The sheriff’s move came on the heels of a Banner report on the audit’s findings.

Prince George’s County Sheriff John Carr said he had suspended his public information officer after learning of an audit into her nonprofit that revealed how it had spent tens of thousands of dollars in county grants.

In February, the County Council’s Office of Audits and Investigations audited The Better Family Inc., a children’s nonprofit run by Romaine Taylor Thomas McNair, a former radio host who goes by Taylor Thomas and also serves as the sheriff’s spokesperson. The audit found that Thomas deposited grant funds into her personal bank account, spent some of the money on her private wedding business, and didn’t report potential conflicts of interest to a state ethics board, among other findings.

The sheriff’s office said on Wednesday that it didn’t learn of the audit until May 18, the day The Banner reported its findings.

“Based on the information my office has been provided and our preliminary internal review, our agency has initiated an internal affairs investigation,” Carr said in a statement.

The sheriff’s office said Thomas would be suspended with pay pending the outcome of the investigation.

Tracy Brown, Carr’s chief of staff, told The Banner that the sheriff was not made aware of the repeated requests for comment sent to the public information office’s email address, which was handled by Thomas. The Banner also attempted to reach Thomas on her cellphone.

In his statement, Carr said he was “concerned by the allegations” in the audit.

Over two years, County Council members sent about $68,500 to Thomas’ nonprofit, $56,000 of which came when she was working as a county employee, according to the audit. The audit found that grant funding made up about half of The Better Family’s budget.

Thomas used different portions of her name across grant applications and claimed her nonprofit had a board of directors consisting of four members when she was, in fact, the sole member, according to the audit.

Get the full story on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/prince-georges-sheriffs-pio-leave-2CL5FZQOF5GQVAPQCKTDBNXEJQ/

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Local students performed for Schwartz, the musical theater icon responsible for soundtracks from ‘Wicked,’ ‘Pippin,’ ‘Pocahontas’ and more.

Even many performers with Broadway credits can only dream of singing for Stephen Schwartz, whose more-than-five-decade career as a composer and lyricist has produced “Wicked,” “Pippin,” “Godspell” and a host of other musical theater and Disney hits.

But a group of local high school students has already done it.

Schwartz showed up this weekend at the Music Center at Strathmore to watch Montgomery County’s Young Artists of America perform onstage and in the orchestra.

“It was unreal,” said Jesse Kliman, an 18-year-old DeMatha Catholic High School senior who starred as Ramses in YAA’s production of “The Prince of Egypt,” for which Schwartz also created the soundtrack.

What began 15 years ago as a makeshift student performance in the lobby of North Bethesda’s Strathmore has grown into a well-oiled youth performing arts nonprofit that attracts the attention of real-world artists — even those as renowned as Schwartz.

Brothers Kristofer and Rolando Sanz created YAA out of a shared love of educating young people through music. Their next step for YAA is to build an extensive rehearsal space in Rockville for students across Maryland, D.C. and Virginia.

“I don’t know that there’s any other place in the country, or certainly very few, where they do theater done by young people and they have this giant orchestra. It’s really cool,” Schwartz said.

A grand vision for young performers in Montgomery County

Student performers in “The Prince of Egypt” had less than 20 days this school year to rehearse their nearly 2 1/2-hour production together. The student orchestra had even less time as a group.

That largely has to do with a lack of available rehearsal space for the about 200-ish teen company hailing from around the DMV.

“There is no real facility that we have access to to bring them together more often,” said producing artistic director Ronaldo Sanz.

Students rise to the challenge, but YAA’s cofounders want better infrastructure for young artists in the area to hone their crafts and build a stronger community.

They imagined the first collaborative performing arts hub in Montgomery County, which is set to break ground this summer and open in early 2027.

Get the full story by Hannah Yasharoff on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/culture/theater/broadway-stephen-schwartz-strathmore-young-artists-of-america-CYEGWVWTGRHW7JTHUUWO6MXJBQ/

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What's up yall! Banner Montgomery put together a series of political profiles in review of the current county council members that are running the Marc Elrich's soon-to-be vacant seat as the County Executive. I summarized them in video format, but you can get a fuller picture of each candidate in the written articles that we put together.

