Four months after Congressman Elijah E. Cummings passed away, a special primary is being held to fill his vacant seat on Tuesday, February 4. The 7th district seat has long been a Democratic stronghold, and its next holder will continue to build upon Cummings’ legacy. There have been a number of candidates, 24 Democrats and eight Republicans, who have declared their intention to run for the seat in the special election, for which voters can view polling places here.

“The fact that there’s 32 candidates is extraordinary,” says Matthew Crenson, a retired Johns Hopkins University political science professor and author of several books about Baltimore. “It suggests a degree of political entropy or disintegration.”

Crenson also speculates that the large candidate pool might be due to the fact that the district expands beyond the city. The winner of each primary will become the party nominee for a special election to finish the remainder of Cummings’ term on April 28, the same day as Maryland’s primary elections.

However, since a regular primary will be held that same day, a candidate could lose the special primary today but still become the party nominee for a November election to determine a full two-year term congressperson.

As it stands, the presumptive favorites in tomorrow’s special primary are democrats including Congressman Cummings’ widow Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, former NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume, and Maryland state senator Jill Carter.

But Crenson says that there is not much that wouldn’t surprise him. The large field could even open the door for someone like University of Baltimore law professor F. Michael Higginbotham, a political unknown who has had a heavy television presence. Delegates Talmadge Branch and Terri Hill of Districts 45 and 12, respectively in the Maryland House of Delegates, are also in the running.

Though it is likely to be a tough climb, among the eight Republican challengers is Liz Matory, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Congress against Dutch Ruppersberger in 2018, and Kimberly Klacik—who runs a nonprofit to assist disadvantaged women and has increased her media profile with appearances on Fox News and other conservative media networks.

“The winner will win with a relatively low percentage of the vote—maybe even with a minority or mere plurality,” Crenson says. “What would surprise me most is if somebody managed to win with a majority of the vote.”

Here, we break down the three Democratic frontrunners and the developments in their campaigns since they first entered the race.

Kweisi Mfume

Experience: Mfume, who held the 7th District Congressional seat from 1987-1996 before Congressman Cummings, was a national NAACP leader from 1996-2004. After an unsuccessful campaign for Senate in 2006, losing out to Ben Cardin, he moved on to his current roles as chairman of the board of regents at Morgan State University and as vice chair on the board of Research America.

Platforms: Mfume has said that his tenure would be marked by improving education and eradicating drugs. During his earlier congressional tenure, he was selected to chair the Congressional Black Caucus, fought for prorated rents in public housing on the basis of real income rather than net income, and fought against discrimination in its many forms.

In mid-January, a Baltimore Sun story highlighted previous sexual harassment and nepotism allegations during his leadership of the NAACP. Mfume has denied being forced out of his position.

Predictions: Despite the allegations, he remains a leading candidate for the seat. Mfume has also drawn strong female support—Cummings’ sisters have even endorsed their late brother’s longtime friend who spoke at their brother’s funeral.

“I sort of expected that one or another candidate would emerge by this time as the universal favorite but that’s not happened—I thought it would be Mfume,” Crenson says. “The fact that he’s held this seat before and has name recognition helps him. I wouldn’t count him out at all.”

Maya Rockeymoore Cummings

Experience: Rockeymoore Cummings is not running off the strength of her husband’s name alone. She has government experience, previously serving in the late 1990s as the chief of staff to former New York Rep. Charles B. Rangel. Prior to that, she also served in the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee as a professional staffer.

In 2018, when Councilman Cummings was suffering from health problems, Rockeymoore Cummings dropped out of the race for Maryland governor. Later that year, she was elected as the chair of the Maryland Democratic Committee, though she was criticized for the party’s overspending during her tenure.

Platforms: In her campaign announcement in November, Rockeymoore Cummings pledged to tackle gun violence and education disparities, as well as expand social security.

Predictions: Despite her name recognition, Rockeymoore Cummings has failed to pull ahead in the race in the way many expected when she announced her candidacy.

“She is not perceived by many Baltimoreans as a local person,” Crensons says. “There’s also the perception that there’s a coolness between her and the Cummings family.”

Jill P. Carter

Experience: Senator Carter represents Maryland’s 41st legislative district. She is the daughter of the late civil rights leader Walter P. Carter and formerly acted as director of the Baltimore Office of Civil Rights. Given her resume, she is viewed by many of her progressive supporters as a potential successor to Cummings on civil rights issues.

There are currently no women serving in Maryland’s congressional delegation, and if elected, Carter—or Rockeymoore Cummings—would be the first woman to hold this representative seat.

Platforms: In announcing her candidacy, Carter said that, if elected, she hopes to fight for issues she has long been passionate about, including corrupt policing, education, mass incarceration, and eradicating lead from homes and water.

Predictions: This past weekend, Carter picked up an endorsement from the Baltimore Sun editorial board, who commended her advocacy in the criminal justice system and longtime service of the city. As Crenson sees it, Carter’s candidacy marks an inflection point that could be an illustration of where Democratic politics in the state of Maryland stand nationally.

“She’s a Bernie Sanders voice,” Crensons says. “There are probably many Baltimoreans who think we need something like that now—especially given the stagnation of most people’s incomes and the presidency of Donald Trump. For many people, Jill Carter represents something new.”

HARBOR REFRESH

This fall, Baltimore City approved a $17-million redevelopment of Inner Harbor’s Rash Field Park between the Maryland Science Center and the Rusty Scupper restaurant. The first phase of the urban greenspace’s major makeover will include the creation of a children’s nature park, kinetic playground, shade lawn, a dedicated skatepark, and a pavilion with an overlook and outdoor café. Construction is set to begin in January 2020 and completed by spring 2021. Fundraising efforts are also underway for Phase II, which is slated to include an updated beach volleyball court and beach, jogging lanes, and a bird and butterfly lab. The goal is to create “a safe and central place for families city-wide,” according to the Waterfront Partnership website. The nonprofit has been working on this 7.5-acre project since 2015.

NO BAGGAGE

In late November, the Baltimore City Council approved a citywide plastic-bag ban, which will prohibit single-use plastic bags at retail locations. Shoppers will now be chargeda five-cent fee per bag taken at checkout, including plastic, paper, and compostable bags, which lawmakers hope will reduce plastic bag waste and encourage the use of reusable bags. After eight prior attempts at plastic bag reduction ordinances since 2006, the current bill passed 13 to 1, and it now advances to the desk of Mayor Jack Young, who has expressed support for the initiative.

FOAM FREE

In late October, Baltimore’s ban on Styrofoam containers went into effect, prohibiting the use of polystyrene foam to-go boxes, trays, bowls, cups—we’re looking at you, snowballs—and more, with fines for restaurants, grocery stores, and other food providers failing to comply starting at $200. Maryland will become the first state in the country to take such measures when its statewide ban, approved in late May, goes into effect next year on July 1, 2020. Maine passed similar legislature a few weeks prior, with its bill going into effect on January 1, 2021. The moves are seen as a win for environmental advocates as the material often ends up in the Chesapeake Bay and does not break down.

UP, UP, AND AWAY?

Months after the Eastern Shore’s Queen Anne’s County passed a legislation that imposed a civil fine of $250 on the release of helium-filled balloons, becoming to the first county in Maryland to approve such measures, Senator Clarence Lam of Baltimore and Howard counties introduced legislation in late November that would impose similar sanctions statewide. Advocates argue that released balloons are an environmental hazard, often polluting nature and waterways, with the potential for harming wildlife if ingested. The bill will be considered during the next legislative session, beginning in January 2020.

BIRDS IN FLIGHT

Shortly after it was announced that the Trump administration is considering dramatic cuts to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, a new study published in the journal Science reported that North American bird populations have plummeted by nearly 30 percentsince 1970. That’s the loss of some three billion birds over the past half century, which avian experts have called a “full-blown crisis.” Myriad causes likely include habitat loss, building construction design, and use of pesticides. The Endangered Species Act is noted for helping to recover wildlife such as the bald eagle—an icon of the Chesapeake Bay whose populations had been dramatically impacted by the use of pesticide DDT. According to the study, two out of five Baltimore orioles have disappeared.

TREES OF LIFE

In late October, Blue Water Baltimore planted more than 70 trees in honor of late Baltimore native, Congressman Elijah Cummings, who passed away in October. In collaboration with the Port of Baltimore and the HeartSmiles youth program, nearly as many volunteers, including the likes of Congressman John Sarbanes, planted oak and evergreen saplings along Broening Highway. “Congressman Cummings advocated for all of Baltimore and for a greater degree of civility and compassion in all our collective work,” said BWB executive director Jenn Aiosa. “Coming together for this tree planting represents his vision and what he stood for.”

In the months leading up to his tragic passing, Congressman Elijah E. Cummings had conversations with his wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, about the future and what would come of his seat should his health continue to fail. Rockeymoore Cummings, who has served as the chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic National Committee, believes her political experience makes her the ideal candidate to succeed her husband.

At the West Baltimore home she shared with her husband, Rockeymoore Cummings formally announced Tuesday that she intends to continue his legacy and join what is expected to be a crowded field for the open 7th Congressional seat. The district has long been a Democratic stronghold, and it’s one many presume could be a job for as long as the person elected wants it.

“I think she has to be one of the top candidates,” says Matthew Crenson, a retired Johns Hopkins political science professor and author of several books about Baltimore. “Because she’s Congressman Cummings’ wife—there’s a very strong sentimental attachment to him that may pass over to her. The repudiation of the past probably isn’t going to work as well in this case as it might in some others.”

The special primary election will be held Feb. 4, with the general election set for April 28, the same day as Maryland’s primary election. Essentially, whoever wins the initial special election in a few months will once again need to win again in the April primary followed by November’s general election. This means that there will be an incumbent who will have the advantage of being familiar to voters.

Here is a breakdown of who else might compete for the seat and announce their intentions by the filing deadline of November 20:

Heavy Hitters

Kweisi Mfume
A familiar face in Baltimore politics, Mfume held the 7th District Congressional seat from 1987-1996 before Congressman Cummings. Considered the favorite in the race, he is a former leader of the national NAACP, heading the organization from 1996-2004. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for Senate in 2005, losing out to Ben Cardin. Currently, Mfume serves as chairman of the board of regents at Morgan State and as vice chair on the board of Research America, which works to achieve funding for medical and health research.

