Tag: maryland

Scientists in Maryland Are Developing Artificial Blood

Scientists in Maryland believe they are on the verge of creating artificial blood that could save thousands of lives.

Researchers and scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore are creating artificial blood by extracting hemoglobin from expired blood and then enclosing the protein in a bubble of fat, which replicates red blood cells.

Dr. Allan Doctor shared that the artificial blood is “designed so that at the moment it’s needed, a medic can mix it with water, and within a minute, you have blood.”

Currently, the team at the University of Maryland School of Medicine is using artificial blood in tests with rabbits.

Per NPR:

Tens of thousands of people bleed to death each year in the United States before they can get to a hospital. That’s because ambulances, medical helicopters and military medics can’t routinely carry blood, which would go bad too fast without adequate refrigeration.

So scientists have been on a quest to develop artificial blood that could be stored in powdered form and reconstituted by medics on the spot to save lives.

At the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, where some of this research is being conducted, a white rabbit lies on the floor of a cage. It’s in a “special intensive care unit that we’ve created for our rabbit resuscitation,” says Dr. Allan Doctor, a scientist at the school.

Doctor’s team just drained blood from the animal to simulate what happens to a person who’s hemorrhaging from an injury, such as from a car crash or battlefield wound. “This rabbit is still in shock. You can see he’s lying very still. It’s as if he was at the scene of an accident,” says Doctor. “If we didn’t do anything, it would die.”

But Doctor and his team are going to save this rabbit today. They’re going to fill his veins with something they hope will finally enable them to achieve a goal that has stymied researchers for decades: developing safe and effective artificial blood. “Good bunny,” says Danielle Waters, a technician on Doctor’s team, as she gently lifts the rabbit and starts infusing him with three big syringes of artificial blood.

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FBI agent convicted of rape, sex assault of young women at Maryland tattoo shops

A Maryland man and veteran FBI agent could spend the rest of his life behind bars after being found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting at least three young women.

What we know:

Eduardo Valdivia, 41, was found guilty of six counts of second-degree rape and two counts of fourth-degree sex offense for sexually assaulting three young women.

The jury returned its verdict after deliberating for just over three hours in court on Friday.

The backstory:

Valdivia had been working as a supervisory special agent with the FBI for over a decade when he was arrested in November 2024.

Two women in their early 20s reported to authorities that they were raped at Valdivia’s tattoo studio, DC Fine Line Tattoos. One of those women also reported being raped at a nearby hotel.

A third victim came forward after Valdivia’s arrest, reporting that she was also raped by Valdivia at a different tattoo studio when she was 18 years old.

Prosecutors say Valdivia lured women to his tattoo studio with free tattoos and modeling opportunities, posing as a female psychologist and CEO of a well-connected modeling agency in emails with his victims.

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Former Voice of America Employee Indicted for Repeatedly Threatening to Murder Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Her Family Between October 2023 and January 2025

A former Voice of America (VOA) employee was indicted on Thursday for repeatedly making anonymous phone calls for over one year, where he threatened to kill Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her family. 

According to the Indictment, Seth Jason of Maryland “repeatedly threatened to assault and murder the family members of Marjorie Taylor Greene” and “threatened to assault and murder Marjorie Taylor Greene” at her Georgia campaign offices.

Notably, the calls stopped on January 21, 2025, the day after President Trump was inaugurated.

This comes after United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM) Senior Avisor Kari Lake, who oversees USAGM Affiliates, including VOA, revealed in a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last month that there was an “active investigation going on at VOA for a series of threatening phone calls that have been coming out,” threatening a member of Congress and that “they’ve discovered that those phone calls were coming from inside the Voice of America.”

Following Lake’s bombshell testimony on her agency’s record of waste, fraud, mismanagement, self-dealing, national security failures, and violent radical employees, President Trump called for the complete destruction of VOA. “KILL IT!” he said on Truth Social.

Lake responded to the new indictment on X, agreeing with President Trump that “it’s time to shut it down.”

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Woah: President Trump Announces Loathsome Senator Adam Schiff Has Been Caught Allegedly Committing Mortgage Fraud

President Trump announced on Tuesday that loathsome Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) has been caught allegedly committing mortgage fraud by Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division.

“I have always suspected Shifty Adam Schiff was a scam artist,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “And now I learn that Fannie Mae’s Financial Crimes Division have concluded that Adam Schiff has engaged in a sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud.”

“Adam Schiff said that his primary residence was in MARYLAND to get a cheaper mortgage and rip off America, when he must LIVE in CALIFORNIA because he was a Congressman from CALIFORNIA,” Trump added.” I always knew Adam Schiff was a Crook. The FRAUD began with the refinance of his Maryland property on February 6, 2009, and continued through multiple transactions until the Maryland property was correctly designated as a second home on October 13, 2020.”

“Mortgage Fraud is very serious, and CROOKED Adam Schiff (now a Senator) needs to be brought to justice.”