As a reminder, in The Banner's current policy, as an independent and non-profit entity, we do not endorse political candidates. I hope that this aids in your overall research to inform you as to who you do or do not wish to vote for in the upcoming election for county executive.

Here are the full political profiles:

Will Jawando’s policy fights are defining the county executive race

https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/will-jawando-county-executive-candidate-UZLGV4CN7NGJLGMOBQL4IZMX5I/

Evan Glass is leaning on his record. Is that enough for Montgomery County’s top job?

https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/evan-glass-county-executive-candidate-HENG5GJITVA5RIVLG7F4LIRBBM/

Andrew Friedson wants to lead Montgomery County. Will his pro-growth vision win over skeptics?

https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/andrew-friedson-county-executive-candidate-PQXVDHNPCJEJZCADCBZW5KO2Z4/

Here is access to our free newsletter, the Montgomery Daily https://www.thebanner.com/newsletters/?utm_content=nav_cta

A Prince George’s County employee who also ran a children’s nonprofit collected tens of thousands of dollars in county grants, depositing some of the funds into a personal bank account and others into her private wedding business — all while serving as the public face of the county sheriff’s office, according to a recent audit.

The Prince George’s County Council’s Office of Audits and Investigations uncovered significant deficiencies in the operations of The Better Family Inc., a Clinton-based nonprofit that runs an annual children’s expo called Tots to Teens, according to an audit released in February.
Over the fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Prince George’s County Council members collectively sent $68,500 to the nonprofit run by Romaine Taylor Thomas McNair, a former morning radio host who goes by Taylor Thomas and has served as a public information officer for the Prince George’s County Sheriff’s Office since 2024, according to the audit.

Of the funds, $56,000 was awarded while Thomas was employed with the county, the audit found. The grant funding accounted for about half of the organization’s budget in 2024, according to the audit.

Thomas did not return multiple requests for comment on the audit’s findings. The sheriff’s office did not respond to questions about whether the audit has affected Thomas’ employment with the agency.

Get all the details on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/prince-georges-nonprofit-funding-audit-3WN7SAZKDBGMHFNH4RP2W5TPSU/

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The Prince George’s County executive and an outside firm are conducting investigations of the claims, which are part of an 11-page complaint

The chair of the Prince George’s County Planning Board is facing allegations that he pushed the planning commission to hire his sister, promoted members of his business network for government contracts, and requested the commission purchase box seats at Capital One Arena, according to an 11-page complaint reviewed by The Banner.

The complaint, filed in February, also states that the chair, Darryl Barnes, asked the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission to cover his private social club dues and assign a park police officer as his driver and bodyguard, among many other “misconduct” allegations dating back to his appointment in July.

Barnes, in a statement from his attorney, denied the allegations and disputed the “accuracy, completeness, and characterization” of the accounts in the complaint.

The confidential complaint was filed by Debra Borden, who is on extended leave from her job as the chief legal officer for the agency that oversees parks and planning in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

Borden has alleged Barnes retaliated after she raised legal and ethical concerns about his conduct by threatening to have her fired, a move that requires approval from the Prince George’s and Montgomery planning boards.

The commission has hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations, according to three people familiar with the investigation who confirmed its existence on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the commission’s private internal process.

The commission’s inspector general, Modupe Ogunduyile, said in a statement that “as part of our standard procedures, our office does not disclose whether we are or are not conducting an active investigation.”

Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy, who appointed Barnes as chair, has instructed her team to conduct its own investigation into the allegations, said Tracy M. Benjamin, the administration’s liaison to the commission.

“We’ll be taking swift action to address [the allegations] if such action is warranted,” Benjamin said in an interview Thursday.

Get the full story on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/local-government/darryl-barnes-prince-georges-county-complaint-ERCIBQDM2ZDOXGLYD5KZ7OP4WA/

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Del. Mark Fisher and Del. Brian Chisholm brushed off calls to apologize to Del. Chao Wu.