“He’s probably [Rockeymoore Cummings’s] stiffest competition having held the seat before,” Crenson says. “It’s going to be tough for outsiders to capitalize. Here, the same old same old looks pretty good.”

Jill P. Carter
A Maryland State Senator, Carter represents Maryland’s 41st legislative district. She has not officially filed, but many have speculated that she will enter the race. The former director of the Baltimore office of civil rights, Carter is the daughter of the late civil rights leader Walter P. Carter, and could make a natural successor to continue to fight for the progressive issues Cummings was passionate about.

Carter said Monday that she will make a special announcement next week that will likely launch her campaign for the seat. Crenson notes that there are currently zero women in Maryland’s congressional delegation, and that Carter and Rockeymoore Cummings could command women voters who are energized to change that.

Talmadge Branch
Branch is another familiar face in Maryland politics, currently serving as a delegate in the 45th legislative district and the majority whip of the House. He was first elected to the House of Delegates in 1994 and has served since 1995. Branch is expected to officially file for the seat soon.

For Branch and the other candidates, navigating how best to respect Congressman Cummings and his legacy will be a tricky minefield, especially given Rockeymoore Cummings’s claims about her husband’s wishes.

“There’s a way to make it clear what profound respect they have for him and his record, while also asserting that they might be able to carry on his tradition more effectively than [Rockeymoore Cummings] could,” Crenson says.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Rawlings-Blake’s name has been thrown around in speculation, but her entering the race isn’t much more than that at this point. Still, for the former Baltimore mayor, who resigned in the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death and the subsequent uprising in the city, running for office again could stir up a reexamination of her tenure as mayor. (Update: Rawlings-Blake will not run for the seat.)

Further Consideration

Dr. Mark Gosnell
Gosnell has never held political office before, but if voters are looking for a fresh face, he could be an option. A Baltimore native, Gosnell is currently a pulmonologist at MedStar Harbor Hospital. Gosnell has indicated he is serious about running, as he was already planning on primarying Elijah Cummings before the congressman’s passing. His platform will be based around health issues such as drug addiction and health care.

Marilyn Mosby
For the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, no formal interest has been expressed yet. However, Mosby is an ambitious politician, and it may make sense for her to seek the seat once held by the man who she says helped launch her political career. In the summer of 2018, Cummings narrated an ad for Mosby during her reelection campaign in the Democratic primary. The ties the two share could make her a logical candidate to step into the seat.

Before sunrise on Friday, thousands of mourners, some of whom woke up as early as 4 a.m., boarded shuttle buses heading to New Psalmist Baptist Church to attend the funeral of Congressman Elijah Cummings—the passionate Baltimore leader and civil rights advocate who passed away due to ongoing health challenges last week at the age of 68.

“I made it!” one woman said as she climbed the stairs of a bus leaving from one of the surrounding lots in Lochearn. “I always voted for him. This morning I said, ‘I’m not going to miss this.’ This is history.”

As the bus pulled up to the front of the church—where Cummings regularly attended services—just before dawn, a guard of honor marched by thousands of people who had already formed a line that snaked around the entrance and adjacent parking lots.

“I actually did a dry run yesterday to make sure I knew where the church was,” said Cheryl McLeod of Howard County, who was in line just after 7 a.m. “I also went down to the Capitol yesterday and saw him. That’s how much I really honor his trailblazing and fortitude.”

The funeral at New Psalmist followed a memorial at Morgan State University, where Cummings sat on the board of directors, and a public viewing at the U.S. Capitol, where the Congressman became the first African American elected official to lie in state earlier this week. It brought together community members who supported Cummings’ many initiatives in Baltimore and beyond—including affordable health care, equal education opportunities, and social justice issues—as well as friends and colleagues who had personal connections to him.

“I always enjoyed making him sweet potato pies,” said a woman who asked to be identified as Mrs. Copeland, who met Cummings years ago through New Psalmist. “I would take them to his office downtown. He helped me, as a single parent, get my son through college. We just love him, everybody that knew him loves him.”

Phyllis Ayres, Cummings’ neighbor of 20 years and a retired administrative assistant at Maryvale High School, remembers introducing him at the school’s graduation in 2010.

“I’m very fond of him,” she said. “Every time I called him to be a guest speaker, he was always on board. He was a man with great character—that’s why I’m here.”

Friday’s service was also attended by a number of political dignitaries, including former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, former First Lady and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Baltimore native and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Gov. Larry Hogan, former Vice President Joe Biden, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and U.S. Sens. Ben Cardin, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, and Amy Klobuchar.

In addition to many of these politicians, Cummings’ daughters, Adia and Jennifer, and his wife, Maya Rockeymoore Cummings—as chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party, she is expected to be among those who will run for her late husband’s seat—delivered remarks inside the church.

“I have come here today to say two simple words: thank you,” Rockeymoore Cummings said. “Thanks to everyone in the 7th Congressional District. He loved Baltimore City. Baltimore, thank you for everything you did to make him who he was, and for allowing him to rise to greatness.”

Rockeymoore Cummings went on to address President Trump’s attacks on Cummings and the city of Baltimore during the final months of his life.

“While he carried himself with grace and dignity in all public forums, it hurt him,” she said. “One thing you do not know about Congressman Cummings is that he was a man of soul and spirit. He was very empathetic. It was one of the sources of his ability to be a public servant and a man of the people. . . He would have told me, ‘Maya, I don’t want a service at the U.S. Capitol,’ but I felt very strongly that they were trying to tear him down. And we needed to make sure that he went out with the respect and dignity that he deserved.”

Obama followed by saying, “Elijah’s life validates the things we tell ourselves about what’s possible in this country. Not what’s guaranteed, but possible. The possibility that our destinies are not preordained, but rather through our works and dedication.”

Also in attendance was U.S. Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis, who described Cummings’ passing last week as “a tremendous blow to the struggle to build a fair and just society in America.”

“They all appreciate [Cummings] as much as we do, that’s why they’re here,” said Arnold Landon, sporting an “Obama for President” hat while waiting in line to enter the 4,000-seat church, which was at full capacity by 9:30 a.m. Landon recalled fighting for civil rights in Baltimore alongside Cummings decades ago, mentioning sit-ins they both attended on Lexington Street downtown. “If it wasn’t for Cummings, Obama wouldn’t be able to become president. It started with equal accommodations and equal rights. Politics and civil rights—they go together.”

Not far behind Landon stood Lydia Alexander alongside her 10-year-old daughter, Shylah.

“He’s done so much for the community,” said Shylah, a fifth grader at Margaret Brent Elementary/Middle. “I really thought I should be here. I will always remember that godsend.”

Former presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton will attend and speak at the funeral of Congressman Elijah Cummings in Baltimore on Friday, Cummings’ office has announced.

Cummings, the passionate advocate for civil rights and Baltimore, died a week ago at the age of 68 from complications due to longstanding health challenges.

Other speakers at the Friday service, according to the release from Cummings’ congressional office, include Baltimore native and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, former U.S. Senator and First Lady Hillary Clinton, former NAACP leader and Baltimore congressman Kweisi Mfume, University of Maryland School of Law professor Larry Gibson, former City Health Department commissioner and former head of Planned Parenthood Leana Wen, and several of Cummings’ immediate family members, including his widow Maya Rockeymoore Cummings.

Rockeymoore Cummings, chairwoman of the Maryland Democratic Party, is expected to be among those to run for her late husband’s seat.

An overflowing crowd is expected Friday morning for the 10 a.m. services at New Psalmist Baptist Church in Northwest Baltimore. Bishop Walter S. Thomas Jr., pastor at New Psalmist, where Cummings regularly attended services, will deliver the eulogy.

Thursday, the late Democratic chairman of the House Oversight Committee will lie in state for public viewing at the U.S. Capitol. Born and raised in Baltimore, the son of former South Carolina sharecroppers is the first African American elected official to be so honored.

It is a special recognition that since 1852 has been bestowed less than three dozen times previously for former presidents, statesman, and military leaders in the history of United States. “Of the many things I learned from my father—and neither he nor my mother completed elementary school because they went to work in the fields—was to treat everyone with equal respect and not to speak or act out of anger,” Cummings told us in a 2014 Baltimore profile.

The service at the Capitol will include an arrival ceremony, a scripture reading from Baltimore native and Maryland U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, wreath-laying presentations from leaders of the House and Senate, and music from the Morgan State Gospel Choir. The event will be live streamed and recorded by C-Span.

Yesterday, Morgan State University, where Cummings had sat on the board of directors, hosted a viewing and services for the former legislator that included remarks from two-dozen city and state leaders, including Baltimore native and former Maryland U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski. Earlier this year, Cummings gave the commencement address to Morgan’s 143rd spring graduating class.

Cummings’ career in public service began in the Maryland House of Delegates, where he served for 14 years and became the first African American in state history to be named speaker pro tem.

Among the mourners at Morgan was 59-year-old Noreen Wright, a nurse, who brought her 9 and 12-year-old grandsons, telling The Washington Post that she wanted them to witness history. “He’s an icon,” Wright said of Cummings. “He’s someone that the next generation can look at to see how it’s supposed to be done.” With tears in her eyes, according to The Post, Wright described Cummings as a modern-day civil rights leader. “He’s like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to me,” she said. “He stood for the rights of people.”

Former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro III, brother of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, died at his home in North Baltimore Sunday. He was 90. The cause of death was complications from a stroke.

D’Alesandro III, affectionately known as “Young Tommy,” led City Hall from 1967-1971 and then surprised many by choosing not to run for reelection. His tenure coincided with a tumultuous period in the country that included the 1968 riots in Baltimore—which was already facing the effects of de-industrialization and suburban flight following the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Considered a progressive on the civil rights issues of the day, he was the son of Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., the longtime mayor and congressman known as “Big Tommy” or “Tommy the Elder.” When he was president of the City Council, D’Alesandro III met with King in Baltimore, where the pair discussed civil rights legislation before the council at the time.

“Tommy dedicated his life to our city,” his sister, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, said in a statement. “A champion of civil rights, he worked tirelessly for all who called Baltimore home. Tommy was a leader of dignity, compassion and extraordinary courage, whose presence radiated hope upon our city during times of struggle and conflict.

“My husband Paul and our entire family are devastated by the loss of our patriarch, my beloved brother,” Pelosi continued, describing her oldest brother as “the finest public servant I have ever known.”

