Maryland Health Secretary Meena Seshamani spoke at a forum in D.C. in November just a week after the nation’s longest government shutdown reignited debate over the Affordable Care Act. Seshamani, a former official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid during the Obama administration, said reforms are underway, but Maryland cannot fully address widening access gaps without federal support. 

“There’s always room for improvement,” Seshamani said at Semafor’s on Nov. 18. “And we have an opportunity to be able to bridge the gap in healthcare with the local economy.”

She said rural Marylanders face pressures, including rising insurance costs, workforce shortages and transportation barriers. 

In October, the Maryland Department of Health submitted under the new federal Rural Health Transformation Program, a $50 billion national initiative created under the ‘One Big Beautiful Bill,” in an effort to address persistent rural health inequities. 

The is divided into : recruiting and training new rural health providers and students, creating more sustainable ways for patients to access care, such as mobile health care units dedicated to each rural region, and nutrition and food programs that connect local farm harvests with rural hunger “hot spots.” 

The plan notes Maryland’s rural residents are older, face higher rates of chronic disease, have fewer providers and experience structural barriers like isolation and poverty. 

Douglas Jacobs, the executive director of the Maryland Health Care Commission, said there’s a lot of “promise” in the grant though different concerns loom in the medical field. 

ACA marketplace subsidies, which allows millions of Americans to afford private health insurance, is expiring at the end of 2025. Jacobs, who is a primary care physician, said he has “seen first hand the effects not having health insurance can have.” 

Jacobs said low income people living in the rural areas of the state could face disproportionate effects without insurance. 

The crisis in the health care field goes beyond affordability, Jacobs said. He said transportation and the effects of persistent poverty play a role in it as well.

“I think taking a more holistic look at patients and the communities that they live in, what services they have access to, can be especially important in determining a person’s overall health,” Jacobs said. 

Jonathan Dayton, executive director of the Maryland Rural Health Care Association, agrees. He said public transportation in Maryland is limited and taxi services can be expensive. In places like Western Maryland, Dayton said the weather compounds these challenges because even if there is public transportation available, any routes don’t reach outlying areas.

Beyond transportation challenges, Dayton said health care is not the first financial priority in many households where mortgages, utilities, food and other basic needs take the forefront. 

“Factoring in wait times, meals, and travel, many patients lose an entire workday, which isn’t feasible for every family,” Dayton said. 

Rural counties account for 29% of Maryland’s population, with 18 of 24 counties considered rural. Yet only physicians work in those regions, according to data from the Rural Maryland Council, a state agency. 

What’s more, one-in-four hospital nursing jobs statewide remain unfilled, and the state operates with 16% fewer physicians than the national average, according to a workforce study cited by the Maryland Military Coalition in 2024. 

Southern Maryland, Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore are among the hardest hit, with shortages across 25 of 30 specialties in  Southern Maryland, 20 in Western Maryland and 18 on the Eastern Shore. 

“Policymakers and decision-makers need to spend time in these communities to fully understand the reality on the ground,” Dayton said. 

Policy changes in D.C. are adding pressure. 

In September, President Donald Trump announced a $100,000 fee for H-1B visa applications, a non-immigrant visa that allows U.S. employers to temporarily hire foreign workers in “specialty occupations.” 

Previously, visa fees ranged from $2,000 to $5,000 per application, depending on the size of the company, according to the Immigration Law Group. 

Dayton said the visa restrictions on internationally trained providers “create additional barriers in a system already experiencing shortages.” He said such limits deepen recruitment challenges and impact patients. 

Dayton warned that if trends continue, rural residents could face longer emergency wait times, delayed appointments and worsening health outcomes. 

“At the end of the day, we do have common goals, and I think there is a huge opportunity for us to continue to focus on those,” Seshamani told the conference. 

Even with the reforms, Seshamani said affordability remains a growing threat. One of the tactics the state employed to prevent this was to create its own subsidy to help “cushion the blow” for residents in case federal assistance declines.

“However, it cushions it; it does not get rid of it,” Seshamani said. 

Amelia Arria, associate dean for strategic initiatives at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, said she agrees with Seshamani.

Arria said there is a palpable concern among health care workers in the state about how Maryland will integrate rural communities into preventative healthcare, which Seshamani said should be a goal.   

“We cannot separate and say hospitals and physicians are the only place to access healthcare,” Arria said

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That’s why he created the annual concert series, Mozart in Jeans, which features an all-Mozart program in a casual setting.

Peled said he believes in a “dress down philosophy” in classical music.

“I really believe that we have to break the barriers between us performers, the music we play, and the audience,” Peled said.

Mount Vernon Virtuosi will bring its next D.C. performance to St. Ann Catholic Church in Tenleytown on Dec. 14, starting at 3:00 pm. The concert is free.

Peled said that he feels wearing a tuxedo creates more barriers and makes the audiences feel like they are in a museum. Peled said his group and other performers wear their “special shirts” that display the three pillars of which they perform upon: Concerts, Education, and Community.

Katherine Needleman, an oboe player and a member of the Baltimore Symphany Orchestra, will be joining Mozart in Jeans. This is Needleman’s first time working with Peled and Mount Vernon Virtuosi.

“I am also so happy that Amit has entertained my somewhat wild cadenza idea, which involves the orchestra, and can’t wait to explore that with everyone and see how it turns out,” Needleman said.

Peled said this program started years ago, wanting to make the musicians feel a little bit out of their comfort zones. Peled said the performers feel weird wearing jeans when performing Mozart on stage.

“It created this fun atmosphere with the audience,” Peled said. “I always tell the audience the concept before.”