Two conservative Maryland lawmakers are not backing down from their offensive remarks about a colleague who is an immigrant from China, rebuffing calls to apologize and remove a video from social media.

Del. Brian Chisholm and Del. Mark Fisher, Republicans and members of the conservative Maryland Freedom Caucus, posted a 13-minute video on April 30 in which they use racist stereotypes and question the allegiances of Del. Chao Wu, a Democrat representing parts of Howard and Montgomery counties.

House of Delegates Speaker Joseline Peña-Melnyk has urged the delegates to remove the video and apologize, and many politicians have blasted the video as racist and xenophobic.

Chisholm and Fisher disagree.

Full story https://www.thebanner.com/politics-power/state-government/maryland-lawmakers-racist-chao-wu-video-ACXV6LKQPVHMLOPGXIGIXRKTBA/

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Montgomery County Public Schools leaders made the change shortly after a complaint from a Trump-aligned legal group. MCPS leaders this week updated their guidelines to require staff to share a student’s gender identity if their parents ask.

The change comes shortly after a conservative legal group challenged the district’s previous policy.

In earlier versions of Montgomery County Public Schools guidelines, district officials wrote that a student’s decision to disclose they are transgender doesn’t authorize school staff members to share that information with other people, including the child’s parents — unless they are legally required to do so or the student says it’s OK.

The Trump-aligned America First Legal group filed a complaint last month, alleging this policy violated parents’ rights to access their child’s education records.

Around the same time, the Supreme Court took up a case hinging on similar issues, prompting MCPS officials to update the guidelines.

In a Thursday memo to principals, district leaders wrote that the 2025-26 Gender Identity Guidelines were amended to “to align with a recent Supreme Court case, Mirabelli v. Bonta, in which the court decided the parental right to ‘direct the upbringing and education of their children’ is fundamental.”

The guidelines now include: “Upon request of the student’s parent/guardian, school staff must inform them that their student has expressed that they identify as transgender or gender nonconforming.”

The document emphasizes staff should talk with the principal before releasing that information to parents, “especially when doing so may pose a significant risk of harm to the student.”

In a statement, MCPS officials said the updated guidelines “reflect new legal expectations that place greater emphasis on parental rights.”

“We recognize this represents a meaningful shift and may be challenging,” they wrote. “As we revise our guidelines, MCPS remains committed to balancing legal obligations with our core values of student privacy, trust and well-being.”

District staff members said they will approach students’ individual situations sensitively, especially if the child is concerned about sharing information about their gender identity at home.

Representatives from America First Legal, which was co-founded by Trump administration official Stephen Miller, did not immediately respond to a request for comment

Get the full story by education reporter Talia Richman on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/education/k-12-schools/mcps-gender-identity-guidelines-revised-ANUGPHR2Z5DWNIWVZEVO5DL4CE/

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Bowie State University will eliminate 79 jobs through reorganization, vacancies and layoffs as the university deals with its second multimillion-dollar deficit in two years.

Maryland’s oldest historically Black university is facing an $18 million deficit, President Aminta Breaux announced in a message to the campus on Tuesday. That follows last year’s $13.6 million budget shortfall, which was corrected through hiring delays and eliminating vacant positions, she wrote. Bowie State employs 1,175 workers, according to public data, so the workforce will shrink by about 6%.

“We recognize that this period may bring uncertainty and want to assure you that we are approaching each decision with care, thoughtfulness and deep respect for our faculty, staff and students,” Breaux wrote.

This year’s deficit stems from reduced state and federal funding, declining enrollment and rising operational costs, according to the message. Bowie State is not the only public university to be facing these headwinds — the University of Maryland, College Park, announced last month that it will cut up to 150 jobs and freeze hiring amid its own budget shortfall.

Lower enrollment projections at Bowie State, Breaux wrote, are impacting tuition, fee and auxiliary revenues, which along with rising costs create a “broader structural gap that will require thoughtful, sustained action.”

The HBCU saw a 27% decline in freshman enrollment between 2022 and 2025, from 1,170 first-year students to 844.