Current Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said D’Alesandro III will be remembered for his commitment to Baltimore and the “important strides” he made while in office, including “creating summer recreation programs for youth, removing racial barriers in employment and education, and laying the groundwork for what would become the world-famous Inner Harbor.”

Current City Council President Brandon Scott said that, as mayor, D’Alesandro III “understood the need to bridge communities and worked to eliminate racial barriers in City Hall.”

“There was absolutely no communication between the races, none whatsoever,” D’Alesandro III told NPR in 2008, describing the time he took office. “It was a segregated city. It was a Southern city.”

After graduating from then Loyola College in Baltimore, D’Alesandro III studied law at the University of Maryland School of Law in the city. He also served in the U.S. Army for four years before running for office. He was elected to the City Council in 1962, and the president of the Baltimore City Council in 1963. When he ran for mayor in 1967, he bested fellow attorney and eventual Orioles owner Peter Angelos in the Democratic primary.

D’Alesandro III appointed George Russell as his city solicitor, and Russell became the first black member of the Board of Estimates. He named Roland Patterson the first black superintendent of the city school system and appointed Baltimore’s first African-American, Rev. Marion Bascomb, to the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners.

“I know he was disappointed by the effect of the riots on what we were trying to do,” Joseph Lee Smith, a black member of D’Alesandro III’s staff, told The Baltimore Sun in 1998. “But I never noticed him being despondent. In the three and a half years that followed, I thought he was very determined and effective in getting the poverty programs in place.”

D’Alesandro III was preceded in office by Republican Theodore McKeldin, considered a liberal, and succeeded in office by William Donald Schaefer.

“We were trying to do it all—improve schools, housing, community development, policing,” Kalman R. “Buzzy” Hettleman, an assistant to D’Alesandro III, told Baltimore magazine last year. “Drugs weren’t a big issue, but policing was. [Donald] Pomerleau was the commissioner, and he was a controversial figure. Gruff. The mayor was under great pressure to appoint an African-American police commissioner [which didn’t happen until 1984 with Bishop Robinson].”

Robert Embry, president of the Abell Foundation, had been appointed by D’Alesandro III to head the then-new Department of Housing when the ’68 riots broke out. “So-called ‘blockbusting’ was in full swing in the Northwood and Edmondson Village neighborhoods, and that was a big issue [at the time],” Embry told Baltimore in a 2018 story on the 50th commemoration of the 1968 events.

D’Alesandro inspired many newcomers to city politics, City Councilman Bill Henry noted in Facebook post, including Henry’s father, a then-26-year-old activist whom the mayor named his youth coordinator and placed on his senior staff. “Looking back on the mayors of my lifetime, ‘Young Tommy’ stands out as having recognized the importance of all young people, especially in terms of their ability to move society forward when properly motivated,” Henry said.

His decision not to seek reelection, D’Alesandro III maintained, was not based on his experience dealing with the riots that broke out four months after his inauguration. Rather, he said it was largely an economic decision—he couldn’t afford to raise his five children while taking home $695 every two weeks.

He also admitted, however, that he did not love the job and public life the way his father did. He spent the rest of his career as a private practice attorney while remaining an informal political advisor to several local officials, including former Mayor Martin O’Malley.

His father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served in Congress from 1939 to 1947, and then as mayor of Baltimore from 1947 to 1959. His mother, Anunciata “Nancy,” née Lombardi, D’Alesandro was an effective political organizer and helped him become Baltimore’s first Catholic mayor.

Recently, a D’Alesandro family portrait—painted when D’Alesandro III and Pelosi were still children and their father was assuming office in City Hall—has been restored and hung in Germano’s Piattini, the popular Little Italy restaurant across the street from their family’s rowhouse.

Last week, Baltimore also lost Congressman Elijah Cummings, a close colleague of Nancy Pelosi, who passed away at age 68.

When D’Alesandro III married Margaret “Margie” Piracci on June 8, 1952, some 5,000 people turned out to witness the occasion at the Baltimore Basilica. The fire department had to turn even more people way and two women reportedly fainted.

According to reporting from The Sun, the pope sent his blessings, President Harry Truman sent a silver tray as a wedding present, D’Alesandro III’s father, then mayor, served as best man, and his youngest sibling Nancy, later Nancy Pelosi, was a bridesmaid. It’s been said that it was as close to royal wedding as Baltimore has experienced.

“His life and leadership were a tribute to the Catholic values with which we were raised: faith, family, patriotism,” said Pelosi, who grew up with her brother and family in Baltimore’s Little Italy. “He profoundly believed, as did our parents, that public service was a noble calling and that we all had a responsibility to help others.”

U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee and a powerful advocate for civil rights and Baltimore, died early Thursday at 68. According to his office, the 12-term Maryland congressman passed away at Gilchrist Hospice Care, a Johns Hopkins affiliate, due to complications concerning longstanding health challenges. Cummings had not gone back to work this week as Congress returned to Capitol Hill.

Over the past year, since the Democrats retook the House of Representatives following the 2018 midterm elections, Cummings had served a key and high-profile role as the myriad of Congressional investigations into President Donald Trump and his administration have unfolded.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, also a Baltimore native, said of Cummings’ unexpected death that “the people of Baltimore, the U.S. Congress, and America have lost a voice of unsurpassed moral clarity and truth.” She described herself as “personally devastated.”

“In the House, Elijah was our North Star,” Pelosi said. “He was a leader of towering character and integrity, whose stirring voice and steadfast values pushed the Congress and country to rise always to a higher purpose.”

“He worked until his last breath because he believed our democracy was the highest and best expression of our collective humanity and that our nation’s diversity was our promise, not our problem,” said Maya Rockeymore Cummings, the congressman’s wife and chair of the Maryland Democratic Party, in a statement.

Cummings, whose district includes parts of Baltimore City, as well as Baltimore and Howard counties, had—along with the city itself—become a target for President Trump’s vitriol earlier this summer. Cummings addressed Trump directly, describing his work ethic and mission as an elected official.

“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily,” Cummings wrote. “Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the executive branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

In 2015, after the uprising and riot in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, Cummings was in the streets day and night, playing a key role in diffusing tensions between protestors and police during the week of subsequent curfews.

“With the passing of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the city of Baltimore, our country, and people throughout the world have lost a powerful voice and one of the strongest and most gifted crusaders for social justice,” Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said in a statement Thursday morning. “Rep. Cummings, the son of sharecroppers whose ancestors were slaves, wasn’t afraid to use his considerable intellect, booming voice, and poetic oratory to speak out against brutal dictators bent on oppression, unscrupulous business executives who took advantage of unsuspecting customers, or even a U.S. President. He was, put simply, a man of God who never forgot his duty to fight for the rights and dignity of the marginalized and often forgotten.”

Cummings first rose to national prominence five years ago, after Rep. Darrell Issa, then the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, cut off Cummings’ microphone during a key hearing. As Baltimoreans already knew and the country soon learned, Cummings remained a man who wore his heart on his sleeve.

“It’s not just my voice that was being shut down,” Cummings said at the time, maintaining his composure while passionately trying to make his case. “Remember what I said: ‘I represent, we represent, over 700,000 people.’ What about our voice? ‘Shut it down [Issa said].’ That’s not the Democratic way.”

Raised with six brothers and sisters in South Baltimore’s historically black Sharp-Leadenhall neighborhood, Cummings attended a segregated elementary school and was among the first children to integrate the Riverside Park swimming pool in the summer of 1962. The son of former South Carolina sharecroppers, Cummings was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1982—still on the heels of the civil rights movement and several years before Kurt Schmoke was became the first elected black mayor of Baltimore.

“Of the many things I learned from my father—and neither he nor my mother completed elementary school because they went to work in the fields—was to treat everyone with equal respect and not to speak or act out of anger,” Cummings told us in a 2014 Baltimore profile. “Because when you do, the person only hears your tone, they don’t get the message.

“And,” Cummings added, tapping a finger to the table for emphasis, “you’ll lose sight of the bigger picture. You’ll get so caught up in who you are fighting, you’ll forget what you are fighting for—and it’s the ‘what’ that is important.”

University of Maryland Carey School of Law professor Larry Gibson, Schmoke’s former campaign manager, noted in the same story that Cummings’ rise in congressional stature followed in the footsteps of a number of local African-American leaders who made significant contributions to the city, state, and country. “… look at who held that congressional seat before him—Parren Mitchell and Kweisi Mfume. All became powerhouses in Congress.”

Governor Larry Hogan described Cummings as “a fierce advocate for civil rights and for Maryland for more than three decades.”

“Congressman Cummings leaves behind an incredible legacy of fighting for Baltimore City and working to improve people’s lives,” Hogan said in a statement. “He was a passionate and dedicated public servant whose countless contributions made our state and our country better.”

Cummings was born on January 18, 1951 and was a distinguished student at City College High School, where he graduated in 1969. At Howard University, he majored in political science, served as class president, and became a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

He graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1976 and practiced law before succeeding Lena Lee in the state House of Delegates. He often said her encouragement and support was crucial in launching his political career. In the General Assembly, where he served for 14 years, Cummings became the first African American in Maryland history to be named Speaker Pro Tem.

Among other efforts, up until the time of his death, Cummings also served on the U.S. Naval Academy Board of Visitors, the Morgan State University Board of Regents, the University of Maryland School of Law Board of Advisors, and the SEED School of Maryland Board of Directors.

To fill the Cummings’ seat, by law, Hogan will soon call a special primary election and a special general election will be held to fill the vacancy, according to reporting from The Baltimore Sun. Hogan’s spokesman, Mike Ricci, said Thursday morning that it wasn’t clear yet when the special election would take place.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday afternoon that the House of Representatives will begin a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump. Pelosi’s action—long awaited by many Democratic activists after findings in the Mueller Report—comes in response to startling new allegations that the president recently sought to enlist Ukraine in his personal electoral cause. Namely, undermining current frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020—former Vice President Joe Biden.

Pelosi, the daughter of former Baltimore mayor Thomas D’Alessandro Jr., announced the start of an impeachment inquiry on Capitol Hill following a closed-door meeting with her Democratic caucus.

“The actions taken to date by the president have seriously violated the Constitution,” she said. President Trump, she said, “must be held accountable—no one is above the law.”

Impeachment has occurred twice in U.S. history, with charges brought against Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton. Neither president was removed or left office. Rather than face a House of Representatives vote on impeachment over the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.

