The White House is seeking roughly $4 billion in additional emergency funding from Congress for costs related to the collapse and repair of the Francis Scott Key Bridge and to respond to other disasters that have occurred around the U.S. in recent months. That money is part of a new emergency request from President Joe Biden’s administration that essentially re-ups a broader, $56 billion ask from last October that Congress virtually ignored.

As disinformation and misinformation become major tools of global conflict, democracies need to decide when and how they should influence populations abroad. Influence campaigns are undoubtedly necessary, but how to conduct them according to democratic values is less obvious. The Pentagon has offered a good lesson in what not to do. A clandestine disinformation campaign against Chinese coronavirus vaccines in 2020 and 2021, a program just revealed in an investigation by Reuters, was a grave error.

 

For anyone living in Baltimore, it is all too easy to recognize the devastating impact of gun violence, particularly on young Black men from less affluent neighborhoods. We have grown accustomed to the yearly, monthly and even weekly body counts. While the number of homicides and non-fatal shootings has thankfully declined recently — falling to the lowest level in a decade last year — it is staggering to comprehend the broader and lingering impact of guns on our community.

Nobody asked me, but, with graffiti out of control in parts of Baltimore, why not round up the vandals, exchange their spray paint for paint brushes and put them to work on murals? It could be a collaborative effort led by the mayor’s staff, similar to the effective approach taken with squeegee guys. Maybe graffitists could be convinced that their contributions to murals — new ones, such as Saba Hamidi’s amazing “corridor of color” along the Maryland Avenue overpass of the Jones Falls Expressway, and touch-ups of old ones — would be more lasting than graffiti and certainly more appreciated.

When Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Carey Wright started her last position as Mississippi State Superintendent of Education in 2013, the native Marylander learned a new expression said in the South. “‘Thank God for Mississippi,’” Wright recalled learning, relaying the why behind the phrase she was told by some in the Magnolia State, during a presentation earlier this year.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joined the chorus of Democratic politicians and Black Americans in pushing back at former President Donald Trump’s remarks about “Black jobs” during the first 2024 presidential debate. Scott posted to his Instagram account Friday night: “I had a great day at my BLACK job today! Or is it my DEI job? I can’t keep up with the latest racist term. Nevertheless, it was a great day across Baltimore. #BlackJob”

When Victoria Gray and her husband took in their grandchild in 1993, there wasn’t a catchall term to explain the difficult task ahead. They just did the work. But in the past decade, Gray, of Phoenix, has watched as states have worked steadily to recognize the roles of grandparents and other extended loved ones, now known collectively as kinship caregivers, in raising children who otherwise might be in foster care.

Agriculture and stormwater runoff from developed land — key reasons the Chesapeake Bay is not on target to meet 2025 cleanup goals — will continue to limit pollution reduction efforts until federal and state agencies come up with new approaches to tackle these longstanding problems. That’s according to a recently published paper in the Environmental Law Reporter, which also warns that climate change makes cleanup efforts harder as increased rainfall and floods overwhelm stormwater systems and supercharge runoff pollution.

Education was a top priority for Gov. Wes Moore during this year’s Maryland General Assembly session as he repeatedly called for the state’s need to have a “world-class education system.” Moore inherited the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future education reform plan, and despite it being a major driver in the state’s projected deficit, lawmakers didn’t make any sweeping changes to the plan.

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott sported a red T-shirt emblazoned with the words “Red Line.” Holly Arnold, the administrator of the Maryland Transit Administration, showed up in a red dress. And when Gov. Wes Moore delivered the words that those gathered wanted to hear — “The new Baltimore Red Line will run on light rail transit” — the red-dressed crowd erupted in applause.