The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Schiff has claimed his primary residence as Maryland.

In April 2023, a concerned citizen from the state of California uncovered what is believed to be crimes committed by Schiff.

Schiff was elected to Congress in 2000. In 2003, he reportedly purchased a home in Maryland with his wife, stating they would occupy this home for 12 consecutive months as their “primary residence.” Despite this claim, Schiff continued to vote in California.

Schiff’s primary residence is a large 3,420-square-foot home in tony Montgomery County. He reportedly maintains a little condo in Burbank, California, as another “primary” residence likely to reduce his tax bill.

It’s questionable whether he even goes there.

Schiff refinanced his Maryland home in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. In 2009, a House Ethics investigation claimed that Schiff did this, and Schiff argued it was an error, and he repaid the exempt taxes to the state of Maryland.

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Far-Left Panic: Dark Money NGO Floods Baltimore Airwaves With Propaganda To Save Governor 

A local journalist at Fox Baltimore is starting to dive into the same rabbit hole we’ve explored for years—tracing the dark money networks funneling cash into left-wing nonprofits tied to the Democratic Party machine. Whether it’s funding anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles or quietly backing political campaigns, the funding network is vast, coordinated, and often concealed behind leftist law firms that create a web of pop-up nonprofit organizations.

Gary Collins of Fox Baltimore and the Baltimore Sun recently flagged a mysterious multi-week propaganda blitz—radio ads flooding the airwaves across the Baltimore metro area with praise for far-left Gov. Wes Moore’s supposedly ‘stellar’ economy. Collins noted that the campaign is now expanding to television.

The commercial, funded by America Works USA—a dark money-funded nonprofit affiliated with the Democratic Governors Association (DGA)—promotes Moore’s potentially misleading claims of economic growth, job creation, and a budget surplus. 

Even Democrats in the state dispute these claims. Ed Hale, a Democrat and former banker who founded the defunct 1st Mariner Bank, called the entire ad misleading, citing Maryland’s first credit downgrade in half a century and other economic setbacks.

Republican Senate Minority Whip Justin Ready labeled the ad a major economic distortion funded by a DGA-aligned group using dark money. 

“I think it’s fear that they’ve touched the third rail, they passed and signed the largest tax increase in the history of the state of Maryland,” Ready said, adding, “Whether you’re a middle-class family, whether you’re wealthy, or whether you’re poor, you’re paying more under Wes Moore.” 

According to public records, America Works is just one spoke in the Democratic Party’s massive network of affiliated NGOs waging an informational war on the American people. 

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Trump Sues All 15 Federal Judges in Maryland Over Their Unlawful Practice of Issuing “Automatic Injunctions” to Stop Deportations of Criminal Aliens

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sued the entire federal district court bench in Maryland on Tuesday evening over an order blocking deportations of criminal aliens.

The lawsuit was filed after the US District Court for the District of Maryland issued an order that required the clerk to automatically enter an injunction against removing any illegal alien that challenges their deportation and files a habeas petition.

“This lawsuit involves yet another regrettable example of the unlawful use of equitable powers to restrain the Executive. Specifically, Defendants have instituted an avowedly automatic injunction against the federal government, issued outside the context of any particular case or controversy. They did so by promulgating a standing order (“Standing Order”) and amended standing order (“Amended Standing Order”; together, “Orders”) that require the court clerk to automatically enter an injunction against removing, or changing the legal status of, any alien detained in Maryland who files a habeas petition,” the lawsuit against the judges said.

“Defendants’ automatic injunction issues whether or not the alien needs or seeks emergency relief, whether or not the court has jurisdiction over the alien’s claims, and no matter how frivolous the alien’s claims may be,” the lawsuit said.

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Former Baltimore Deputy Charged with Sexual Abuse of a Minor: Investigation Uncovers Disturbing Evidence

A former deputy of the Baltimore City Sheriff’s Office is now behind bars, facing charges of sexual abuse of a minor. According to WBAL-TV, Jonathan Koritzer, 35, was apprehended on Friday by the Baltimore County Police Department’s Crimes Against Children Unit following an investigation into allegations about his conduct.

Detectives launched an investigation after receiving tips about an inappropriate relationship between Koritzer and a minor, spanning from May 2022 until November 2024. During this period, the victim was between 14 and 17 years old. Evidence secured from Koritzer’s phone, which included photographs and text messages, corroborated the allegations.

In one of the more disturbing details to emerge, charging documents allege that photos found on Koritzer’s phone depicted the victim dressed in his police uniform, complete with duty gun. Currently, Koritzer is being held without bond at the Baltimore County Detention Center.

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“Another Reason To Leave”: Top Maryland Power Official Warns Of Regular Rolling Blackouts

Democratic lawmakers in Annapolis—more focused on Marxist reparations schemes to fleece taxpayers, taxing the hell out of Marylanders, having margaritas with migrants, diverting public funds to illegal aliens, pushing radical woke agendas, attempting to install condom machines in elementary schools, and focusing on de-growth policies to neuter the state’s power grid—have finally done it.