It also saw the largest single-year enrollment drop among the University System of Maryland last year. Overall enrollment at the school fell 6%, from 6,353 students in fall 2024 to 5,970 a year later.

Bowie State last week announced a new direct-admissions program for students at Prince George’s County Public Schools, offering guaranteed admission to those who earn a 3.0 GPA or higher. The university will grant scholarships to more students thanks in part to a $50 million gift from billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott last fall.

Jontae Thomas, a Bowie State facilities management worker and president of the union that represents staff, in a statement accused the university system of undervaluing staff.

Union members, Thomas wrote, “are not expendable. We are the backbone of this institution.”

Breaux ended her message by thanking employees for their resilience.

“Together, we will navigate this period with care and purpose and position our institution for a strong and sustainable future,” she wrote.

Full article by Ellie Wolfe on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/education/higher-education/bowie-state-university-layoffs-WI4HHYVEQNA6ZIFTSCWO26MUVA/

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Las Vegas Sphere draws crowds and dollars, but questions linger for the venue at National Harbor

LAS VEGAS — Casinos tower in the skyline and span blocks, but none has quite the gravitational pull of the orb that landed in the desert.

Once you’re in its orbit, the all-seeing monolith summons for a full-body immersion into a distorted reality. Over the course of one day, I watched flying monkeys, a floating green head and a rattling tornado.

I wound down with an homage to the mind-distorting starlit tunnel of “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Then, a grotesque dental exam animated as a roller-coaster ride. The encore? A kaleidoscopic projection of a 61-year-old man in a muumuu playing a vacuum cleaner that sounded like farts.

This, I’m told, is the future of live entertainment. More than a million people can’t be wrong, right?

In Sin City, assaults on the senses rival the grains of sand in the surrounding Mojave Desert. But the Sphere stands out as a different kind of attraction.

It overwhelms with its 366-foot-tall, 516-foot-wide omnipresence — about as high as the world’s tallest redwood tree and stretching 1 1/2 football fields. The 580,000-square-foot panel of LED lights on the exterior emits a glow that its creators claim, to some skepticism, can be seen from space. (Perhaps the aliens’ first contact will not be scientists but rather an electric yellow emoji or an ad for the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers — a real ad on the Sphere.)

The gamble is still in play in Vegas. It was a rocky start after the Sphere, or simply Sphere as it’s called by officials, opened in 2023, two years behind schedule and nearly $1 billion over budget. But in 2025 the entertainment venue took in $379 million and sold 1.7 million tickets for performances from artists such as the Eagles, Backstreet Boys and Dead & Company, according to reports.

Maryland officials are betting that a smaller Sphere in National Harbor will jolt economic development in the region and transform Prince George’s County for years to come. Officials hope to open it by 2030.

It will be the first Sphere spawn outside Vegas, where visitors come prepared to empty their wallets at places such as the Sphere that can charge hundreds of dollars for entry. But residents of Prince George’s County, and the Sphere’s soon-to-be neighbors in Oxon Hill, have been riding out a murky financial reality that could be getting worse.

Full story on The Banner http://thebanner.com/culture/arts/las-vegas-sphere-maryland-NJOAQGOEHJH73EA54OS4B42JWI/

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Meet the Montgomery County veterinarian who helps take care of the famous 3-month-old pachyderm

The elephant in the room is getting bigger by the day.

It’s been about four weeks since Katharine Hope, an associate veterinarian at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, got face time with Linh Mai, the adorable 3-month-old Asian elephant taking over the world’s social media feeds with her silly, almost puppy-like antics.

Or, as Hope puts it: “I haven’t seen her in, like, 150 pounds.”

During a routine checkup Thursday morning, the roughly 500-pound elephant calf was playfully flailing and rubbing her trunk on a bar separating her from the zoo staff.

A lifelong National Zoo lover

Growing up in Montgomery County, Hope was a frequent National Zoo visitor. She’d picnic with family and friends on Lion Tiger Hill and spend countless hours watching the gorillas.