Even if the House—where the Democrats hold a majority—votes to impeach Trump after their inquiry, forcing a president from the White House requires a conviction in the Senate. In that chamber, where Republicans hold a majority, elected GOP officials have remained in lockstep behind Trump during each controversy of his presidency.

Trump’s alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine into investigating Biden, his potential rival, and his son, Hunter Biden, who served on board of the country’s largest private gas company, were brought forth by a U.S. intelligence whistleblower. Earlier Tuesday, Trump acknowledged he withheld $391 million in military support for Ukraine in the run-up to his July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The president and his personal lawyer, former New York Mayor and former GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, have suggested Biden tried to protect the Ukrainian company, and thereby his son, from a corruption investigation. Neither Trump, Giuliani, nor anyone else to date, has provided evidence of illegal activity by either Biden.

Fact checking and investigations by multiple U.S. news outlets have repudiated Trump’s and Giuliani’s allegations that the former vice president attempted to protect his son by advocating for the removal of the former top Ukrainian prosecutor. The current prosecutor general of Ukraine, Yuri Luiseno, has looked into the matter and cleared the Bidens.

Leading up to Tuesday’s announcement by Pelosi, Maryland’s congressional delegation, who had been hesitant to speak out in favor of an impeachment inquiry previously, offered their strong backing for formal hearings.

“We can now see with our own eyes that the President is jeopardizing our national security,” Rep. Elijah Cummings said in a statement, referring to Trump allegedly holding back military aid to an ally in exchange for damning information on an American political candidate. “He admitted to personally withholding military security that Congress appropriated to help Ukraine counter Russian aggression. He admitted to personally urging a foreign actor to dig up dirt on his political rival. And he personally attacked a whistleblower whose protected information is being withheld from Congress in violation of the law.”

In a move described as unprecedented, the Trump Administration’s acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, has refused to share the whistleblower complaint with congressional intelligence committees, even after receiving a subpoena.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday that he would release the transcript of his phone call with the Ukrainian president, referring to the conversation as “totally appropriate.” The release of the whistleblower complaint, which is required to be turned over to Congress, remains another story, however. Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson determined that whistleblower’s allegations involving the president and his contact with Ukraine—of which the July 25 phone call with the Ukrainian president is just a part, according to reporting from The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and The Washington Post—were deemed credible and of “urgent concern.”

The Mueller Report, of course, found multiple contacts between Trump campaign officials and Russian representatives during the 2016 election season.

Fellow Maryland Democratic Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger emphasized his national security concerns regarding the president’s contacts with Ukraine: “As a former prosecutor, I have resisted calls to begin formal impeachment proceedings against the President until we had clear, indisputable evidence that transcends politics,” Ruppersberger said in a statement. “Jeopardizing our national security is where I draw the line. Withholding duly appropriated money meant to aid a country that could be overtaken by Russia is reckless and dangerous. This is yet another example of the President doing Putin’s bidding.”

“President Trump’s actions are a threat to our democracy,” Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a press release. “His continued disregard for our Constitution and the democratic norms that guide our nation have caused irreparable harm to our country, our standing in the world, and to the Office of the Presidency. As the White House continues to prevent the House of Representatives from exercising their Constitutionally-mandated oversight role, it has become clear that the tools provided by an impeachment inquiry must be employed.”

Maryland Democratic Congressman John Sarbanes said Trump’s alleged conduct, “constitute[s] a direct attack on our democracy and signify an unprecedented new level of corruption and lawlessness in the White House.”

“President Trump’s attempt to pressure a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election is a blatant abuse of power,” Sarbanes said.

By coincidence, former Vice President Joe Biden was scheduled for a private fundraising event at Citron, a Pikesville restaurant and event space, Tuesday evening, according to reporting by The Baltimore Sun. However, Biden and his team were forced to head back to home to Wilmington, Delaware, after realizing the former vice president would not make it in time because of traffic caused by an overturned a tractor-trailer on I-95.

On the heels of a Washington Post report on House Republicans’ plans for a policy conference at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront in September—an event the president traditionally attends and addresses—and an invitation from Rep. Elijah Cummings, there is rising speculation surrounding whether President Trump will visit Baltimore in the coming months.

By this point, the president’s attacks against Baltimore City and Rep. Elijah Cummings have been well documented. The latest development came this weekend, when Cummings declared at the opening of the McCullough Street Nature Play Space in West Baltimore that the president was welcome to visit. “Do not just criticize us,” he said. “But come to Baltimore and I promise you, you will be welcomed.” Whether Trump will heed Cummings’ invitation remains to be seen.

“One of the reasons why people are critical of the president for doing what he’s doing is when the President of the United States speaks negatively of a city, it has a huge effect,” says Greg Kline, co-founder of Red Maryland, a conservative media network. “It sends a message far and wide. I think he’s very likely to go [to Baltimore], if nothing else to avoid someone like Congressman Cummings saying he’s afraid to go there.”

Despite Washington, D.C. being a short commute away, the president has never made an appearance in Baltimore since being elected. (Last December, plans for him to visit Rev. Donté Hickman of Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore were scrapped at the last minute.) He did, however, visit during his campaign, holding a rally that was attended by both protesters and supporters at the Baltimore Convention Center.

After the events of the past week, there were those who felt compelled to share their love for the city by posting photos of their favorite spots on social media. And as Towson University history professor Richard Vatz puts it, there is a stark divide between Republicans who defended the president, and Democrats who find his tweets offensive. This chasm is a marker for how a potential visit might play out.

Goucher associate professor of political science Mileah Kromer notes that the optics of such a visit could hinge on just how the administration anticipates the reception in Baltimore. “If the administration believe they’re going to be met with overwhelming protests, there’s certainly a chance he would cancel,” she says.

There is a hope, perhaps, that if the president does visit Baltimore, whether it be in September or earlier to meet with Cummings, he might be exposed to all the positive things that the city has to offer.

Richmond Davis, who ran against Cummings in the 2018 midterm election as the Republican nominee for Congress, says he hopes that a potential speech by Trump in Baltimore could look past the vitriol and instead highlight the plight of urban areas. It could be an opportunity, he believes, to address—perhaps more tactfully–the problems that the city faces.

“I would hope he would realize that there’s more than just the trash-strewn areas that were featured on Fox News,” he says. “That is the responsibility and obligation of the president—to expose himself to as many points of view and observe as much of this country as he can.”

For the fourth straight day, Donald Trump continued his assault on the city of Baltimore, describing it “like living in hell” while addressing reporters on the south lawn of the White House Tuesday morning. Further, the president claimed, without offering evidence, “that billions and billions given to Baltimore” in federal funding “had been stolen.”

Trump also continued his personal attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings, who represents Maryland’s 7th District, suggesting Cummings is “in charge” of Baltimore, which the president had called “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” over the weekend.

“They’re largely African American,” Trump said of Baltimore’s residents. “You have a large African-American population, and they really appreciate what I’m doing and they’ve let me know it.” Again, the president offered no information about who specifically from Baltimore had reached out to him. He tweeted that the city’s economic and crime numbers are “the worst in the United States,” neither of which is true.

In Tuesday evening’s Democratic presidential debate, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, whose husband teaches at the University of Baltimore School of Law, decried Trump’s assault on majority-black Baltimore. “Little kids literally woke up this week and turned on the TV and saw the president call their city, the town of Baltimore, nothing more than a home for rats,” Klobuchar said.

To a question about how the candidates would change course and help heal from Trump’s tactic of racial division, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders highlighted his Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education, which aims at ending the growth of segregated schools, increasing support for Title I schools, and raising teacher pay, among other initiatives. Marshall, a Baltimore native, founded the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund and won the Brown v. Board of Education case that overturned legal segregation in 1954.

On Saturday morning, a “Fox & Friends” segment that was critical of Baltimore prompted the president’s initial verbal assaults on the city and Cummings. Trump apparently viewed the segment as an opening to go after Cummings, who serves as chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Previously, Cummings had offered tough questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan during a hearing on child separations and conditions at U.S. border facilities.

On Sunday, Trump referred to Cummings, the son of sharecroppers who grew up defending himself against bullies who tried to stop the integration of a South Baltimore public pool, as “racist Elijah Cummings.” On Monday, after Rev. Al Sharpton and former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, a Republican, visited Cummings’ West Baltimore church, Trump called Sharpton a racist, too. Meanwhile, Steele said Trump “has a particular venom for blacks and people of color.”

During his remarks to reporters Tuesday morning, Trump referred to himself as “the least racist person there is anywhere in the world.”

Whether American voters believe him is another question. Later Tuesday, Quinnipiac University released a poll that found 51 percent of American voters think the president of the Unites States is a racist. Forty-five percent of voters said they do not think Trump is a racist.

Wednesday morning, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, the renowned former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, came to Baltimore to defend the president and tout the Trump Administration’s “Opportunity Zone” initiative. According to reporting by The Sun, HUD officials planned to stage their press conference on a vacant lot in Southwest Baltimore, but never asked permission from the owners of the property, Morning Star Baptist Church of Christ.

Meanwhile, Baltimoreans have continued their defense of their beloved city, which launched a trending social media hashtag #WeAreBaltimore over the weekend.

Visit Baltimore, the city’s official tourism arm, noted, for example, that the city ranked fifth on the both Forbes’ list of rising cities for startups and Entrepreneur magazine’s list of top cities for minority entrepreneurs, as well as one of the top three U.S. cities for recent college grads by the Wall Street Journal.

In an op-ed to the Baltimore Sun, Under Armour founder Kevin Plank and Johns Hopkins University president Ron Daniel—joined by more than a half-dozen other business, academic, and nonprofit leaders—wrote how they were “proud and privileged” to call Baltimore home. They described Baltimore as “home of creativity, optimism, and determination.”

Others, including Baltimore photographer Devin Allen, continued to show their love for the city in heartfelt tweets, Facebook and Instagram posts and pictures.

By coincidence, Baltimore celebrated its 290th birthday Tuesday.

Trump, of course, most likely didn’t know that. A couple of years ago, he described one of Baltimore’s and the country’s greatest former citizens, former slave turned abolitionist, orator, and author Frederick Douglass, as “an example of somebody’s who’s done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more.”

In an unprecedented verbal assault on the citizens of an American city by a modern U.S. president, Donald Trump called Baltimore “a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess,” and the “Worst in the USA,” adding “no human being would want to live there.”

