Opinion: Baltimore gun violence: Easy to find, complicated to fix

While it was hardly shocking to learn that Memorial Day weekend provided no respite from gun violence in Baltimore, there was something especially brazen about the Saturday night shooting of two 17-year-olds, one of whom later died, at the Inner Harbor at 7:35 p.m. near the amphitheater — a peak time and place for visitors and police. As Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison later observed, there were at least 20 officers in the general vicinity. The perpetrator clearly wasn’t concerned about getting caught. If that wasn’t depressing enough, two other men were killed in a triple shooting later that night, and a woman was shot and killed early Sunday.

Zimmerman: Every Maryland child deserves healthy meals — at no charge

Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) recently updated its policy regarding student meal debt. Among other changes, students qualifying for free or reduced-price meals will not be required to repay debt. MCPS’s superintendent can pursue private donations to reduce the amount families owe. And a proposal requiring students in debt to receive an alternate meal — which invites stigma and abuse — was shelved. The new plan is an improvement. But the fact that it is needed at all is an abomination. If all students received school meals at no charge, school meal debt would not exist.

Baltimore plans to sue ‘ghost gun’ part maker as state law takes effect

Baltimore Mayor Brandon M. Scott said Tuesday that the city plans to sue Polymer80, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of “ghost gun” kits — untraceable firearms that have proliferated on city streets and contributed to a surge of violence. Officials plan to file the suit Wednesday, the same day a state law to ban the sale, receipt and transfer of an unfinished frame or receiver that does not have a serial number by the manufacturer takes effect.

Adams, Lierman Describe Visions for Comptroller’s Office at Tuesday Evening Forum

Maryland Democratic candidates for comptroller pledged Tuesday night to undertake efforts to bring racial and social equity to Maryland’s tax system and state contracts, but they differed on recent legislative reforms of the office. Both Democratic contenders would make history if elected: Bowie Mayor Tim Adams would be the state’s first Black comptroller, and the first person with paraplegia to ever hold a statewide office in Maryland; Baltimore City Del. Brooke E. Lierman would be the state’s first woman comptroller.

 

Nathanson: Sparrows Point – then and now

I came to Baltimore in 1970 to work at the Regional Planning Council, a predecessor of today’s Baltimore Metropolitan Council. My work was as part of a team analyzing the demographic and economic trends shaping the region consisting of Baltimore City and the five surrounding counties. As part of our studies, we tracked the major employers that played a key role in the regional economy. Standing out above them all was Bethlehem Steel, with its steel mill and associated shipbuilding activities at Sparrows Point in southeast Baltimore County.