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In the Media: Warnock Enters Mayoral Race; Prosecutors Oppose Juror Sequestration in Gray Case

Mayoral candidate David Warnock.
Shan
/
Cool Green Schools
David Warnock is entering the mayoral race.

A digest of Baltimore news from local sources.

From The Baltimore Sun: David Warnock, Businessman and Philanthropist, to Enter Baltimore’s Mayoral Race

"David L. Warnock, the Baltimore venture capitalist and philanthropist, is entering the mayor's race — arguing that his business background and political inexperience are positives for a city in desperate need of job growth and a fresh start.

"'We are going to have another uprising if we can't figure out how to create jobs and economic opportunity for the people who are the least fortunate among us,' said Warnock, a partner in one of Baltimore's largest private equity firms whose charitable work includes helping ex-offenders.

"Warnock, 57, said in an interview with The Baltimore Sun that he plans to formally file to run for mayor Tuesday. He will join a crowded field seeking to replace Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, who is not seeking re-election.

"With his wealth and business connections, Warnock's entrance could put pressure on the field to ramp up fundraising efforts. He also represents an outsider among politicians."

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From The Baltimore Sun: Prosecutors Oppose Sequestering Freddie Gray Jurors

"Prosecutors in the Freddie Gray case are opposing a defense request to sequester jurors during the trial of Officer William Porter.

"In a filing posted online Monday, prosecutors say Porter's attorneys are seeking conditions that would be 'so onerous that few otherwise qualified jurors could withstand such hardship.' They say the defense attorneys are trying to get the trial moved to another jurisdiction.

"'While actively discouraging jury service might serve the defendant's removal motion, it serves no legitimate purpose,' prosecutors wrote in the filing, dated Oct. 28. They wrote that an order to sequester would 'quite literally make the jurors prisoners of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.'

"Attorneys for Porter, whose trial is scheduled to begin Nov. 30, asked Judge Barry Williams last month to put jurors up in a hotel with no access to cellphones and limited access to television, and to order sheriff's deputies to monitor their interactions with family and friends.

"They said the conditions were necessary to prevent jurors from being influenced by others and hounded as they moved to and from the courthouse each day for trial.

"It is inevitable that they would be 'bombarded with opinions, TV news, Facebook posts and the like,' they said."

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From The Washington Post: Democrats Press Hogan to Release Schools Amid Waning Deficits

"Maryland’s top Democratic lawmakers renewed calls Monday for Gov. Larry Hogan to release $68 million in extra funding for the state’s most expensive school districts, citing more than a half-billion dollars in budget surpluses over the next two years and what they described as pressing educational needs.

"The news conference in Annapolis marked the opening salvo in what is likely to become another heated battle between the increasingly popular Republican governor and the Democratic-controlled General Assembly over spending priorities for the 2016 legislative session.

"Hogan in May withheld half of the $136 million that lawmakers had allocated to the state’s 16 most costly school systems under a formula known as the Geographic Cost of Education Index.

"The governor said the money — much of which would have gone to public schools in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Baltimore counties and Baltimore City — should instead be used to bolster the state’s underfunded pension system.

"State Democratic leaders argued Monday that the legislature had — at Hogan’s urging — taken steps to put the state on stronger financial footing, paying an additional $50 million into the pension system and launching a two-year plan to close the state’s structural budget deficit. They released estimates showing surpluses of $520 million for fiscal 2016 and $215 million for 2017.

"Given the current surplus, they said, Hogan should release the money that the legislature earmarked for schools in parts of the state where education is more expensive."

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