Lashing out in a tweetstorm, first on Saturday—then doubling down Sunday—Trump added the nation’s 29th largest city, Rep. Elijah Cummings, and Maryland’s 7th Congressional District to his growing list of black and brown targets. By Sunday afternoon, Trump was referring to Rep. Cummings, one of the most respected members of Congress and the son of sharecroppers who grew up defending himself against racist bullies who tried to stop the integration of the Riverside Park swimming pool, as “racist Elijah Cummings.”

Baltimoreans, in turn, fired back all over social media, standing up for their beloved city against the president’s vitriol and racist-tinged attacks by posting photos of Charm City—from Artscape, Fort McHenry, and the Inner Harbor to stoop parties, crab feasts, Patterson Park, and the Gwynn Falls. They also highlighted figures like Divine and Gervonta Davis, who, by coincidence, successfully retained his world super featherweight title Saturday night before a packed house at the Royal Farms Arena.

By Saturday evening #WeAreBaltimore was trending across Twitter.

Perhaps no one responded more poignantly than Victor Blackwell, weekend host of CNN Saturday and a Baltimore native, who quickly, and correctly, put the president in his place.

“You know who did [live in Baltimore], Mr. President? I did,” Blackwell said, struggling at times to hold his emotions in check. “From the day I was brought home from the hospital to the day I left for college, and a lot of people I care about still do. There are challenges no doubt, but people are proud of their community. I don’t want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there. They care for their families there. They love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like people who live in districts of congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans, too.”

In particular, Blackwell highlighted Trump’s use of the word “infested” in reference to majority-black Baltimore—a term of art the president often deploys when talking about people of color—whether in regard to Mexican and Central American migrants and asylum seekers, the Ebola-crisis in Africa, or certain female members of Congress.

“’Infested—that’s usually reserved for references to rodents and insects, but we’ve seen the president invoke infestation to criticize lawmakers before,” Blackwell said to viewers. “You see a pattern here? Just two weeks ago President Trump attacked four minority congresswomen. ‘Why don’t they go back to the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.’ Reminder, three of them were born here; all of them are American. Infested, he says.”

Blackwell noted that Trump had also previously described longtime civil rights activist—and congressman—John Lewis’ Atlanta district as “crime infested.”

John Waters, never one to shrink from a fight—or cover up the city’s challenges—responded to Trump by saying: “Give me the rats and roaches of Baltimore any day over the lies and racism of your Washington, Mr. Trump. Come on over to that neighborhood and see if you have the nerve to say it in person!”

David Simon, not one to pull punches, either, reacted in similar style: “There’s a block party today on my southside street. This is a city of good Americans who deserve more than a grifting, hollow and self-absorbed failure of a man as their president. @realDonaldTrump is a permanent stain on our land.”

Trump’s twitter fire at Baltimore residents apparently was prompted by a “Fox & Friends” segment Saturday morning that was critical of Baltimore. That segment came on the heels of Cummings’ tough questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan during a hearing on conditions and child separations at U.S. border facilities.

Saturday afternoon, Baltimore leaders and elected officials gathered at City Hall to formally condemn Trump and his remarks.

“It’s completely unacceptable for the political leader of our country to denigrate a vibrant American City like Baltimore, and to viciously attack U.S. Representative Elijah Cummings, a patriot and a hero,” Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young said in a prepared statement. “Mr. Trump’s rhetoric is hurtful and dangerous to the people he’s sworn to represent. As the Mayor of Baltimore, I won’t stand for anyone, not even the alleged Leader of the Free World, attacking our great City or our representative to Congress. Mr. Trump, you are a disappointment to the people of Baltimore, our country, and to the world.”

Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s Reliable Sources and a Maryland native and Towson University alum, pointed to the factual errors in the president’s tweets on his Sunday show. He described them as “petty” and “a distraction” from other important issues as well as “racist and ridiculous stereotyping of a part of the country [which] is damaging to the country as a whole and that must be covered that way.”

Lest anyone mistake Trump’s rhetoric for actual political dialogue, this is what Red Maryland, the state’s conservative blog, had to say:

“First off, typical of his tweets, President Trump shot his mouth off before his brain was loaded. The problems with his tweet are extensive, but it boils down to two big problems.

• The 7th Congressional District includes only half of Baltimore City. Large chunks of the district are in Baltimore County and Howard County. Some of Maryland’s most affluent areas i.e. Columbia, Clarksville, and parts of horse country are part of the district; and,
• There is a racial component of the implication is too obvious to miss.”

Trump, on Sunday, continued his attacks on Baltimore and Cummings, who chairs the powerful House Oversight Committee, tweeting “. . . Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore. Just take a look, the facts speak far louder than words!”

For good measure, Trump subsequently went after the Baltimore-born Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and her district, also describing it as“failing badly.” Later, Trump said he was, “Waiting for Nancy and Elijah to say, ‘Thank you, Mr. President!’ for the declining unemployment numbers among African-Americans nationally, a trend, of course, that had been established, along with overall unemployment decline, under the Obama Administration.

Cummings addressed Trump on Twitter directly, describing his work ethic and mission as an elected official, which one can only assume will be completely lost on the president.

“Mr. President, I go home to my district daily,” Cummings wrote. “Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents.”

After a 22-month investigation into President Donald Trump’s possible collusion with Russia, special counsel Robert Mueller’s 448-page report garnered riveting attention across the country Thursday after a redacted version was made public.

The key findings span a range of conclusions, and frustratingly to some, no conclusion in one key matter—the allegations of obstruction of justice.

The report found there were numerous contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russians affiliated with the foreign government during the run-up to the 2018 election and afterward. But the special counsel did not establish that there was sufficient evidence to indict the president, or any Trump campaign official, with conspiring with Russian intelligence operatives to influence the election.

However, the Mueller investigation did find repeated examples in which the president directed officials around him to halt or derail the inquiry, including attempting to get Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to oust Mueller. Trump’s efforts failed because those officials did not comply with the president’s wishes and demands, according to the report.

“The President’s efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests,” the special counsel determined.

Rosenstein, who was nominated by Trump to his position, served as U.S. attorney for the district of Maryland from 2005 to April 2017. Following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ recusal from the investigation, Rosenstein appointed Mueller, a former director of the FBI, to head the inquiry.

Ron Weich, dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law, said that even without further indictments of president’s campaign team, the release of the report was important and necessary for the American people “to see the full conduct the president and his team.”

“The narrative of the report reveals the campaign willingly accepted and encouraged assistance from a foreign adversary, including [former Trump campaign manager] Paul Manafort, who shared campaign polling information to help Russia influence the election,” Weich said.

Among others, Manafort, former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates, and Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos have all already pled or been found guilty of crimes charged by Mueller’s team, though those convictions were not directly related to their campaign work.

Mueller’s team also declined to prosecute the president’s son, Donald Jr., the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and other campaign members for their participation in the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected lawyer, who had promised political “dirt” on Hillary Clinton. In part, investigators said, because they couldn’t prove that they “willfully” violated the law.

In terms of Mueller’s decision not to indict the president on obstruction of justice charges, Weich, who served as an assistant attorney general in the Department of Justice during the Obama administration, noted that according to DOJ guidelines, a sitting president couldn’t be indicted. The decision to remove a president is essentially left up to Congress, which has the power to impeach.

That said, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who represents Maryland’s 5th District, told CNN that he does not expect impeachment proceedings to move forward.

“Based on what we have seen to date, going forward on impeachment is not worthwhile at this point,” Hoyer told CNN. “Very frankly, there is an election in 18 months and the American people will make a judgment.”

“I think Bob Mueller is a cautious man, a cautious prosecutor,” said Weich, who knows Mueller, the director of the FBI during his time at the DOJ, as well Rosenstein, whom he met after taking over as dean of the law school at the University of Baltimore in 2012. “Both Bob Mueller and Rod Rosenstein have sterling reputations.” Rosenstein will be the commence speaker at University of Baltimore School of Law’s graduation ceremony in May.

Overall, reactions to the report’s conclusions fell largely along well established partisan divides.

U.S. Rep. C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, who represents Maryland’s 2nd District, pointed to “at least 10 instances” in the report in which President Trump attempted to interfere with the Mueller investigation. He encouraged all Americans to read the report, in particular, the sections on obstruction of justice “so they can determine for themselves if the behavior described in this report is becoming of a United States President.”

In a statement, Maryland U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, said Congress must subpoena the full Mueller report and all underlying documents. “This report catalogues in excruciating detail a proliferation of lies by the President to the American people, as well as his incessant and repeated efforts to encourage others to lie,” Cummings wrote.

Cummings also criticized current Attorney General William Barr’s favorable summary of the report earlier this month and again during a Thursday morning press conference. “Contrary to AG Barr’s attempts at misdirection, it is crystal clear from the report that DOJ’s policy against indicting a sitting President played a key role in Special Counsel Mueller’s analysis—in fact, it is the very first point in the obstruction section of his report.”

In the report’s conclusion in the obstruction section, the Mueller team said, “while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”

U.S. Rep. Andy Harris, from Maryland’s 1st District, called the investigation “two years of wasted time, energy, and $25 million” in a tweet Thursday. “It’s time we move on from partisan politics to issues Americans truly care about, like securing our border, addressing the opioid crisis, and continuing to grow our economy.”

In terms of how the Mueller report plays out politically, Richard Vatz, Towson University professor of rhetoric and communication, called the investigation document “a perfect Rorschach test.”

“Republicans will take a look and say, ‘See what did I tell you?’ and smile,” Vatz said. “Democrats will take a look and say, “See what did I tell you?’ and smile.

“The president has never had a majority of the country’s support, but [the report’s release] will harden his base,” Vatz continued. “And the 30 percent that despise him will despise him even more. The question will become: If the economy keeps growing and there are no major foreign entanglements, will he get movement from those in the middle when the election comes around?”

President Donald Trump was scheduled to make the short trip up the Baltimore-Washington Parkway on Wednesday at the invitation of Rev. Donté Hickman of Southern Baptist Church in East Baltimore. But, according to a spokesman from Rep. Elijah Cummings office, the meeting that was scheduled to take place at the church will now happen at the White House—whose officials say the cancellation was due to a scheduling conflict.

“The president will still meet with a number of stakeholders, including several from Baltimore,” reads a statement issued by the White House on Monday morning. “And provide remarks on the opportunity zone and urban revitalization initiative, highlighting the administration’s agenda to expand the economic boom to all Americans, especially those in distressed communities—both rural and urban.”