Peled said this event brings more young people because it is such a casual event.

“You play the highest level, and you treat it the most serious way, the music, but you don’t have to create a barrier between you and the audience by wearing something that people wore 200 years ago,” Peled said.

Peled said he originally started his music career in Israel with a crush on a girl who was four years older than him.

Peled said his class only about six or seven students on average, so the relationships with the teachers were very personal. Peled said he chose the cello because that is what his crush played, but he had immediately fell in love with the cello.

Peled said he went to an art-type school in Tel Aviv, but his music career was slightly derailed. Peled was drafted to the army at 18 in Israel but was accepted into the only string quartet that represents the Israeli defense force.

“There are only four people who are lucky enough to win this position, and then for three years instead of fighting, you play music for soldiers and for the prime minister,” Peled said.

Peled said he could not really practice during his three years of service, but he was able to continue to play music. Once Peled completed his service, he received a full scholarship to Yale University. After Yale, he went to the New England Conservatory and finished his graduate studies in Berlin, Germany.

At 27, Peled had his Carnegie Hall debut recital. At this time, Peled had his first opportunity to teach a masterclass at Baltimore’s Peabody Institute. At 28, Peled then offered an official teaching position at Peabody.

“I got this opportunity to be myself, to be an artist, to be a teacher, and to get to know this area of the world, of America and to make it my own and to try to make a change in it,” Peled said.

In 2018, while teaching, Peled had noticed something that bothered him: extraordinary talents are brought here and the day they finish Peabody, they leave. Peled said he felt bad and wanted them to stay here.

“I wanted this area to be a cultivating ground for great artists to create a better environment,” Peled said.

Peled felt that students that leave universities are not ready for the professional world because they are trained in a classroom and are not truly trained to be performing artists. So, Peled said he created what he calls the “Cello Gang.”

In a professional setup, Peled does a program called Around the World in six cells. With current students and former students alike, they join together and get paid for it. Peled said the group started touring the world and making CDs.

“It promotes the ability to be on stage and not just to study with me in the classroom,” Peled said.

After seeing the success, Peled decided to transform the “Cello Gang” into a chamber orchestra. Peled wanted to expand his mission of keeping more musicians in the area and producing more concerts and professional opportunities for them. Peled also had another thought: keeping the concerts free.

“I don’t want these people to pay in order to hear this extraordinary young, talent,” Peled said.

Peled thought about equal opportunities for musicians but also equal opportunity for community members, especially underprivileged ones, to hear classical music. This was the start of the Mount Vernon Virtuosi.

“Everybody thought, and still thinks, I’m crazy, but I thought that if wealthy people in our area or in our world would actually know the mission,” Peled said, “you want this in your community for free.”

Peled said that now in its seventh year, they are able to maintain the group through donations. With 52 concerts a year throughout the D.C. area, the group plays nearly once a week. Peled said the goal is to spread the group and mission throughout the United States.

Needleman said the Mount Vernon Virtuosi’s involvement in the community combined with the opportunities for young musicians had caught her attention.

“I’m thrilled to share the stage with a curious artist who speaks out about the value of music and against the injustice,” Needleman said.

Peled said he is an actor when performing and that the script he plays is written in the language of music. Peled said music is the only language that forces you to listen while speaking.

“You cannot speak language of music without learning to listen to what happens while you’re speaking,” Peled said.

Peled said he is trying to be as approachable as possible. Peled wants people to have the opportunities that he was able to have because of his parents and upbringing.

“We are not the Beatles, and we don’t have thousands of followers and bodyguards,” Peled said, “I want to be there for the people.”

More events can be found at the Mount Vernon Virtuosi .

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Montgomery County Renter’s Alliance and Montgomery Community Media co-sponsored a county executive candidate debate forum Wednesday night.

Mithun Banerjee, a county executive candidate, wasn’t allowed to participate. He is seeking $870,170 in punitive damages in Montgomery County Circuit Court.

Banerjee’s lawsuit alleged possible election interference. The filing also said the nonprofit organizations violated rules that govern their tax-exempt status by getting involved in political campaigns.

Banerjee told 91���� that, by excluding candidates from the forum, the organizations will make it harder for other candidates to win the upcoming primary.

“That itself is a corrupt system,” he said. “I’d given them emails notifying them they are violating law. I asked them to do corrective action. They decided not to.”

Rental Alliance: The lawsuit is frivolous.

In a written statement, Rental Alliance Executive Director Matt Losak said all Democratic primary candidates were invited to the forum. But, to participate, candidates had to meet the requirements for public matching funds or have raised more than $250,000 in campaign contributions.

The statement said the Renter’s Alliance made a good faith effort to explain the eligibility rules to Banerjee.

The alliance called the lawsuit frivolous.

“The Renter’s Alliance and [Montgomery Community Media] are Section 501-c-3 nonprofit organizations. Neither organization endorses any political party of candidate. The forum was provided as a service to educate and inform the public on the candidates’ views on housing policy,” the statement said.

Banerjee said his campaign is publicly financed and approved by the Maryland State Board of Elections, but he still wasn’t allowed to attend the forum.

He told 91���� he also filed a complaint with the Maryland governor’s office, U.S. Department of Justice and the Maryland State Board of Elections.

Montgomery Community Media Executive Director Jasmine White said in a written statement to 91���� that the media outlet did not select the participants from the forum and any views expressed at the event do not represent the organization’s views.

Montgomery Community Media remains committed to facilitating free speech, supporting open access to media and connecting people through shared information and community dialogue, the statement said.

