The accidents occur with dreadful regularity on Forest Drive in Annapolis. A longtime Naval Academy employee died in January while crossing an intersection near her home. Weeks later, a bicyclist was killed just after turning at a busy intersection. This month, a kid running across to the McDonald’s was hit by a car and critically injured.

An unsung hero of Maryland budget-writing and lawmaking has died. William S. Ratchford II — “Ratch,” to those who knew and loved him — was a behind-the-scenes powerhouse in the State House for almost three decades, then, after officially retiring, served as an adviser to five Baltimore mayors. He influenced dozens of powerful politicians and served as a mentor to many of today’s top-flight fiscal gurus and policy experts in Maryland.

Wes Moore cares less about being remembered as the first Black governor of Maryland and more about being remembered for doing something that made your life better. That’s why, he says, people voted for him. “[Lt. Gov. Aruna Miller’s] and my portraits are going to look a little different from the ones we’ve always seen in the Capitol. But that’s not the point.

According to test results, only 20% of Maryland students are proficient in math, and that number is much lower in Baltimore City. City Schools CEO Sonja Santelises explained why. Santelises spoke with members of the Baltimore City Council Thursday night. She said chronic absenteeism is one part of the problem, but also said teachers need more support.

 

Leaders in Prince George’s County aren’t arguing that the county welcomes, and needs, restaurants offering healthy options. But there is heated debated over promoting, and even offering favorable loans and incentives to restaurants that do. Council Vice Chair Wala Blegay is pushing a bill that would have the county not just promote healthy restaurants, but also make interest-free loans available to them, along with other incentives.

Rep. Andy Harris, the Maryland Republican who strives to be on the wrong side of everything, has developed the same bizarre obsession with gender identity and trans rights as the higher-profile demagogues within his party. Harris, an anesthesiologist, presented himself at recent congressional hearings as an outraged doctor come to save civilization from the Biden administration, the American Medical Association and other organizations that support health care for those whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.

Dementia in its various forms is rarely satisfied with only one victim in a family. In mine, it has claimed both parents, though only Mom has been afflicted. Dad suffers inconsolable, near-debilitating grief that has made him, too, barely recognizable as the person we have known our entire lives. In the more than 50 years I can recall, I never saw Dad cry. He now sobs regularly, often choking on his words and unable to finish a sentence.

Injustice happens in empty courtrooms. If any proof of the validity of this maxim were needed, one need only read the 21-page report “Inside Prince George’s County Bond Hearings” just released by Howard University’s Movement Lawyering Clinic.

Apple may not be negotiating its contract with unionized employees in Towson in good faith, a union representative said. Jay Wadleigh, who is leading contract negotiations on behalf of the International Association of Machinists union, said contract talks with Apple have been “very, very slow.”

With Earth Day 2023 having just passed, it brings to mind how we are dealing with the Earth – more specifically, how we are making use of our land resources. How we use land and how we control the use of land have been contentious matters over the years. The application of zoning, the use of laws by units of local government that govern how real property can and cannot be used, first took hold in the late 19th century.