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Suburban Maryland Adult Care Centers
Called Deficient in Federal Health Audit
Suburban Montgomery and Prince George’s counties were named in a recent federal audit that reported major health and safety violations in Maryland’s adult care centers.
The audit blamed the Maryland Health Department for inadequate regulation of the health care facilities. The audit was based on inspections of 20 adult care centers in 13 counties.
The reported violations included dirty bathrooms and kitchens; water damage; exposed electrical wiring; and needles and chemicals that were not properly stored. They were found in 18 of the 20 care centers inspected by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Maryland Health Department “inspections were insufficient to ensure a continuously safe and nonhazardous environment,” the audit said. “As a result, the health and safety of adults were put at risk in numerous instances.”
Maryland’s 141 licensed adult day care centers received $106.7 million in federal Medicaid in 2023, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. They take care of people at least 16 years old whose health problems or disabilities mean they cannot properly care for themselves.
Maryland Health Department officials did not dispute the federal audit’s findings. They said they would evaluate any deficiencies before taking stronger oversight measures.
The federal audit released last month pointed out the kinds of deficiencies found in other Maryland health facilities in recent years. They have led to greater regulatory enforcement and threats of litigation.
A class action lawsuit last year revealed delays in Maryland nursing home inspections that the plaintiffs said endangered residents.
A 2023 Maryland Health Department report found regulatory shortcomings in 62 hospitals that were blamed for 769 incidents that killed or injured patients. The rate of the problems more than tripled between 2019 and 2022, largely because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report said.
For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: tramstack@gmail.com or phone: 202-479-7240.
Maryland and State Coalition Win Injunction
Blocking Cut-Off of Disaster Resistance Funds
Maryland and 19 other states are awaiting a Trump administration response to an injunction they won to ensure Federal Emergency Management Administration funds intended to help them build disaster resistant infrastructure are not diverted.
The Trump administration announced in April it was shutting down the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) had already identified about 2,000 projects that would have shared some of the $4.5 billion allocated to the program.
The money was supposed to help them pay for infrastructure projects such as seawalls, resilient electrical transmission systems and stormwater management.
Shutting down the BRIC program was part of a larger effort by President Donald Trump to scale back FEMA and turn much of the nation’s disaster management over to states.
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Trump Expands Military Deployment
In Multi-City Anti-Crime Campaign
President Donald Trump’s expanding use of the National Guard and federal law enforcement officers to supplement local police crime fighting in Washington, D.C., and elsewhere is raising alarms from civil liberties advocates.
He signed executive orders that authorize hiring more federal law enforcement officers to supplement local police and that establish “specialized” anti-crime units within the National Guard.
His first priority is Washington, D.C., where National Guardsmen started carrying guns last week that include both sidearms and rifles.
“D.C. is horrible,” Trump said after signing the executive orders.
Initially after their Aug. 7 deployment, the Guardsmen were unarmed as they patrolled monuments and other key downtown sites.
Power the Civil Rights Work of Our Time
Each day members of our community are experiencing wage theft, the effects of gentrification, discriminatory policing, collateral consequences, marginalization in schools, and barriers to public accommodations.
We fight alongside people facing the effects of gentrification like Amira Moore. Our work empowers the people and communities who need it most, “We can do more than we think. There’s a path to equity, we just have to step to it.” –Ms. Moore
For more than 50 years, the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has been on the frontlines of the fight for civil rights in our community. We deploy the best legal talent, we tackle the tough cases, we fight, and we win.
Our work is as important today as it has ever been. Through your support, you can play a role in creating justice for thousands of marginalized members of our community. Together, we will dismantle injustice and pursue lasting change.
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Letters to the Editor
D.C. in Brief
Northern Virginia Schools Sue Education Dept.
In Dispute Over Transgender Policies
The public school systems in Arlington and Fairfax County are suing the U.S. Education Department in a dispute over accommodations for transgender students.
Both school systems allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their choice of sexual identity.
The Education Department says students should be allowed to use only the bathrooms and locker rooms that conform with their gender at birth.
After the school systems declined to change their policies, the Education Department classified them as “high-risk status.”
It means $23 million they would normally receive from the federal government is frozen until they change their policies. About $8.6 million of the funding pays for food and nutrition services.
At a hearing Wednesday, they asked a judge to order the Education Department to release the funding.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon explained her reasoning in a statement saying, “States and school districts cannot openly violate federal law while simultaneously receiving federal funding with no additional scrutiny. The Northern Virginia School Divisions that are choosing to abide by woke gender ideology in place of federal law must now prove they are using every single federal dollar for a legal purpose.”
The schools responded by filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Alexandria that accuses the Education Department of violating Title IX, which is a federal civil rights law Congress approved as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. The law protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance.
White House Flag Burner’s Case
Pits Supreme Court Against Trump
A man who burned an American flag in front of the White House last week is facing possible jail time after President Donald Trump issued an executive order hours earlier seeking more criminal prosecutions of flag burners.
A problem in the prosecution is that the Supreme Court ruled years earlier that flag burning is protected as free speech under the First Amendment to the Constitution.
In other words, flag burning as a sign of protest could not be a criminal offense under the Supreme Court’s 1989 decision.
Now the unresolved question in the case of Jay Carey is who prevails, the president or the Supreme Court.
Park Police who arrested Carey did not invoke the president’s executive order. They cited him for setting a fire in an unsecured place and damaging park property.
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We Could Use Your Help
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That way, DC residents like Keith King (pictured above) can get the legal representation they need to win their cases. As Mr. King put it, if it wasn’t for his Legal Aid lawyer, “I would have been homeless again.”
Here is the link to the Legal Aid website for donations: https://www.legalaiddc.org/donate-to-legal-aid/
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