Banerjee said his exclusion from the forum was “a shame to journalism.”

“Montgomery Community Media said they give voice to all people. That’s their commitment,” he said. “Did they give voice to me yesterday night? They didn’t.”

The case is Banerjee v. Losak, et. al, No. C-15-CV-25-005578, Montgomery County Circuit Court.

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Posing athletes dangle from Amy-Beth Topper’s ears as she sits in the crowd at her daughter Anabella’s “ninja” competitions. The blue and green colored jewelry mirrors the branding of the gym her daughter attends two or three times a week, depending on whether she has a competition. Topper enthusiastically makes the nearly two-and-a-half-hour drive from Maryland to Pennsylvania to take Anabella to Ninja Logic, even though there are closer gyms.

“I’ve not seen so many sports before where you come together and all the families are rooting for all of the kids, and the kids are rooting for each other,” said Topper. “They give their friends a tip on how to do it because it’s not about me versus you. It’s about me versus myself on the course. And they’re all encouraging of each other.”

Chasing competitions across the country, the Toppers recently drove six hours to the Movement Lab Ohio for the National Ninja League.

That kind of commitment to the sport is spreading.

Although ratings of the Emmy-nominated television hit American Ninja Warrior have dropped by half over the past decade, the number of ‘ninja gyms’ in the country has multiplied by 40 in that same time, according to Statista.

Michelle Warnky owns the Movement Lab Ohio, the gym that inspires both Amy-Beth and her daughter.

“I’m so excited to see women reaching down to the girls that are coming up behind them and building them up. I think that’s an amazing experience,” she said about Warnky.

In the show’s sixth season, Warnky made history as the second woman to climb up the fourteen-foot warped wall and advance to the city finals. Going into that season, no woman had ever achieved that feat. By the end of the season, five women had slammed the buzzer awaiting them at the top of the warped wall, punching their ticket to the city finals and forever changing the sport.

“It kind of like blew up overnight and went from this kind of like, no name show to everyone’s like, ‘[Did] you see about that girl that won?” recalls Warnky after Kacy Cantanzaro’s legendary 2014 city finals run aired.

The following year, the ninja community began to grow with leagues run by gym owners like the National Ninja League (now the World Ninja League) popping up. While the growing number of people arriving at the door of ninja gyms has been typically drawn by the reality show at first, these gyms can keep people coming back even when interest in the show is down.

In a business sense, customers get their money’s worth through a unique workout experience, with some gyms boasting thousands of interchangeable modifications to their arsenals of obstacles. Of course, they also allow kids and adults alike to live out their fantasies of competing on American Ninja Warrior through competition circuits like the World Ninja League. However, many people remain committed to their gyms due to a sense of community.

Traveling around the country to be part of a ninja community has been seen as weird at times, even for some of the ninja greats like Michelle Warnky. Warnky caught the ninja bug when the community was still in its infancy. While today many families like the Toppers are willing to drive from Maryland to Ohio for ninja, Michelle Warnky recalls people thinking she was a deranged fan for driving all the way from Ohio to New Jersey to train at a gym about fifteen years ago.

“So I ended up driving nine hours, and [the owner] thought I was crazy initially. He said he thought I was gonna pack up and go [stay] outside. He said he initially thought I was just like a super fan. He’s like, you know, no one would drive nine hours to do this or whatever at the time.”

Back then, a ninja warrior fan was synonymous with a reality television fan. Around twenty countries have run licensed adaptations of the Japanese show Sasuke, which originated the ninja warrior format. The first adaptation, American Ninja Warrior, began airing in 2009 on a small network called G4. Less than fifteen years ago, even the competitors did not see Ninja Warrior as a real sport.

 “The landscape was more athletes that were kind of migrating from other sports,” says founder of the World Ninja League Chris Wilczewski who opened one of the first ninja gyms in the country where Michaele Warnkey first visited.

“I [was] like, this is something fun. I really enjoy doing it. I want to keep doing it, but I’m going to have to go get a nine-to-five job one day to keep the lights on. Like, there’s no way this thing keeps going. And much to my surprise, the community has since blown up,” says Wiczewski.

Through avenues like the World Ninja League, the 5-time American Ninja Warrior finalist and other innovators have found ways to fill the offseason with consistent revenue, sponsorships for athletes, and an organic culture apart from the show that keeps people populating the gyms. This takes a network of businesses. Many business owners are inspired by something more than profit, or even by mimicking a television show.

CEO of DGS Ninja Equipment, an obstacle manufacturing company, John Deary, used to design and produce gymnastics equipment. After being approached by a ninja competitor to engineer some equipment, he became passionate about the growing sport and now focuses primarily on producing ninja obstacles. The sport reminded him of the place gymnastics was in when he was a kid in the 70s and 80s, and it was taking off with American youth. Now, he helps support ninja events like the World Ninja League, hoping to see the sport grow in the same way.

In 2019, Deary reached out to Chris Wilczewski about expanding his new league.

“[I told] Chris, I can help you move this to, like we do in gymnastics, out to an arena and make this into a first-class event. Take all these little problems away. I will provide you with the steel and the obstacles and the mats. I will make this a very safe operation, like we do in gymnastics,” said Deary.

On mornings when Hartford, Connecticut, felt like 20 below zero with the wind chill, Deary and other World Ninja League affiliates unloaded seven truckloads of steel, mats, and obstacles. They assembled the WNL finals course in the XL Center Exhibition Hall, bringing in nearly 2,000 athletes from around the world. This event remains the largest ninja warrior competition to date, despite having no direct ties to American Ninja Warrior.