Their chronic mismanagement, with far-left Governor Wes Moore at the helm, has steered Maryland straight into a power crisis, like the Titanic blindly drifting through an iceberg minefield. The state’s fragile grid is now teetering on the edge of crisis, paving the way for ‘net-zero‘ blackouts that could soon rival those seen in Spain or California.

A top official at Baltimore Gas and Electric (BGE), a local utility with 1.3 million electric customers and 700,000 natural gas customers, warned that rolling power blackouts could soon become a regular feature in the state due to a rapidly alarming mismatch between total power capacity on the grid and soaring demand.

As per The Baltimore Sun:

Regular rolling blackouts could become reality for Baltimore-area residents if a lack of energy supplied to the power grid remains unaddressed, Baltimore Gas and Electric Company Vice President Electric Operations Steven Singh warned.

BGE has worked during the last two decades to lessen the number of short-term loads shed events, Singh said, but rolling blackouts — during which power is disconnected from some segments of the community when the grid remains viable — could be implemented if power demand continues to exceed supply.

“It’s a huge concern,” Singh said. “It’s a clear and present issue.”

At a recent round table at the University of Maryland … We have a supply and demand issue.”

Singh also shared larger concerns with energy shortages that may result as the energy transition away from coal-fired power plants continues, and electric vehicle ownership grows. He said one factor that impacts the region is an increase in data centers — reliant on huge, power-hungry server infrastructure.

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Audit finds dozens of police custody deaths in Maryland should have been ruled homicides

An audit of past rulings by a controversial medical examiner found that 36 cases of police custody deaths deemed accidents should have instead been classified as homicides. 

The comprehensive review of 87 determinations regarding deaths resulting from police use of force stretched back 16 years from 2003 to 2019. It highlights the often questionable conclusions the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) used to determine that police were not culpable.  

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, whose agency managed the audit of former Chief Medical Examiner Dr. David Fowler, said the audit was disturbing and that the reclassified cases warranted further scrutiny. 

“These findings are of great concern and demand further review,” Brown wrote in the preface of the report. 

The report is simply an audit. It does not formally reclassify any of the cases that have been reviewed. Normally, changing an autopsy determination requires a hearing in front of a judge.

The push to examine Fowler’s past rulings came after he testified at the murder trial of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was charged with murder after video surfaced of him sitting on George Floyd’s neck for roughly nine minutes. Floyd later died at a nearby hospital.  

The case sparked outrage and nationwide protests.  

Fowler testified that Floyd did not die from positional asphyxiation, the result of the downward pressure of Chauvin’s knee. Instead, he attributed carbon monoxide poisoning from a nearby tailpipe to be the primary cause. 

The testimony sent shockwaves through the medical community. An open letter penned by roughly 450 medical experts called for a review of Fowler’s rulings in light of his testimony. The pushback prompted the state to undertake a comprehensive audit, the findings of which were released in a 90-page report. 

But prior to Fowler’s testimony and the subsequent review of his rulings, family members of victims and activists had been calling attention to his determinations. TRNN also consulted an independent pathologist to review Fowler’s cases. 

Among them is the death of a 19-year-old Eastern Shore resident, Anton Black. 

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Maryland governor vetoes reparations bill

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) says he has vetoed a state-approved bill to create a commission to study and recommend reparations for slavery and racial discrimination. 

In his veto letter sent Friday, Moore pointed to several commissions the state has already approved, including the Maryland Lynching Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the State Commission to Coordinate the Study, Commemoration, and Impact of the History and Legacy of Slavery in Maryland. 

“I will always protect and defend the full history of African Americans in our state and country,” Moore wrote in his letter. “But in light of the many important studies that have taken place on this issue over nearly three decades, now is the time to focus on the work itself: Narrowing the racial wealth gap, expanding homeownership, uplifting entrepreneurs of color, and closing the foundational disparities that lead to inequality — from food insecurity to education.”

Moore, the state’s first Black governor and the nation’s only sitting Black governor, also pointed to the rise of Black politicians in recent years, including Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D), who is Maryland’s first Black female senator, and noted the state has a Black attorney general, Black state House Speaker and Black treasurer.

“We have moved in partnership with leaders across the state to uplift Black families and address racial disparities in our communities,” Moore said. “That is the context in which I’ve made this difficult decision. Because while I appreciate the work that went into this legislation, I strongly believe now is not the time for another study. Now is the time for continued action that delivers results for the people we serve.”

The bill, a top priority of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland, detailed a host of potential reparations, including official statements of apology, financial compensation, assistance with making a down payment on a home, debt forgiveness and tuition payment waivers for higher education.

The bill passed last month with a 101-36 vote in the state’s House.  

The Legislative Black Caucus condemned Moore’s veto Friday.

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