Trump was supposed to be meeting with Hickman, as well as other clergy members and elected officials, in Baltimore to discuss federal funding to revitalize the suffering communities in the city. Hickman, who has been working to redevelop East Baltimore for the past decade, says that his master plan entered its third phase earlier this year. The plan includes the rebuild of the $16 million Mary Harvin Transformation Center with senior housing and workforce training, which was a target of arson in the Baltimore Uprising in 2015.

“It is time that we realize that we cannot continue to normalize violence, poverty and murder,” Hickman said in a Facebook post Sunday afternoon. “We cannot wait for the administration we like or elect to take bold faith steps together towards investment opportunities. If we fail, we will fail trying and God will bless our faithfulness. Whatever vitriol we have for this presidential administration should be manifested in our determination to do what we can to restore our broken city.”

Hickman’s hope for the visit was to encourage Trump to initiate the opportunity zone investment—a Republican-backed tax initiative that will place investment capital into struggling communities by offering a substantial tax break—in East Baltimore neighborhoods. The U.S. Treasury estimates that this opportunity zone program will inject $100 billion in private capital in areas where the poverty rate averages 32 percent.

Critics believe the costs will outweigh the benefits and force poor people from their neighborhoods. But Hickman has stated publicly that this initiative is a way to jumpstart the development of affordable housing, grocery stores, and improve public safety and education in the area. To date, 42 zones in Baltimore City including Port Covington, Poppleton, Perkins Homes, and Park Heights are already scheduled to receive assistance for redevelopment through the opportunity zone initiative.

“Focus on what really matters for our city going forward,” Hickman said in a Facebook post. “Faith-based institutions can lead the effort and partner with other institutions to obtain the public and private dollars necessary to revitalize our city through restoring people and rebuilding properties. I know it’s difficult for many, but don’t get distracted. It’s our communities and we have the power to maintain and sustain them.”

There’s nothing quite like going back to your hometown—revisiting old stomping grounds, walking familiar streets, and reminiscing about the good ol’ days.

Enter Baltimore Homecoming, a brand-new initiative taking place October 3-5 that invites accomplished Baltimore expats back to reconnect with their roots and reinvest in the city through a series of private events. Launched in November by cofounders and Baltimore natives Nate Loewentheil, and J.M. Schapiro, this nonprofit project aims to employ the talent and resources of former Baltimoreans who have gone on to make an impact in their fields, such as SoulCycle CEO Melanie Whelan and actor Josh Charles.

With help from leaders in the city’s education, business, arts, and religious communities—co-chairs include actress Julie Bowen and Congressman Elijah Cummings—the one-time locals will participate in neighborhood tours, art and music presentations, talks with area business owners such as Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, and field trips to local spaces including the Center for Urban Families and Living Classrooms’ Target Investment Zone in East Baltimore.

Loewentheil was inspired by Detroit’s annual Homecoming event, which has garnered more than $212 million in total investments over the past four years. “People from here have a strong sense of connection to the city,” he says. “There’s a reservoir of goodwill for Baltimore around the country that, right now, is untapped.”

The goal is that sharing the stories of local change makers, and connecting them to the honored guests, will help spread positive narratives about the city and encourage giving back. To that end, the nonprofit will be launching the inaugural Homecoming Hero awards to recognize five outstanding community members. Among the nominees is Brittany Young, the founder of social venture B360.

Young says her program’s message, which de-stigmatizes dirt bike riding by teaching local kids the STEM-related skills needed to build and maintain their wheels, goes hand in hand with that of this event. “Both projects are committed to telling positive stories about our city and collaborating with one another to build a stronger and better Baltimore,” says Young, “for now and for the future.”

With more than 400 Baltimore “alumni” invited to this first-ever event, the organizers hope that it will grow in size and scope every year by creating a network of guests devoted to giving back to the city. “I hope that for every year the city holds this event,” says Young, “that more positive examples of who Baltimore citizens are and what we bring to the table spread to the rest of the country.”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America announced Wednesday that Baltimore City Health Department Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen will serve as its sixth president and become the second doctor to lead the organization in its 102-year history.

A former emergency room physician, Wen has led the City Health Department since January 2015 when she was appointed by then-Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. Under Wen, the Baltimore City Health Department has become recognized as a leader in public health innovations—pushing for free prescription access for citizens to naloxone, which reverses an opioid overdose, for example—and was recently named Local Health Department of the Year by the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

Wen, a Chinese immigrant, has also been at forefront of advocacy for women’s health and reproductive rights, including leading the city’s fight against Trump Administration cuts to teen pregnancy prevention and local health care clinics. Last month, she also helped lead a legal action against the Trump Administration that alleges an effort by the administration unlawfully undermines the Affordable Care Act and puts thousands of Baltimoreans at risk of losing access to health care.

“Providing healthcare and fighting to protect that access to care—that’s what I have been doing my entire life. I am so proud to do this at the Baltimore City Health Department, and soon, at Planned Parenthood: to lead the fight for healthcare access, for gender equality, and for our core values in support of women, children, families, and vulnerable communities,” Wen said in a statement. “The cost of taking on this fight is leaving a job I love and colleagues I admire and draw inspiration from every day. But at this critical juncture in our nation’s history, it is my obligation to take on this challenge and fight with everything I have.”

Wen’s last day as health commission will be October 12. She officially joins Planned Parenthood Nov 12.

As we wrote in our 2016 profile, Wen, 35, was born in Shanghai, China. Her parents were political dissidents and she was 8 years old when they were granted asylum, settling first in Utah and then Compton, California. At 18, she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA and earned her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine before becoming a Rhodes Scholar.

In Compton, she witnessed firsthand how low wages and poverty impact the health of communities and individuals.

“I saw neighbors go for years without access to care for their diabetes and then end up dying from it,” Wen told Baltimore. “I saw children die from asthma, from other preventable illnesses, because they didn’t have access to health care for any number of reasons, whether it was cost or fear or stigma.”

Growing up, Wen, her mother, and younger sister often relied on Planned Parenthood for healthcare. While earning her medical degree in St. Louis, she volunteered at a local Planned Parenthood health center.

She was also elected president of the American Medical Student Association during medical school, taking a year off to fulfill her responsibilities, including leading 65,000 physicians-in-training to campaign for reproductive rights and universal healthcare. She graduated summa cum laude from California State University, Los Angeles at the age of 18, and earned her medical degree from Washington University School of Medicine before becoming a Rhodes Scholar.

“I depended on Planned Parenthood for medical care at various times in my own life, and as a public health leader, I have seen firsthand the lifesaving work it does for our most vulnerable communities,” Wen said in a post to her Facebook page.

Wen’s appointment comes at a time of considerable concern over women’s health, contraceptive and reproductive rights. With the likely addition of conservative U.S. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh before the upcoming mid-term elections, the Supreme Court is expected to move further right as women’s healthcare cases and issues continue to advance through the legal justice system.

In a press release, Maryland Congressman Elijah Cummings alluded to the current political climate as well as specific pressure directed at Planned Parenthood and various state capitols around the country. He also said Wen will be missed in the city.

“Dr. Wen will follow the dynamic leadership of Cecile Richards, who fought tirelessly against heinous and misinformed attacks on women’s reproductive rights and defended Planned Parenthood as a trusted healthcare provider,” Cummings said. “I am certain that Dr. Wen will continue the fight to protect women’s healthcare. She is a brilliant physician and a passionate public health leader. Although she will be sorely missed by Baltimore, I look forward to continuing our shared mission to ensure that all of our citizens have access to quality, affordable healthcare.”

Among other Baltimore initiatives under Wen’s direction, B’More for Healthy Babies has continued to help lower infant mortality rates, which have fallen nearly 40 percent over the past four years. Wen launched the city’s Vision for Baltimore campaign, which provides free glasses to every child in need of corrective eyewear.

She also helped secure funding for Safe Streets, a program staffed by ex-offenders to tackle gun violence, and led public campaigns on childhood obesity and vaccinations.

During her tenure, Wen has been an outspoken and leading advocate for the need for more state and federal funding for addiction treatment, and she often is called to testify in Annapolis and Washington. Pointing to her state and national influence on key health issues, she has more than 25,000 followers on Twitter.

“This has been a dream job [serving as Baltimore’s health commissioner]—not only to work alongside the most dedicated public servants I’ve ever known, but to join with them in a common mission to combat disparities and improve health and well-being in Baltimore,” Wen said.

In 2016, American Public Health Association awarded Wen its highest award for local public health work. Last year, Governing magazine named her one its Public Officials of the Year.

“Today is a historic day for Planned Parenthood and the millions of people it serves,” said Naomi Aberly, chair of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America Board of Directors. “A dynamic public health leader and practicing physician, Dr. Wen is the first doctor to lead Planned Parenthood in nearly 50 years. Not only will she help Planned Parenthood continue to provide high-quality care to women, men, and young people across the country, she will be a powerful voice in our fight to ensure women have the ability to make their own healthcare decisions—no matter what.”

Shortly before 8 a.m. this morning, Austin Wyatt Rollins, walked into Great Mills High School in St. Mary’s County with a handgun and began shooting students. Two students—a 16-year-old female and 14-year-old male, were shot and remain in critical and stable condition, respectively.

School resource officer Blaine Gaskill responded to the scene in less than a minute and fired a round at the shooter, who was pronounced dead. It has yet to be confirmed if Rollins’ fatal injury came from Gaskill’s bullets or the shooter’s own.

Parents of Great Mills students were directed to report to nearby Leonardtown High School for reunification. Shortly after the shooting was reported, Governor Larry Hogan reassured residents via Twitter that the situation was being addressed.

“We are closely monitoring the situation at Great Mills High School,” he said. “[The Maryland State Police] is in touch with local law enforcement and ready to provide support. Our prayers are with students, school personnel, and first responders.”

Other local officials and politicians were quick to offer “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the shooting.

“My thoughts are with the Great Mills High School community as we grapple with yet another school shooting,” Rep. Elijah Cummings tweeted. “I pray for the victims of this horrendous tragedy and my heart goes out to their families.”

Sen. Ben Cardin expressed his anger and frustration saying that at a minimum, universal background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons are needed. He said he believes the momentum for gun reform is building and is fueled by student activism.

“These students are literally just not taking ‘no’ for an answer,” Cardin said. “I can tell you that Americans are listening to our students. I think our political system will respond.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer praised the first responders, more specifically Gaskill who “answered the call this morning with swiftness, professionalism, and courage.” Hoyer believes now it’s time for Congress to act.