“All insiders kind of know that [American Ninja Warrior] is built for TV, super exciting. It’s built for building personalities and superstars, and we love all that aspect of it. It also dramatically helps us with new ideas and direction for the sport, all the new obstacles that are interesting,” says Deary.

“But with that said, the growth of the sport over the last seven years has been tremendous. I don’t think the sport is ever going to go away, even if there’s never a TV show.”

Ninja competitions continue to exist all across the world for all age groups. The phenomenon may appear to be a fad, a spinoff of gymnastics that is more marketable for television. However, the owner of Kinetic Ninja Warrior, Scott Morrison, believes that ninja is something he has been looking for his whole life.

“I’ve been doing ninja my whole life. As a kid, I built courses out in the woods, but in reality, it wasn’t a sport, so I became a gymnast.”

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The home is situated at the vertex of a pointed street, around where Whites Ferry and Darnestown Road converge. On Tuesday afternoon, a portion of the wall on the second floor of the building was charred and belongings lay splayed on the lawn, including a blackened mattress and broken furniture.

Neighbors and friends identified the building’s occupant as Helen White, a homebody and animal lover they estimated was in her 60’s. They said she worked closely with local rescues and nursed several animals from illness to health in her lifetime.

Catherine Sutton, a friend and neighbor who lives just behind the victim, said White lived in the home with her Siberian Husky, Happy, and a longhaired cat.

She remembered her neighbor as a deeply generous person who often brought her thoughtful gifts including a favorite dessert of Sutton’s, rosemary shortbread, from a nearby bakery. White planned on making it from scratch for her next time, Sutton said.

“She was a sweet person,” Sutton said, adding that, when she learned of her neighbor’s death on Tuesday “my heart broke for her.”

Sutton displayed a tiny bouquet of red and blue flowers and a pine tree sprig in a small vase in her kitchen. She said the flowers were picked and gifted to her by her now deceased neighbor who also made sure Sutton had flowers when her birthday rolled around in September.

“She said something like, ‘a girl has to have flowers on her birthday,’” Sutton recalled.

Crews responded around midnight after getting the call about the blaze on the 16600 block of Whites Ferry Road in Boyds, said Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson David Pazos.

91���� 75 firefighters responded to the scene, Pazos said. They found the fire on the second floor of the home and attempted to get in through the doors but “heavy storage” inhibited their ability to get inside, Pazos said, so crews propped up a ladder and entered through the window.

Once in the home, firefighters discovered the body of a woman.

Police declined to confirm the name or age of the victim.

Around midnight, Edin Pass, who lives around the corner, heard the sound of sirens and saw flames down the block and immediately knew which house they were likely coming from. He said he tried to make his way to the building, but the street was blocked off.

“I’m thinking, ‘it’s her house because she have too many thing I think around the house,’” Pass said.

He didn’t know his neighbor well, but he works as a roofer in the area and had done an inspection on her roof after a recent hail storm. He said she was always kind and friendly.

“It’s hard to now understand she’s dead,” Pass said, adding he stayed home from work Tuesday as he processed the news. “I can’t believe.”

“She was a good, good person,” Sutton said. “Good, generous, kind, big heart – I will miss her very much.”

Update (12/3 midnite) 16600 White’s Ferry Rd, fatal house fire; victim located on 2nd fl; dog got out; fire originated on 1st fl w/ multiple competent ignition sources, none of which could be ruled out; Cause, accidental, under investigation; Damage $300K structure/$100K contents

— Pete Piringer (@mcfrsPIO)

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As part of an initiative that aims to give parents more autonomy in their child’s education, Trump has promised to sign an executive order that would cut federal funding for schools that incorporate critical race theory, gender ideology or other “inappropriate racial, sexual or political content” in curricula. 

Armed with the support of his secretary of education pick, Linda McMahon, he has said he intends to sign an executive order to reinstate “The 1776 Commission,” an advisory commission made up of 20 members appointed by Trump that enforces the incorporation of “patriotic” values in the classroom. 

Among his biggest campaign platforms, however, has been his calls to dismantle the Department of Education as a way to “end education coming out of Washington, D.C.” and “send all education work and needs back to the States,” as his campaign website states. 

“On top of regular educators and paraeducators, we have a lot of staff that are solely here to support very specific students,” said Alessandra Portillo, administrative secretary and financial specialist at Diamond Elementary School in Gaithersburg, Maryland. “They know that in cases like this, their programs are the first ones cut, which is really unfortunate.” 

Diamond Elementary School is a Montgomery County public school that hosts a nationally recognized support program for children on the autism spectrum among its standard course offerings. Portillo said that the school relies heavily on funding allocated by the Department of Education and federal grants to keep critical resources and programming available for children with special needs. 

“A lot of these parents that send their kids here don’t have the specialized skills, training, or knowledge to be able to care for their kids [in] the way that they need,” Portillo said. 

According to Portillo, the tone at most schools in the Washington region hosting specialized education programs has been one of anxiety, shock, and apprehension. Many are experiencing uncertainty about whether the changes Trump has promised on a federal level may influence them on a local level. 

Not all educators are worried about potential changes, particularly those in states with greater local autonomy.

Donna Norton is an 8th grade English teacher at Bonny Eagle Middle School in Scarborough, Maine. She’s not particularly worried about incoming changes at the federal level, and added that neither is the administrative body at her school. 

“Everybody always just says, ‘Oh my god, I’m so glad I don’t teach in Florida,’ or ‘I’m so glad I don’t teach in Texas.’ That’s more what the feeling is,” Norton said. “For me personally, I don’t know how much would be affected at the state level, or even at our local level, because a lot is done at our [local level]. … So I’m not hugely worried.” 

