By Steve Crane | Editor-in-chief
“We have some failures within our departments. We’re seeing a number of these repeat audit findings. I’m just asking from an overall auditor’s side of it and a delegate who’s trying to watch taxpayer dollars ... are we lacking somewhere in this chain of command? From the secretary down to the department heads all the way down. What can we do to help you do this job better, so we don’t have to have you here in four more years?” - Del. Steven J. Arentz (R-Upper Shore), during a hearing on an audit of a state health agency that uncovered apparently improper Medicaid payments for inmates and dead people.
State lawmakers and Salvadoran immigrants were both on the lookout Wednesday for answers, in different arenas, that were not forthcoming. Welcome to Thursday.
Lawmakers looking for answers to an audit that found state health agencies may have made millions in improper Medicaid payments to inmates and dead people instead got a lengthy debate between health officials and auditors over what was an appropriate payment and what wasn’t. Danielle J. Brown has that story. And William J. Ford said lawmakers seemed unimpressed with the Baltimore City Community College president’s defense of her school against an audit that cited management shortcomings, noting that much of what they heard Wednesday they had heard in response to previous audits.
Salvadorans in the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status program, which protects them from deportation and allows them to work here, find themselves in limbo, after their TPS protections ran out at midnight, but the Trump administration has not said whether it will extend or end coverage, as Ariana Figueroa reports.
Those stories, plus the fate of a candidate trying to get on the ballot for the Prince George’s County executive race, and more headlines for the week are below. Enjoy!
Del. Jared Solomon and Sen. Shelly Hettleman, co-chairs of the Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee, confer at a 2025 hearing. The committee Wednesday reviewed several agencies audits that found repeat problems from previous audits. (File photo by Bryan P. Sears/Maryland Matters)
By Danielle J. Brown
Lawmakers were left frustrated and confused Wednesday after a 2.5-hour discussion with state auditors and health officials turned into a debate over whether millions in Medicaid payments made on behalf of incarcerated individuals were proper.
Health Department officials said 75% of the $6.4 million in payments identified in a May report by the Office of Legislative Audits were actually allowable payments for inmates who had been hospitalized – a detail that was not made clear to auditors until after their report was finished. They stood by the audit, which repeated some problems found in previous audits of the department.
State auditors said that the Medical Care Programs Administration, which oversees Medicaid payments, lacked “effective processes” to identify millions in questionable payments made to dead or incarcerated people, and did not process changes to care plans in a timely manner, possibly delaying care for vulnerable patients, among other concerns. Several of the findings in the May report had been identified in a previous audit, leaving lawmakers frustrated.
Baltimore City Community College's downtown location. (File photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)
By William J. Ford
The president of Baltimore City Community College defended the school against a recent state audit that found management problems and the potential payment of financial aid to nonexistent "ghost students," but said Wednesday that improvements remain a work in progress.
“These findings can be taken care of. They can be fixed so that we can demonstrate continuous improvement in operation at the institution,” BCCC President and CEO Debra McCurdy said in testimony to the legislature's Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee.
But state lawmakers appeared unimpressed with the progress. And Legislative Auditor Brian Tanen, noting some repeat violations in this summer's audit from an audit in 2022, rated the latest audit of the school “unsatisfactory.” The state audit, released in June by Tanen's office, found that the college apparently awarded $264,000 in financial aid to 145 potentially fictitious or “ghost students,” and didn’t adhere to procurement laws. It also said the school could not account for more than 20,000 missing items such as laptops and other computer equipment, worth up to $20 million.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with newly sworn in Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin during a ceremony in the Oval Office at the White House on March 24, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
By Ariana Figueroa
Temporary protected status for 170,000 Salvadorans was set to expire at midnight Wednesday, but the Department of Homeland Security said protections will remain in place until the Trump administration makes a decision to extend or terminate El Salvador’s designation, in place since 2001.
“An announcement on El Salvador’s TPS will be made at the appropriate time,” a DHS spokesperson said in an email to States Newsroom. “Until such announcement is made, Salvadoran individuals present in the U.S. under TPS retain protection.”
Based on the temporary protected status statute, if a determination to extend or terminate a country’s protections is not made by the government by the expiration of the deadline, then TPS is automatically extended for six months. If the Trump administration does make a determination to end protections, then Salvadorans will have 60 days to leave the United States. If TPS is terminated for nationals for El Salvador, they will be the latest large group of immigrants to lose their legal status in the country as President Donald Trump has sought to dismantle the program Congress created for people who hail from countries deemed too dangerous for return. Maryland has one of the largest Salvadoran populations in the U.S., according the Census Bureau estimates.
IN OTHER NEWS
No Sweat on the ballot: The Maryland Supreme Court ruled that Tonya Sweat does not qualify for the ballot in the Prince George's County executive race, affirming county election officials who said she failed to collect enough signatures to get on the ballot.
Unions sue USDA, again, over planned moves: Federal unions are again suing to stop the Agriculture Department’s planned reorganization, arguing that it will unlawfully force thousands of USDA employees to choose between relocating or losing their jobs.
A census for citizens only?: The Trump administration wants to exclude noncitizens without a green card from the next decennial census in 2030, as well as do away with questions on race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, according to a federal notice.
MATTERS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED
Healthcare cyberscare: Cyberattacks on the healthcare industry, like the one that hit an Anne Arundel County hospital last week, are becoming increasingly common and state-level policymakers should prepare for even more, an expert said Tuesday.
ICE confrontation in Frederick: Elected officials were demanding answers Tuesday after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement confrontation with protesters turned violent in a Frederick residential neighborhood over the weekend.
Bay grasses rebound: Aerial surveys show underwater grasses in the Chesapeake Bay had a strong year in 2025, covering 89,385 acres, the most since 2018 and a 7% improvement over 2024. Despite that, some advocates said the results are a mixed bag.
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