“We sympathize. We empathize,” Hoyer said. “We have moments of silence. But we don’t have action. Wringing our hands is not enough.”

According to the Never Again Movement, this incident at Great Mills marks the 11th time a gun has been discharged in a K-12 school since the Parkland shooting in Florida on February 14. 

Last week, students at Great Mills participated in the National School Walkout to protest gun violence.

“Headed to St. Mary’s County to be with the students, teachers, and families of Great Mills High School,” said Sen. Chris Van Hollen. “Much gratitude to all the first responders. We must stop the epidemic of gun violence.”

With deep roots in the city, not to mention its national headquarters, the NAACP kicks off its annual national convention in Baltimore this weekend.

Elected officials scheduled to speak at the convention over the next several days include Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ)—all considered possible Democratic presidential contenders in 2020—are also scheduled to appear.

The convention officially begins Friday with an opening press conference slotted for Saturday at 9:30 a.m., during which the NAACP has said it will be making an announcement about the future of the organization. The nation’s oldest and largest civil rights organization has been without a president since its board of directors announced it was letting go of Cornell Brooks last month. 

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump said he had declined an invitation to address the convention. The White House said later it would be open to meeting with NAACP leadership for a dialogue. 

Among the recent issues in contention between the civil rights organization and the new president have been the Trump Administration’s efforts to collect detailed voter data from state governments.

In a statement, Leon W. Russell, chair of the NAACP national board of directors, described the nation as finding itself “in a new period of turmoil” with looming cutbacks in education funding, civil rights enforcement and health care. 

“This year’s convention takes place at a pivotal time for our country, and for our association,” said Russell.

“Our theme for 2017 (“steadfast and immovable”) reminds us that as an organization, our intent is to fulfill the vision and mission of our founders, and we will leave Baltimore united and committed to making our nation a better place for all,” said Derrick Johnson, vice-chair of the board of directors.

The five-day conference features seminars, committee meetings, workshops, exhibits and panel discussions, as well as keynote addresses from NAACP staff, civil rights and faith leaders, elected officials, and media and youth leaders.

Tessa Hill-Aston, president of the NAACP’s Baltimore City branch, who put in the city’s bid to host the convention three years ago, said five-day event offers an opportunity for Baltimore leaders to engage with city and national leaders in addressing concerns that are common across the country. She said the convention is expected to bring 5-6,000 visitors to the city.

“Baltimore has specific problems [to address], in criminal justice, for example, but many of the issues here are also issues in Chicago and Detroit and other cities across the country,” Hill-Aston said. “There are national level issues that we need to address, discuss and find solutions for.”

The Baltimore branch of NAACP, the second chartered in the country, was founded in 1912 and was led by numerous notable civil rights figures in the past, including Carl Murphy, Lillie Carroll Jackson, Juanita Jackson Mitchell and Enolia McMillian.

Baltimore, of course, is also the birthplace of Thurgood Marshall, the legendary civil rights lawyer and Supreme Court justice who successfully argued Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, thereby ending the country’s legal doctrine of segregation. Marshall, for whom the University of Maryland law school library named its library in 1980, founded the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in 1940.

For three decades, another Baltimorean, Clarence Mitchell Jr., led the NAACP’s office in Washington D.C., where he became known as “the 101^st Senator” for his efforts in helping pass the key civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s.

Two recent NAACP presidents also have deep connections to Baltimore. Former NAACP president Kweise Mfume, current chairmen of the board at Morgan State University, was born and raised here, and Ben Jealous, a Democratic candidate for governor in Maryland, spent summers visiting his grandparents in Baltimore.

Today former FBI director James Comey told the the Senate Intelligence Committee that he believes he was fired by President Donald Trump because of concerns with the Russia investigation. Due to this mistrust, Comey testified, he documented their private conversations, appointed a special counsel to probe the administration, and accused White House officials of telling “lies, plan and simple.”

In numerous, seemingly uncomfortable, conversations with President Trump, Comey said he was asked for his “loyalty” and to abandon the FBI’s investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

Several Maryland representatives had varying reactions to the bombshell testimony, including U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, who called the details “disturbing.” 

“There is no reason to doubt the integrity of Mr. Comey’s recollection of how Mr. Trump repeatedly used the weight of the presidency to ask a law enforcement official to drop an investigation,” Cardin said in a statement. “Such inappropriate actions cannot be simply written off to a learning curve.”

Cardin said it should further encourage his colleagues to cosponsor his legislation to create an independent, 9/11-style commission to investigate Russia’s actions during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

Other local representatives had a different takeaway from Comey’s testimony today.

“I am disturbed by Mr. Comey’s statement that former Attorney General Loretta Lynch asked him to refer to the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email servers as a ‘matter’ instead of an ‘investigation,'” Rep. Andy Harris said in a statement. “If true, this would in fact demonstrate a clear bias by Ms. Lynch and an attempt to influence public perception of Hillary Clinton during the presidential campaign.”

The testimony was also of special interest to Rep. Elijah Cummings, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee, which is running an investigation into possible Russian collusion. Today, he announced that Rep. Trey Gowdy, of South Carolina, was chosen by the Republican Steering Committee as the new Committee Chairman, subject to final approval.

“I offer my sincerest congratulations to Rep. Gowdy on his new role as Chairman of the Oversight Committee,” Cummings said in a statement. “I look forward to working with him in a constructive and bipartisan manner on an agenda that serves the interests of the American people.”

 Cardin concluded his statement with another note of bipartisanship, urging both sides of the aisle to investigate Russia’s interference with the American political system.

“It is time for Republican leadership in Congress to acknowledge publicly how dangerous the president’s actions and rhetoric have been to American rule of law—the very foundation of our nation,” he said. “We need an independent commission to get to the heart of Russia’s interference in our country and to make public its findings and recommendations for how we can avoid this kind of nightmare in the future.”

Shortly after the Comey hearing, Sen. Chris Van Hollen went down to the Senate floor to urge Congress to pass sanctions on Russia. 

“Right now the world is looking at the United States and asking why we haven’t imposed tougher sanctions on Russia for its unprecedented and multifaceted campaign to undermine our elections,” he said. “There is no excuse for inaction. The United States must show Putin that we will not stand idly by while he attacks our democracy. We need to be unified in our resolve and put patriotism over partisanship.”

Former Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton spoke at a fundraising event for a leadership training program in Baltimore, saying that the world needs to “reach out to one another, to lift each other up” in response to the most recent terror attacks in London and Manchester.

Clinton, who didn’t mention President Donald Trump by name, openly criticized his policies to a packed crowd at the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park in Fells Point on Monday, June 5.

“It’s a time for steady, determined leadership, like we are seeing from local authorities in London, including the mayor of London,” Clinton said. “It’s even more important that we work with our allies and partners. Yes, to keep us safe, but also to expand our understanding of what we can achieve together.”

Clinton’s speech was less focused on politics and more on the youth program that Congressman Elijah Cummings created in 1998, calling it “a labor of love,” and stressing the importance of citizenship.

“It has never been more important for young Americans to see themselves as part of a global community,” she said. “One that works together to confront challenges, and promote peace and understanding across all the lines that divide us.”

The purpose of Elijah Cummings Youth Program in Israel (ECYP) is to build and strengthen the ties between the Jewish and African American communities. In conjunction with the Baltimore Jewish Council, the program provides leadership and community service training—as well as a three-week trip to Israel—for 12 high school students within Cummings’ 7th district of Maryland.

Since its inception, ECYP has worked with more than 200 students in Baltimore, exposing them to life management skills, leadership workshops, community service, and social and political activism. The participants of the two-year fellowship have had a 100-percent high school graduation rate, with 98 percent graduating from college.

Clinton and other leaders spoke on Monday night in front of a sold-out crowd of public officials, board members, donors, and students and the event raised more than $200,000 for the program.

Victor Blackwell—Baltimore native, CNN anchor, and ECYP class of 1998 alum—attributes his success to Cummings and encourages the current fellows to make the most of the experiences.

“Go with your eyes, and your mind, and your heart wide open,” he urged while emceeing Monday night’s event. “It made me a better man. It made me a better journalist.”

Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council, said he has seen positive results of the partnership and is proud to have a role in it.

“When I see the alumni of the program, they have become leaders in the community,” he said. “They are just remarkable.”

Congressman Cummings, who underwent minimally invasive heart surgery on May 24, was not in attendance but appeared in a pre-recorded video message instead.

“I’m here at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I had to get a tune-up,” he joked. “This is a time where we need to come together to celebrate the lives of our children. Our children are the living messages that we send to a future we will never see.”

Cummings, who personally interviews every applicant for the program, delivered a special message for the incoming fellows, who leave for Israel on July 2.

“I want you all to know that you have a future. We see you all on your way to a great level of destiny,” he said. “We want your development and your destiny to come together for you to become the person you want to be.”

Current fellow and Baltimore City College junior MiKayla Young listened to the message from Cummings with admiration. She was initially hesitant to apply to the program, but now says it’s the best thing she’s ever done.

“Being here, and listening to Congressman Cummings and Secretary Clinton speak to me is unreal,” she said. “I’m so inspired by them to go out and make a change in the world, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Clinton wasn’t the only fiery, female politician speaking at the event—Senator Barbara Mikulski addressed the crowd in typical “Babs” fashion. She began by mentioning Congressman Cummings’ absence, insisting “there’s nothing wrong with Elijah’s heart.”

“If you know him like I do, he has one of the biggest hearts in Maryland, and one of the strongest hearts in America,” she continued.

Clinton expressed appreciation for Mikulski and thanked local constituents for continuously sending the senator back to Washington D.C. Likewise, Mikulski echoed Clinton’s sentiments and also took a few jabs at President Trump without mentioning him directly by name.

“The theme for this fundraiser is building bridges and building leaders,” she said. “Boy, don’t we need that now.”

The current fellows, who are now finishing their junior year of high school, will travel to Israel in less than a month to experience a new culture with children of similar ages. Director of ECYP Kathleen St. Villier explained that the selected students are a unique group that will become “global ambassadors” upon their return.

“They are tasked to go out in the community and share their stories,” she said. “They will continue to do community service and grow as leaders.”

Clinton concluded the event by praising Cummings for his dedication to the youth of Baltimore and a call to action for all in attendance.