In contrast to Portillo’s concerns, Norton said that she was doubtful anything would be affected at Bonny Eagle, even if Trump was able to get Congress to enact legislation shuttering the Education Department. 

Norton added that after the Common Core Learning Results were implemented under President Ronald Reagan and further developed under President Barack Obama, they were “kind of done away with” in Maine on a district-by-district basis.

“I think everybody’s just about providing a good education,” Norton said. “I know in Maryland, [curriculum is determined] by county, but a lot of people don’t even have faith in the public school system there. I don’t think that’s because of [anything at] the national level. I think that’s because the districts are so huge, they’re just absolutely difficult to manage.” 

Christina Cropper is a school counselor at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Similarly to Norton, she is skeptical about whether Trump’s promises will be fully carried out in schools when so many decisions around education happen at the state and local levels. 

“I’m really not worried about the Department of Education closing,” said Cropper. “What worries me is the shift in rhetoric that will then actually affect policy on a state and local level.”  

School administrators sent out resources for teachers to help them navigate the intricacies of politically charged discussions among students, including guidance on when to intervene and shut conversation down if it became too combative. 

Other than mitigating the immediate emotional impact on students, however, Cropper said that the school administration at Dunbar High School has largely been waiting to see what comes of Trump’s promises.

“He’s not in office yet. The impact’s not quite there yet,” Cropper said. “This might just be me personally, but I think we’re all kind of waiting just to see what’s going to happen, what he’s actually going to be able to accomplish,” she said.

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Lemoupa, now 34 and living in Capitol Heights, was a medical lab technician in his home city of Bamenda in northwestern Cameroon when he left in 2015. But as a gay man in a country where homosexuality carries a potential five-year prison sentence and torture and violence are a constant threat—a hardship Lemoupa had experienced firsthand—he felt he had to leave.

“I could really see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Lemoupa said of arriving in the U.S. “I felt like, yes, I am in a land that supports people’s rights and that stands up for people like me.”

Lemoupa’s optimism has since faded, ground down by an asylum process that left him in legal purgatory. For eight years, his asylum application has languished in the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) backlog, leaving him struggling to advance his career, build a life, see friends and family, and even, at times, legally drive a car.

“This place hasn’t been feeling like a safe haven for a while,” Lemoupa said.

Lemoupa entered the U.S. on an international student visa with restrictions. After he arrived in Washington, D.C., following a brief stint in California, he filed an “affirmative” asylum application, available only to asylum seekers who entered the country legally; not via an unauthorized border crossing.

“I was supposed to have had an interview in 21 days, according to the message that was on the USCIS website at the time,” Lemoupa recalls. However, almost three months later, he received a letter from USCIS that only confirmed receipt of his application. “I was a little frustrated at the time, but I mean, there was nothing I could do.”

Lemoupa is not alone. The size of the backlog for affirmative asylum cases has ballooned in 2023. As of August, 974,571 affirmative asylum applications were pending a final decision, reported, up from around . Processing times can take over a decade and are set to grow as the backlog could reach one million applications by the end of 2024, a Department of Homeland Security ombudsman report said in June.

A $40 million proposal in the Senate to reduce the backlog is on the line in the fiscal tug-of-war over 2024 appropriations in Congress.

Part of the backlog can be attributed to a surge in affirmative asylum filings. In 2022, the agency received more than 230,000 applications—a record high. As of Sept. 15, the agency had received some in 2023. There are also fewer staff to handle the influx of applications. The agency has 760 working officers, 72 fewer than in

While affirmative asylum seekers are eligible for work permits 180 days after filing their application, many report facing additional career hurdles because of their pending status.

“Nobody will really want to give you any position of authority or responsibility because they will feel like you don't have a status, and they don't really see you like a long-term employee,” Lemoupa said.

Lemoupa has also had difficulties keeping a driving license, as licenses expire every one, two or five years with an asylum applicant’s work permit. In one instance he was unable to drive for a three-month period while he waited for his renewal, which endangered his job as a care worker in a group home for people with disabilities. He has also been unable to leave the country to see friends or family abroad with a pending application.

Andrea Barron, an advocate for torture survivors, is working with more than 100 affirmative asylum applicants in the DMV area who have been waiting more than five years for an asylum interview to determine their application.

“None of our people—zero—have gotten interviewed in the past few years unless they got what’s called an expedited interview,” Barron said. “It’s so unfair.”

On a chilly Autumn evening around Capitol Hill she called and checked in with her clients. Barron, 72, program manager at Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC), speaks at a rapid clip, a Boston twang betraying her New England origins. “Hello? Are you okay? Your voice doesn’t sound so good.”

She extolls her work helping asylum seekers present their testimony to policymakers with the same passion as she does her go-to menu item at her favorite Thai eatery or the meeting she attended the previous evening with a group working to combat political polarization.

“The Biden administration said it would implement a more ‘humane’ and ‘fair’ asylum system,” Barron said. Human rights groups expected that asylum applicants waiting more than five years for an interview would finally receive an answer on their applications. “That turned out not to be true. The Biden Administration developed a better asylum system for some migrants,” Barron added.

For example, applications from Afghan citizens received during the U.S. withdrawal have received priority, as have more recent cases under a “Last In, First Out” policy.

Maryland's Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D), who sits on the Appropriations Committee and pushed for the $40 million recommendation in the FY2024 Department of Homeland Security appropriations, has championed the issue in Congress. Since 2021, groups of affirmative asylum applicants have written letters to his office, and the senator’s aides have met with Lemoupa and a handful of other applicants on Capitol Hill.

