Maryland Scored 13% on “Parental Rights.” Here’s What the Score Leaves Out.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews On Oct. 1, the advocacy group Defending Education released its first Rankings on Integrity...
Family & Child Welfare Watch
A Viral Post Says Three Judges Conspired Against a Father. The Court Record Says Something Narrower.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A Facebook post accusing three sitting Montgomery County judges of coordinated retaliation...
Moore Proclaims Child Support Awareness Month. The Enforcement Gap It Ignores Gets No Mention.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Gov. Wes Moore and Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller have proclaimed August 2026 National Child Support...
Who Authorized This? A Private Nonprofit Is Now Appointing Attorneys in Maryland Custody Cases
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A Seattle-based nonprofit with no Maryland legislative authorization, no independent...
One Signature, No Judge: How Maryland Lets a Single Accusation Freeze a Custody Case
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A commissioner — not a judge — can issue a protective order in Maryland based on one...
Maryland Is Still Hiding Its Missing Foster Children — We’ve Been Asking for Seven Months
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews On Wednesday morning, Maryland's Department of Human Services confirmed to Spotlight on...
Maryland’s Protective Order System Has Failed Before. It Will Again.
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Robert MacMeekin drove his daughter to a Baltimore County courthouse on Saturday morning to...
Law Day Irony: Maryland’s Top Lawyer Has Failed the Law
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews At 3:07 p.m. today, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown posted a tribute to the rule of...
Maryland Senate Unanimously Passes Kanaiyah’s Law on Final Day of Session
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Senate voted unanimously on Monday to pass House Bill 980, known...
Federal foster care watchdog quietly rewrote the rules — then sent Maryland a smaller bill
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews On November 14, 2025, a senior official at the federal Children's Bureau — signing as...
She Slipped the Cuffs, Fought Two Officers, Drove Impaired — Then Walked Away Clean. Years Later, Under Oath, She Said She Didn’t Remember.
A deposition transcript obtained by this outlet reveals that Sarah Hornbeck admitted under oath to a...
The Case That Wouldn’t End
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland’s judiciary often presents itself as a model of stability, professionalism, and...
Months Missing: How Maryland’s Broken Child Welfare System Lost Track of Tristan King
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews For nearly six months, a nine-year-old boy was effectively missing in plain sight in...
MDBayNews Files Public Records Requests Seeking Government Communications About Reichert Federal Lawsuits
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews MDBayNews has filed a series of public records requests with multiple Maryland government...
Maryland Attorney’s Deposition Raises New Questions in Federal Malicious Prosecution Case
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews A recent deposition in a federal lawsuit involving a long-running Maryland custody dispute...
What the Defendant Admitted Under Oath
By Michael R. Phillips | MDBayNews | Thunder Report Investigations A long-running custody and legal battle between Maryland...
Baltimore’s Protective Order Machine: When Allegations Become Weapons
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews When the state can take your freedom, your reputation, and your livelihood based on a...
Maryland’s Child Trafficking Crisis: Two Federal Indictments Raise Urgent Questions About Protection and Enforcement
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Two separate federal indictments out of Maryland this month allege horrific crimes...
Maryland HB 942: Criminalizing Custody Interference Is Necessary — But Without Structural Enforcement Reform, It Will Not Fix Maryland’s Family Court Crisis
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews For years, separated parents in Maryland have lived with a painful contradiction: custody...
Maryland’s Most Vulnerable: The Children Who Died While Annapolis Looked Away
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Since January 2023, when Gov. Wes Moore took office, Maryland has continued to lose some of...
Two Years to Maybe Make It Right? Maryland’s SB481 Raises Red Flags for Parents Facing Custodial Interference
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland lawmakers are advancing Senate Bill 481 (SB481) as a reform to address denial or...
Moore Lets López Walk: Accountability Still Missing at Maryland DHS
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland Department of Human Services Secretary Rafael López is out — but not fired. In...
Audit Panic or Real Reform? Maryland’s Foster Care System Still Has Cracks
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews Maryland’s foster care system has undeniably changed since the devastating September 2025...
Maryland Bans Hotel Placements, Rolls Out New Tech — But Is Foster Care Finally Fixed?
By Michael Phillips | MDBayNews After a scathing September 2025 legislative audit exposed deep failures in Maryland’s...