“This is the kind of commitment that really represents America best. And we need to do so much more,” she said. “We need find ways to serve, and to be the best citizens we can be to support the next generation.”

The man at the end of the human chain who slips and is nearly swept away himself is Jason Barnes, the owner of All Time Toys, another Main Street business that was caught in the flood.

According to WBAL, Barnes, who had just purchased the toy and collectibles store two months ago after working there for 10 years, was working when the water virtually erupted through his basement door.

“He went ahead and started to exit the basement as his door imploded in and all that water came rushing in,” Barnes’ stepfather Chris Penning told WBAL. “As he went upstairs, he knew virtually all of his inventory was gone and everything he dreamed of for the last 10 years was quite possibly lost in all this.”

Barnes, who had once dreamed of writing stories about superheroes, then saved 29-year-old Jamie Knight from the floodwaters.

Interviewed the next day, Knight told a reporter how grateful she was for the heroics of Barnes and fellow rescuers.

“Thanks a lot, man,” she said. “I really owe you. I wish I could repay you somehow.”

A list of Ellicott City businesses damaged by the flood reads like a Chamber of Commerce roll call, including restaurants such as Portalli’s Italian Restaurant, The Rumor Mill Fusion Bar & Restaurant, and Bean Hollow coffee shop; boutiques such as Sweet Elizabeth Jane and Craig Coyne Jewelers; and businesses such as Insight180, a branding agency, and Shoemaker Country, a family-owned furniture-making business.

The extent to which each business is affected will likely vary depending on its position along the steeply sloping Main Street and whether or not the business owner had flood insurance. Some on higher ground are hoping for the best, but most business owners have not yet been able to survey the damage as officials barred access to Main Street while emergency crew worked Sunday and Monday to clear the approximately 180 vehicles and other debris left behind after the waters receded. Determining a monetary value for property lost in the disaster could take months.

On Sunday, Gov. Larry Hogan and Rep. Elijah Cummings toured the downtown with Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman. Kittleman’s spokesman Andrew Barth told Baltimore that “like most people,” the governor “was shocked by the severity of the damage. There are just big, empty holes there.”

Retiring U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski also visited Monday morning, saying, “I have never seen devastation like this.”

Speaking at a press conference after her tour of the destruction, Mikulski said that officials “are working as Team Maryland from every level of government” to aid in the recovery process. Indeed, the county and state have already declared the site a disaster area, and U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin attended a community meeting about the flooding Monday evening.

The storm has already become politicized, with one Maryland lawmaker suggesting the severe storm may be a result of climate change and others pointing out the inadequacy of storm management systems in towns and cities all over the country.

At the Monday evening community meeting, County Executive Kittleman told the overflow crowd that he believed the disaster could not have been prevented, but acknowledged that he has tasked the Howard County planning department with drafting a master plan to address flood-prone areas.

“It is an opportunity to make some changes,” he said. “Make no mistake, we will rebuild.”

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Baltimore City Businesses Hit, Too

Though Ellicott City was hit the hardest, North Baltimore also saw devastating effects after the Jones Falls jumped its banks and flooded Woodberry’s Meadow Mill complex with more than 13 feet of water, leaving cars in the parking lot stacked on top of each other.

The converted industrial property—which houses local businesses such as La Cuchara and Nepenthe Homebrew, as well as production facilities for Stone Mill Bakery and Mouth Party Caramel—has seen similar devastation occur during major floods throughout the years, the most recent being in April 2014.

Anticipating significant damage, Stone Mill Bakery owners Alfie and Dana Himmelrich instructed their staff to evacuate before the storm hit. Fortunately, the crew was able to move its delivery vehicles and necessary equipment to higher ground and, after an intense day of cleanup, the bakery is back up and running.

“We had been through it before, so we knew what to do,” Dana says. “Especially for businesses like us where we bake everything fresh daily, being down for any length of time is damaging, so the sooner you can get back up, the better.”

Neighboring business Nepenthe Homebrew, a shop that sells specialty beer-making tools and ingredients, wasn’t as lucky. After locking up at 6 p.m. Saturday, husband and wife owners Brian Arnold and Jill Antos returned to their store Sunday morning to find it completely wiped out. The flooded space was riddled with ruined merchandise and shelves that had toppled over—a sight which they had seen before in the aftermath of the 2014 flood.

“Our first thought was ‘Not again,’” Arnold says. “This time, it happened really suddenly.”

Nepenthe saw $100,000 worth of damage two years ago, and though an exact estimate has yet to be made, its owners anticipate that the destruction is worse this time. Though this has happened once before, Arnold explains that complex commercial leases are tough to negotiate, so moving wasn’t an option.

“Our shelving somehow managed to stay upright the first time, so we were able to salvage some of the merchandise from the top shelves,” Arnold says. “But we’ve been expanding inventory over the past two years, so now there’s more that we’ve lost.”

Arnold says that, though the destruction is severe, the outpouring of support from the community has been overwhelming. A GoFundMe page supporting cleanup efforts has raised more than $8,000 in one day. Neighboring Hampden restaurant Le Garage has also pledged its support, launching its own initiative to raise funds. Throughout August 7, Le Garage will donate a portion of all Restaurant Week prix fixe and beer flight sales to Nepenthe’s fundraising campaign.

“The debt of gratitude that we owe people who have helped, donated, and even just sent well wishes, is bottomless,” he says. “Last time, I remember standing on the banks of the river just watching the water and sobbing because we had no idea what to do. This time, I went straight home, posted on social media, filed a flood claim, put together a to-do list, and got to work. We didn’t have that emotional reaction until we started getting messages from people.”

Adds Dana Himmelrich: “In times like this you see how people come together to help however they can, and that was really evident yesterday. If there is a bright side to be had, it’s that.”

See a full list of fundraising events and opportunities to help rebuild the flooded areas.

Also Wednesday, a number of other prominent Baltimore leaders formally endorsed Pugh, including attorney Billy Murphy, who has been representing Freddie Gray’s family; former Rep. Kweisi Mfume; former NAACP chief and Baltimore native Ben Jealous; and Rev. Jamal Bryant, pastor of the Empowerment Temple in West Baltimore.

Mosby said his decision to leave the race, “wasn’t about the polls,” which put his support at 5 percent, essentially tied with City Councilman Carl Stokes in fifth place, behind Pugh, Dixon, attorney Elizabeth Embry, and businessman David Warnock.

“If the polls were always right, my wife wouldn’t be city state’s attorney, Gregg Bernstein would. And Anthony Brown would be governor,” Mosby said. “This election will be strange. It’s tough to call. There are a lot of people after the unrest that signed up to vote. There’s the presidential race, the senate race, and a large number of ex-offenders who are able to vote for the first time.”

On the campaign trail, Mosby talked often of his personal story as the son of the city and a struggling mother in Northeast Baltimore, who went on to become an engineer. He said that he would focus on serving out the remainder of his first term in the City Council and representing the 7th District.

The City Council is currently examining a $535 million tax increment financing deal for the proposed Under Armour/Port Covington project—believed to be one of the largest urban redevelopment plans under consideration in the country.

“I’m disappointed he’s dropping out of the race, but at the same time I understand the political realities,” said Mosby supporter Kirk Wesley. “Nick ran on a message of new ideas, and the need for new candidates—instead of repeating the same mistakes made by the same people for the past 30 years. I think his candidacy, given where he came from, gave some hope to people who may have felt a sense of hopelessness.”

Mosby said that he hasn’t made any long-term career decisions. He added that his pressing concern at the moment was informing his two daughters, ages 5 and 7, when they return home from school that he was leaving the race and wouldn’t be mayor.

Early primary voting in Maryland begins April 14 with same-day registration offered during the early voting period, which continues through April 21. Early voting centers in the state can be found here.

On a light-hearted campaign note, the Stoop Storytelling Series and Open Society Institute-Baltimore are presenting “The Stoop Mayoral Show” this evening at The War Memorial, 101 N. Gay St. The free, unique election year event features Baltimore’s mayoral candidates “telling 5-minute true, personal tales about their first job” and “offers a different way to get to know the candidates.” Festivities, including music and food trucks, begin at 6 p.m. with stories to follow at 7 p.m. The event is sold out, but standby and standing room tickets will be available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The show will also be broadcast on WYPR and WEAA

Gov. Larry Hogan announced Tuesday that he will request federal authorities to stop sending Syrian refugees to Maryland until assurances can be made that refugees “pose no threat to public safety.”

In a post to his Facebook page, Hogan stated, “As governor of Maryland, the safety and security of Marylanders remains my first priority. Following the terrorist attacks on Paris just four days ago, and after careful consideration, I am now requesting that federal authorities cease any additional settlements of refugees from Syria in Maryland.”

Hogan’s announcement came one day after more than two-dozen governors—25 Republicans and one Democrat—vowed to prevent Syrian refugees from settling in their states.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland was quick to weigh in, citing Hogan’s statement as “a decision that goes against our common humanity.”

“The current calls have nothing to do with safety, and everything to do with our inability to see Syrian refugees as fellow humans. To shut out Syrian families trying to rescue their children from persecution and in some cases starvation, is to refuse to help the victims of the very terrorism we decry,” said Sirine Shebaya, an attorney directing the ACLU of Maryland’s immigrant’s rights advocacy.

Shebaya also pointed out the lack of legal authority governors hold over the immigration process. “Calls to bar Syrian refugees from American soil, in addition to being immoral, are also blatantly illegal. Refugee resettlement is a federal matter over which states have no authority. And freedom from racial profiling, religious discrimination, and discrimination based on national origin are at the heart of the values our constitution protects.”

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has already made it clear that attracting refugees and immigrants to Baltimore, which has lost a third of its population since 1950, could be in the city’s best interest. She reiterated her point in a statement released today following Hogan’s announcement.

“There are few among us who can claim that their ancestors were indigenous to the United States,” she said. “Welcoming immigrants and New Americans is a critical part of my strategy to grow Baltimore, and I hope that refugees from Syria will look to our city as a potential place to call home.

Democratic congressman Elijah E. Cummings also assessed the morality of Hogan’s request.

“Turning our backs on refugees fleeing the same senseless violence we witnessed in Paris is not just heartless, it is a betrayal of America’s values,” Cummings said in a statement. “Preserving the safety of Maryland’s residents and providing refuge for Syrians fleeing violence are not mutually exclusive; we can and must do both.”

Social media has been abuzz with mixed reactions to the governor’s words with many people taking to Twitter to express their support or disapproval.