The DHS appropriations bill passed in the House does not include the $40 million earmarked for easing the backlog. There will likely be much wrangling over spending commitments in the political tussles before the February government funding deadline.

“We're trying to get these voices before the key people at this point,” said Steve Metalitz, a TASSC volunteer, “which is right now the House appropriators.”

Some organizations, however, argue taxpayer money should not be used to clear the backlog and that this money should be raised from charging asylum applicants filing fees, a proposal tabled by former President Trump but nixed under Biden.

“Applicants, not U.S. taxpayers, should pay their fees to adjudicate applications. That is a sound fiscal policy,” Lora Ries, director of the Border Security and Immigration Center at the Heritage Foundation, told 91���� through a spokesperson. “Applicants for other benefit types cover the cost of asylum adjudications with higher fees of their own,” she added. “This administration needs to stop allowing aliens to apply for benefits for free.”

But even if the advocates win the funding fight, the $40 million alone won’t be enough to clear the backlog. Andrea and her team are also pushing for an end to Last In, First Out and for those waiting more than five years for a decision to receive priority for asylum interviews. This cause received support from progressive lawmakers in a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in September 2021.

Today I sent a letter with 40 House colleagues to and asking them to address the backlog of 400k asylum cases at . No one who has escaped persecution, or even torture, should have to wait 5 to 7 years for a decision.

— David Cicilline (@davidcicilline)

Lemoupa thinks he must have met with congressional aides three or four times a year, every year, since 2021.

“Going into all these congressional meetings, one thing I will tell you is when you go there, they pay attention. They listen to you; they take notes; they're empathetic. That part of it is good. But on the other hand, they keep telling you, ‘oh, we are very limited in what we can do,’” Lemoupa said.

“I think the policy wheel might be too slow to turn,” he added.

The optimism and relief that Lemoupa felt on that day in the Kansas winter has been replaced with anger.

“I feel enraged,” he said. “We're not asking for any special treatment. I'm not asking that I should be given a status without due process,” Lemoupa added, “I'm asking for fair and equal treatment, which is not what we're getting from the system.”

“If it does not go in that appropriation, I will be even more enraged.”

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Among the four referendum questions on the ballot, one stands out for its potential to transform the political landscape: should Rockville allow 16 and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections?

“I think lowering the voting age is really important because a lot of the city issues affect students,” said Sophie Nguyen, a junior at Rockville High School. “A lot of teenagers work jobs and pay taxes, they are impacted by policy changes. And if we don’t have a say, how can we really say that we’re being truly represented?”��

This pivotal referendum stems from the findings of the city’s , which highlighted the historically low voter turnout in local elections.��

Latest data from the commission reports showed that roughly 70% of registered voters in Rockville did not participate in city elections. The commission’s response to this issue was to unanimously recommend lowering the voting age to 16, aiming to boost civic engagement and representation for the city’s younger residents.

Alyssa Canty, the director of youth programs for Common Cause Maryland— a nonpartisan organization dedicated to lowering the voting age to 18, said it’s important to include high school adolescents in voting as the policies more directly impact them in the long term.

“Most teenagers get a job at the age of 15 or 16 and pay taxes to the community, but don’t have a say on how those taxes get used,” Canty said. “You also are more impacted by school board elections than, say, someone like myself, who doesn’t have children and who’s not school age. I vote for school board elections, but that doesn’t really impact my day-to-day life.”

In Maryland, cities can lower the voting age for local elections through a city council vote. In the case of Rockville, however, instead of voting, the city council left it to residents to vote on the issue through a referendum ballot.

Notably, five Maryland cities have already embraced this change, allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to cast their ballots in municipal elections: Takoma Park, Greenbelt, Hyattsville, Riverdale Park, and Mount Rainier. A sixth city, Somerset, will have 16-year-olds who can vote in local elections beginning next May.

With about 21.1% of Rockville’s population under 18, to the U.S. Census Bureau as of July 2022, the potential impact of this policy change is substantial.��

However, some residents are skeptical of allowing individuals below 18 to participate in local elections citing concerns such as maturity level and lack of political interest among teens, based on the public hearing comments from the city’s

“It’s just unfortunate that a lot of adults don’t think that we’re responsible enough or just educated enough to vote at the age of 16,” Nguyen said.

Like many of her peers, Nguyen is actively involved in various student advocacy organizations, including the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association (MCRSGA) and Montgomery County Students For a Change.

“A lot of us are really involved in checking up on politics, the news, and issues that we’re seeing every single day around social media,” she continued. “We have our own thoughts and opinions on it.”��

In the Charter Review reports, the commission also linked the unanimous recommendation to from Rutgers University that found 16-and-17-year-olds are “neurologically and socially mature enough to vote responsibly.”

Canty also emphasized the importance of involving younger voices in the electoral process.

“I think a lot of times we think of youth activists being college students,” Canty said. “But there’s a lot of people who are 16 and 15, that are really a part of those movements, especially the ones around gun control and how that really impacts their experience as students.”

Daniel Leuning, a 32-year-old Rockville resident, echoed the sentiment on how issues like climate change, reproductive justice, and gun control laws impact on the younger generation due to decisions made by politicians much older than the impacted youth.��

“Older people in the society just have a stranglehold on the levers of power and I think that just needs to change,” Leuning said. “Especially since they’re making decisions on issues that they want to see from the past while high school and middle school kids have to deal with those consequences later down the line, even though they don’t have the agency to shape what’s going to be happening.”