As a student at Bannockburn Elementary School and Thomas W. Pyle Middle School, she loved animals and thought about becoming a primatologist, but her “parents were like, ‘That’s not a job,’” Hope recalled. It wasn’t until she was in college that she discovered working with animals for a living was, in fact, a job she could have.

“It still actually blows my mind pretty much every day when I drive here and I have that connect of, ‘Wow, this was my zoo as a kid,’” Hope said. “I can’t believe I’m here, and I still feel the same feeling of awe and surprise that I felt when I first started working here.”

After graduating from veterinary school at Tufts University, Hope joined the National Zoo as a resident in 2007 before becoming an associate veterinarian. She’s been at the zoo ever since, save for a two-year sabbatical when she worked with Tasmanian devils in Australia.

“It’s the greatest job in the world,” Hope said. “I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

At the National Zoo, a veterinarian might be dealing with an 8.5-gram poison frog, a 6,000-pound adult Asian elephant or something in between on any given day. Hope usually works with animals that are older, just got into a fight or have an ailment.

That makes mornings like Thursday especially fun. Hope swung by the elephant house to check on Linh Mai, who was healthy and happy to see her — perhaps a little too excited about the extra attention in the morning to the point of not being ready to finish her breakfast: the largest baby bottle you’ve ever seen.

Full article on The Banner https://www.thebanner.com/culture/lifestyle/national-zoo-baby-elephant-katharine-hope-linh-mai-GNAT3QQHDRBX5J2V6U2HWNKO2Q/

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More Linh Mai footage! https://www.instagram.com/p/DX7QFItRq6d/

The council president said the county is facing “a wake-up call”

Montgomery County Council members have to fill a $152 million hole to balance next year’s budget, and they’ll be spending much of the next week looking for spending cuts.

County schools may not be getting the increased funding they asked for — and that they had reason to think they might get.

County Executive Marc Elrich in March proposed full funding of Montgomery County Public Schools’ $3.8 billion budget request. But the council will be considering cuts to that plan during its Tuesday meeting, and the council president has already proposed a $90 million reduction.

A yawning budget gap emerged as council members rejected Elrich’s strategy of raising taxes to balance the budget. They have also voted down a plan to lower negotiated raises for union employees, a controversial proposal that would have prevented some cuts.

Council President Natali Fani-González, who has repeatedly bashed Elrich’s solution to the county’s emerging financial woes and introduced an alternative budget plan in mid-April, said the county is facing “a wake-up call.”

“This is a reminder that this county cannot continue to spend money the way that it has been for a while,” she said.

‘We’re gonna break some hearts’

Council members have dismissed Elrich’s plan to raise the local property rate by roughly 6%, which would have generated an estimated $165 million and potentially helped the county avoid deep cuts to government services.

Council committees have also recommended that the full 11-member council reject Elrich’s plan to raise the local income tax rate across the board and instead adopt Fani-González’s vision for progressive income taxes. Residents currently pay a 3.2% tax rate, regardless of income level.

To add revenue, Fani-González has advocated for the council to eliminate the county’s Income Tax Offset Credit, under which homeowners can receive a $692 credit.

Fani-González has said her income tax plan would eliminate the need for the credit.

As of Monday, council members had compiled a “reconciliation list” of budget items totaling $214 million from which to potentially cut.

“We’re gonna break some hearts, lots of them,” Fani-González said. “And we gotta own it and move forward.”

Increased funding for Montgomery County Public Schools amounts to nearly $180 million of the reconciliation list.

David Stein, president of the Montgomery County Education Association, said the school board’s budget request “does not add very much fluff” and includes money for negotiated labor agreements, needs for special education programs, and security upgrades, among other items.

Under Fani-González’s proposal, he said, “Not only will it be difficult to honor contracts, but they are going to have to lay off people.”

Will Jawando, the only council member aside from Fani-González to introduce a budget alternative, has proposed cutting $30 million from what Elrich approved for the school board.

The council’s three-member committee on education, which Jawando chairs, also voted to recommend that the full council cut no more than that amount.

Stein said Jawando’s proposal represents “a very serious cut,” but added that it would be much easier for the school board to handle than $90 million, “which would simply be catastrophic.”

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