Lea Skene, Author at The Rapid City Post

CORRECTS TO POOL PHOTO - Maryland Gov. Wes Moore takes selfies with attendees ahead of a Community Walk in northwest Baltimore, Md., on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (Ulysses Muñoz/The Baltimore Banner via AP, Pool)

Maryland leaders tell Trump they don’t need the National Guard to curb gun violence

September 5, 2025

In a pointed show of solidarity against President Donald Trump, state and local leaders walked through one of Baltimore’s most historically underserved neighborhoods amid ongoing efforts to curb gun violence. They were sending a clear message to Trump that the last thing they need is the National Guard deployment he has threatened. Homicides in Baltimore have reached historic lows with sustained declines starting in 2023. Officials attribute the progress to their crime-fighting strategies, which include social services meant to address the root causes of violence.

Baltimore shipping channel reopened after explosion on cargo ship near site of 2024 bridge collapse

August 19, 2025

Authorities are investigating the cause of an explosion aboard a cargo ship that was leaving the Port of Baltimore when it issued a mayday call. Officials say no injuries were reported. The ship W-Sapphire was transporting coal en route to East Africa when the explosion occurred near the site of last year’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. The Port of Baltimore’s main shipping channel was closed for several hours Tuesday after the Coast Guard established a safety zone around the incident site. Officials announced late Tuesday afternoon that the channel had reopened.

Trump administration’s lawsuit against all of Maryland’s federal judges meets skepticism in court

August 13, 2025

A judge is considering why it was necessary for the Trump administration to sue Maryland’s entire federal bench over an order stopping the immediate deportation of immigrants challenging their removals. U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen hasn’t issued a ruling in the case, but he expressed skepticism about the administration’s extraordinary legal maneuver during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in Baltimore. Cullen serves in the Western District of Virginia, but he was tapped to oversee the case because all of Maryland’s 15 federal judges are named as defendants. The Justice Department says the automatic pause on deportations impedes President Donald Trump’s authority to enforce immigration laws.

The outside of the Montgomery County Circuit Court is seen in Rockville, Md., Monday, Aug. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Lea Skene)

Mother of 2 missing children held without bail after previous case dropped for mental health reasons

August 5, 2025

A Maryland woman with a long history of severe mental illness has been held without bail and ordered to receive psychiatric treatment behind bars after she was recently rearrested and charged with murder in the 2014 disappearance of her two children. The new indictment against Catherine Hoggle comes three years after an earlier murder case was dismissed because she had been repeatedly found incompetent to stand trial. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy alleges that Hoggle confessed to strangling her children during a conversation with another woman attending a group-therapy session.

Migrants deported months ago by the United States to El Salvador under the Trump administration's immigration crackdown arrive at Simon Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Friday, July 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Lawyers say Venezuelan migrant ordered returned to US sent to home country under prisoner exchange

July 22, 2025

A Venezuelan asylum seeker who entered the U.S. as a child has been sent back to his home country after being deported to a Salvadoran mega-prison earlier this year. The man, who’s known only as Cristian in court papers, was among over 250 Venezuelans released from El Salvador as part of a prisoner exchange deal reached last week. A federal judge has ordered the government to help the man’s attorneys get in touch with him. U.S. District Judge Stephanie Gallagher says that would be the first step to facilitating his return to the U.S., which is required under a 2019 settlement agreement.

Exterior view of the Allegany County Circuit Court building in Cumberland, Maryland on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, where three members of a violent cultlike group known as Zizians appeared Tuesday for a motions hearing after they were arrested in February on trespassing and gun possession charges. (AP Photo/Lea Skene)

Three Zizians face trial together in Maryland amid sprawling federal investigation

July 9, 2025

Three members of a violent cultlike group will be tried together on charges of trespassing and illegal gun and drug possession in rural western Maryland. The group known as Zizians has been linked to six killings spanning three states in recent years. The Maryland cases were originally scheduled for separate trials, but the defendants requested a joint proceeding and a judge agreed. The co-defendants are Jack “Ziz” LaSota and her associates Michelle Zajko and Daniel Blank. Authorities say they were arrested in February after a man told police “suspicious” people had parked two box trucks on his property.

Attorneys Billy Murphy, left, and Janai Woodhouse look on as Collette Lee speaks about how a Baltimore special education teacher sexually abused her decades ago during a news conference Monday, June 2, 2025 at the offices of Murphy, Falcon Murphy in downtown Baltimore. (AP Photo/Lea Skene)

Baltimore schools sued by former students alleging the system protected a predatory teacher

June 2, 2025

Three women are suing Baltimore’s public school system, alleging they were sexually abused by a special education teacher decades ago. The plaintiffs accuse administrators of failing to protect students from the teacher’s predatory behavior. Their attorneys say school officials knew about the abuse and allowed it to continue. They say the teacher, Alvin Hunt, would lure students to his house for tutoring. A spokesperson for the school system declined to comment on the lawsuits but confirmed that Hunt worked as a teacher from 1975 until his retirement in 2005, then returned as a substitute from 2010 to 2019. Attempts to reach Hunt were unsuccessful.

Lea Skene.