This year’s latest data from the Pew Research Center shows the of voting House lawmakers is 57.9 years, while the Senate’s median age is 65.3 years.

Rockville’s Charter Review Commission also argued that this provision has a multiplying effect, as younger people who vote directly influence voter turnout if their parents/caretakers and older residents within their community.

According to , these policy shifts in Maryland have proven successful in other cities, with 16 and 17-year-old voters turning out at higher rates than their older counterparts.

For most high schools across the country, Canty said the age of 16 and 17 is when most students have their first civics and economics classes. Engaging in early voting habits would be an experimental learning in social sciences such as civic and government engagement.

“There’s no one any age that can just wake up and go vote without doing any type of research,” she continued. “So I think as long as we provide that education, it’s really critical that they get a voice in elections, to be able to influence a change.

Recalling her days as a teenager, 58-year-old resident Dana Sarti said many high school students get politically activated during this age as they become more aware of the governmental systems and policies enacted by the officials.

“I remember when I was 16 or 17, I was really interested in politics and human rights in particular at that age, and so I think now, it’s even more relevant,” Sarti said. “Given that there’s a lot in the political climate affecting 16 and 17-year-olds right now more than when I was a kid, it is definitely time that we should be letting them have their voices speaking up, as they are definitely mature enough.”

City officials mailed the ballots to registered voters earlier this month. Voters can return their postage-paid ballot to the city, or drop off the completed ballot at any time at an Election Dropbox by 8 p.m. on Nov. 7.��

For the first time since 2019, voters can also cast their votes at two Election Day Vote Centers on the election day.����

The post ‘It’s critical that they get a voice’: Rockville to vote on lowering voting age in upcoming city election first appeared on 91����.

Jonathan Snyder spent Good Friday rolling eggs in dye-filled shaving cream with his fiancée and her daughter in their Cumberland, Md. home. Last year, this would have seemed unusual for Snyder. As a production specialist at the nearby Hunter Douglas window blinds plant, he worked Monday through Friday and sometimes even overtime on Saturdays. But about six months ago, that started to change.��

“People aren’t buying enough to keep the plants running,” Snyder said. “We were working two days a week, three days a week. We weren’t getting full paychecks.”����

He began to notice other signs of trouble too. The company tore down equipment to send to their facility in Monterrey, Mexico. A group from Monterrey traveled to the Cumberland plant to learn how to make certain products. Then in March, Hunter Douglas’s director of operations flew in from Salt Lake City for what workers were told was an inspection.����

“And then towards the end of the shift, they brought all the people from all the departments together, and then they announced that they were going to be closing this plant,” Snyder said.

Hunter Douglas declined to be interviewed for this story but provided a press release that said they “decided to close its fabrication facility in Cumberland, MD and consolidate with other out-of-state company-owned facilities.” The release also mentions they’ll retain about 120 customer support and credit analyst employees, who will work remotely. The other around 240 workers, like Snyder, will need to find new jobs when the plant shutters this summer.��

“It’s not a big deal to make a window shade or anything like that,” Snyder said. “But I actually have a finished product that I can look at and take pride in the work that I’m doing. So, I love doing what I’m doing.”��

When the company first opened a factory in Allegany County in 1990, it joined a long history of manufacturing. Cumberland is located on several historic thoroughfares, from Native American paths to the B&O and C&O railroads to the first federally funded road.�� According to historian Albert Feldstein, this made the city an opportune spot for manufacturing goods that could travel from the East to the frontier in the West. ��

The city became full of tin mills, glass, factories, and breweries. In 1888, a large paper mill opened in nearby Luke, Md. Later, Kelly Springfield Tire Corporation opened in Cumberland in 1916, followed by the Celanese Corporation in 1924. Feldstein said more than 13,000 people once worked in that plant. According to census data, Cumberland’s population peaked in 1940 at just shy of 40,000 residents.��

Today’s economic landscape looks much different. All of those big factories have closed and data from the state’s Department of Labor show a 47% drop in manufacturing employees in the county between 2002 and 2021. The city’s population has also decreased by more than 50% from its peak. ��

“I’d say in terms of what’s happened over the past maybe 50 years in manufacturing—and it’s not just a Cumberland story, it’s a national story—we’ve lost much, the majority of our manufacturing and industrial base,” Feldstein said.��

Allegany County’s Board of County Commissioners is working to help lessen the blow of the Hunter Douglas plant closure. Dave Caporale, board president, said they’d had a strong working relationship with the company, and he was “really disappointed” to see them go. Caporale even called the governor’s office when he heard the news, but they could do nothing to help.��

“A lot of those jobs are moving to Mexico,” Caporale said. “So, I mean, there really wasn’t a leg for us to stand on as far as trying to keep them here.”��

Caporale said the board is working to find a new business to move into the Hunter Douglas site and they’ve partnered with the state’s Department of Labor to set up a job fair for employees in May.

