week after the words appeared across the base of the 102-year-old bronze statue of a Confederate soldier

RUSH: A new Fox poll out yesterday, last night shows Donald Trump is just soaring. Trump is gaining ground on everybody in the GOP field and over Hillary. It's a Fox News poll, NBC poll, and in both of these polls, Hillary, the bottom is starting to fall out identically, exactly as it started to happen in 2008. And that's why the Democrats are starting to push out these stories about what a great guy Biden is and those gaffes that he makes, why, they just make him more lovable. That's old Joe. Telling the guy in a wheelchair to...

Ten federal agents will join the Baltimore police homicide unit, commanders announced Sunday, after the city followed its deadliest month in decades with a night in which 10 people were shot — seven of them in one incident. Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said the addition of the special agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Marshals Service and the U.S. Secret Service represent a "flipping of the script of sorts." "That's a bit unusual because local police departments — and Baltimore is no different — historically send detectives...

At a time when home prices nationally are, if anything, showing signs of being too strong, the picture in Baltimore is the opposite. According to CoreLogic, prices in the Baltimore-Columbia-Towson metro area were down 8% in the year ending June, the worst showing of the 100 biggest metro areas. Nationally, prices rose 6.5% in the 12 months ending June, CoreLogic says. What’s driven that is a huge rise in foreclosure sales. Foreclosures — known in the business as real estate owned — accounted for 52% of all transactions in Baltimore in May — dwarfing the national average in the low...

Have we come to expect this now of our United States attorneys general? The image is still emblazoned on my mind: those Black Panthers with billy clubs and paramilitary outfits confronting voters at a voting station. Video, proof, and no action from then-attorney general Eric Holder. Now we have Loretta Lynch, a family friend of Eric Holder and his wife, and also a person who received her big career break from Bill Clinton. Eric Holder, who was held in contempt of Congress, who sued states that attempted to enforce purposely unenforced federal law, never provided all Fast and Furious documents...

When former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley signed the bill that created his state’s Obamacare exchange, he bragged that it was “being established using no state funds… due to federal grants.” Later, when the online “marketplace” exploded on the launch pad and a new IT company was hired to untangle the wreckage, O’Malley’s top health official assured Maryland voters that this would be paid for with “leftover federal grants.” Consequently, it surprised many when Maryland’s Attorney General announced a $45 million settlement with the original contractor the proceeds of which would be split between the federal government and the state. But...

Following the recent spike in violent crime, Baltimore's Interim Police Commissioner Kevin Davis announced at a press conference Sunday morning the establishment of BFED, where federal agents from FBI, ATF, DEA and other agencies will be embedded in the Baltimore homicide unit. (Colin Campbell/Baltimore Sun video

NASHVILLE — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz now has four stops scheduled in a planned trip through Tennessee on Aug. 10 to promote himself as the Republican presidential nominee, all at county GOP gatherings.The Cruz campaign website Friday posted plans for a “biscuits and gravy” breakfast in Chattanooga, a “taste of homecoming” luncheon in Murfreesboro and an afternoon “Southern sweets meet and greet” at Brentwood, Tenn., on that date. The Jackson Sun had previously reported Cruz has plans for an evening dinner event at Jackson on the same day.As previously reported, other planned Tennessee visits by Republican presidential candidates include a...

All the political gridlock in Congress and name-calling during election season may not matter as much when Washington, D.C. sinks into the ocean. According to new research conducted by geologists at the University of Vermont and the U.S. Geological Survey, the land in the Chesapeake Bay region, including the nation’s capital, is sinking rapidly. The sea level in the Chesapeake is rising at twice the global average and faster than anywhere else on the East Coast, the researchers say, which means D.C. will sink 6 or more inches in the next 100 years. The sinking is caused by melting ice...

DALLAS — A Texas Christian University student has been disciplined after posting online comments seen as racially offensive about current events, including rioting in Baltimore and the rise of the Islamic State, TCU officials said Friday. TCU said Harry Vincent, a 19-year-old sophomore, violated two Student Code of Conduct provisions concerning “infliction of bodily or emotional harm” and “disorderly conduct.” He has seen his campus access restricted by receiving a one-year suspension from extracurricular activities, on-campus living and the use of non-academic facilities such as the cafeteria and recreational center. Among the comments are a Facebook post that reads: “These...

Former SC Democratic party chair Dick Harpootlian told MSNBC’s Steve Kornacki Sunday Vice President Joe Biden’s consideration of a presidential run actually gives Democrats the best chance of retaining the White House in 2016. Harpootlian said Hillary Clinton’s track record will cause her and the Democrats to “die a death of a thousand cuts,” yet Biden is “an inspirational figure” that voters can rally around. HARPOOTLIAN: I think Hillary comes into the race, as she did in ’08 with all kinds of baggage… There’s going to be distractions, we saw just this week with the Wall Street Journal about payments...

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has slashed tolls on the state’s highways, canceled Baltimore’s long-planned Red Line light-rail project and, last week, dramatically announced the closure of the city’s deeply troubled Men’s Detention Center. Hogan, Maryland’s first Republican governor in nearly a decade, did not need the backing of the Democratic-controlled state legislature for any of those decisions. He announced them on his own, deriding inaction by past administrations and acknowledging that he had made little effort to seek Democratic legislative leaders’ input before he acted. The governor’s in-your-face approach contrasts with the pledges of bipartisanship he made after his election...

After shooting down the state's request for disaster aid for the second time last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Maryland could recover costs associated with rioting that broke out after the death of Freddie Gray in other ways. Federal government denies disaster Baltimore riot aid again Federal government denies disaster Baltimore riot aid again The state and city have unspent money from two other FEMA programs that could be reprioritized, an agency spokesman said. Under the State Homeland Security Grant Program, the state has $251,049 in fiscal year 2013 funds and $5.9 million in fiscal year 2014 funds...

You may recall that earlier this year, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was named President of the US Conference of Mayors for her outstanding work in serving the people of her city and demonstrating innovation in turning things around. As part of that process, she decided to summarily fire Police Commissioner Anthony Batts back in the beginning of July. To say the least, I expressed some reservations about the move, particularly considering that most of the questionable tactics employed by the cops during the Freddy Gray riots were handed down from City Hall. But who am I to second guess...

You may recall that earlier this year, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was named President of the US Conference of Mayors for her outstanding work in serving the people of her city and demonstrating innovation in turning things around. As part of that process, she decided to summarily fire Police Commissioner Anthony Batts back in the beginning of July. To say the least, I expressed some reservations about the move, particularly considering that most of the questionable tactics employed by the cops during the Freddy Gray riots were handed down from City Hall. But who am I to second guess the...