State Roundup, September 23, 2016

HoCo SHERIFF RESIGNATION SOUGHT: Howard County’s current county executive and three former executives are calling on Sheriff James F. Fitzgerald to resign following the release of a scathing report alleging discrimination and harassment of his employees, Pamela Wood reports in the Sun. The Howard County Council, the register of wills, most of the county’s delegates and state senators, the Howard County Democratic Central Committee and Howard County Republican Central Committee also called on Fitzgerald to resign.

INITIAL ETHICS PROBE ON MORHAIM: Ethics staff for the General Assembly are conducting a preliminary investigation into Del. Dan K. Morhaim’s ties to the medical marijuana industry, according to three people with direct knowledge of the inquiry, Erin Cox reports in the Sun. The preliminary work precedes an Oct. 19 meeting of the Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, where some of Morhaim’s colleagues in the legislature will vote on whether to launch a full investigation into his conduct.

ON STRIP-SEARCHING KIDS: Erica Green of the Sun reports that a panel of national experts told a state task force Thursday that the Department of Juvenile Services should strip-search youths charged with crimes only when agency officials have a “reasonable” suspicion that they have contraband. Mark Soler, executive director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, said state policy is too broad because it requires strip searches whenever young people are first detained and after contacts with the public.

 

State Roundup, September 23, 2016