“There’ll be more jobs at that particular offering than there are positions at Hunter Douglas that will be being lost, so that’s good,” Caporale said. “For some folks, maybe it might be a different fit, but there are enough jobs available to absorb all of the employees.”��

Another resource for the laid-off workers is Western Maryland Works, a workforce development facility and makerspace that’s part of Allegany College of Maryland. One of their focuses is retraining laid off employees in skills like welding, carpentry and machining, like they did when the Verso Paper Mill closed in 2019, and almost 700 people lost their jobs.����

Dave Smarik, the makerspace manager at Western Maryland Works, said they’re ready to help the Hunter Douglas employees with the same kinds of intensive training programs that can help the workers find new jobs.��

“There’s some folks that would say in our area here that manufacturing production is dying off,” Smarik said. “In our area, yes, jobs have been lost. Employment has been lost. But new employment, new employment opportunities have been created through the use of technology, the use of innovation.”��

There are still companies in the area, like Northrop Grumman and National Jet, that are looking to hire workers with these skills.��

“We have a lot of demand for high-skilled machinists, tool, die and gauge makers, engineers that really know��manufacturing, technology skills and such,” Smarik said.��

As for Jonathan Snyder, the Hunter Douglas production specialist, he’s planning to attend the job fair and wait and see what opportunities come his way after the plant closes mid-summer. He’d like to stay around Cumberland, where he and his family have made their home.��

“I don’t have any plans to go anywhere,” Snyder said. “I’ve seen a lot of job offers in other areas and I haven’t really looked at it.”��

For Snyder and the other employees that are losing their jobs, choosing to stay or go is just one of the many choices they’ll need to make as they head into an uncertain future.��

The post Cumberland residents wonder what’s next for manufacturing as another plant closes first appeared on 91����.

“We make hard decisions every day about who we’re able to fund,” said Lynn McCann, director of development and communications for Baltimore Abortion Fund.��

BAF gives financial assistance to Maryland residents and people traveling to Maryland for an abortion.

The fund expects to receive about 3,000 calls for support this year, McCann said. It will be able to assist approximately half of these prospective clients due to budget restrictions.

An increased need for support has been a trend for years, with BAF seeing a��40% increase in requests each year, said Communications Manager Priya Hay-Chatterjee.

However, the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer has led to an uptick in out-of-state clients traveling to Maryland for an abortion. BAF expects a 60% to 100% increase in call volume over the coming years, Hay-Chatterjee said.

“We really are bracing for an influx, especially as some other states’ abortion laws are still in limbo in their court systems,” Hay-Chatterjee said.

The D.C. Abortion Fund is expecting a similar increase in overall demand, said Communications Director Devin Simpson. The fund serves residents of the District, Maryland and Virginia, as well as people traveling to those areas for a procedure.

DCAF has already seen an influx in out-of-state clients after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, Simpson said. This affected the amount of resources available to DCAF and local clinics.��

“That makes it harder on everyone to get the procedures when they need them,” Simpson said.

The longer people have to wait for an abortion, the more expensive the procedure becomes, Simpson said. This increases barriers to abortions even in areas where it is legal.

Changing costs

Abortion funds across the country are facing this increase in demand, said Gretchen Ely, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who researches abortion funds.��

While funds had to make difficult decisions due to limited budgets even before the Supreme Court’s decision, Ely said an increase in out-of-state travel had changed the types of costs patients face.��

“Demands have shifted as well to a need now for travel and support around travel,” Ely said.

The average abortion cost for BAF’s clients is $4,000, McCann said. This does not include secondary costs from getting the procedure, like travel accommodations or childcare.����

McCann said BAF anticipates spending around $600,000 this year to support abortion care costs. It will disperse another $80,000 in practical support for things like transportation, lodging or translation assistance.��

“The need for financial and logistical support for abortion care, even in Maryland specifically, really far exceeds our current budget and our ability to meet it,” McCann said.

The total reported cost of care for BAF’s callers this year is over $5 million, McCann said.��

“Even though we wouldn’t be expected or even have the ability to fully fund the entire procedure cost for every single caller, it just really speaks to the total need that’s out there,” McCann said.

Over the past year, DCAF pledged over $1.3 million to almost 6,000 clients — double what it pledged the prior year — according to .��

Because D.C. is home to multiple clinics that perform abortions later into pregnancies, Simpson said some of DCAF’s clients face bills totaling thousands of dollars. However, the average grant from the fund is $250.��

Costs go beyond the actual procedure, Simpson said. Patients may have to take off work, find childcare if they already have kids or arrange transportation to the clinic even if they are residents.

“Whether or not you can afford the ticket price of the procedure, affording all the other things that come along with getting it can be an obstacle for patients as well,” Simpson said.

Simpson said DCAF is a larger fund and has always been able to cover the needs of its callers. However, as more states pass abortion restrictions and their residents have to travel to areas like D.C. for the procedure, Simpson said, “it will be harder.”��

“We hope we’re able to continue to fund every single caller and the need they have,” Simpson said.

Essential to patients

Access to BAF has enabled some Potomac Family Planning Center patients to receive the care they otherwise would not be able to afford, said Clinic Coordinator Allison Claytor.

Located in Rockville, Maryland, at least 25% of the clinic’s patients receive funding from BAF, Claytor said.

“The Baltimore Abortion Fund has done a tremendous job about fundraising and helping out our patients,” Claytor said. “They help out our patients quite a bit.”

Procedures at Potomac Family Planning range from $420 to $1,300 depending on where a patient is in their pregnancy, Claytor said. The clinic sees patients from five to 17 weeks of gestation.

Claytor said the biggest obstacles the clinic’s patients face are funding the procedure and securing transportation. BAF can help pay for both of these costs, offering logistical support and healthcare coverage.��

“When [patients] get funding, they definitely need it,” Claytor said.

Ely said the primary demographic served by abortion funds is people in low socioeconomic positions. Ely’s research has found that women of color access abortion care at higher rates, likely because they also often fall into lower income levels.��

“[Abortion funds] are critical for folks who are lower income in terms of their ability to access abortion care,” Ely said. “They were critical before the Dobbs decision and they’re probably even more critical now.”

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