Grammy nominated pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin will perform Saturday at UMBC as part of the Candlelight Concert Society’s 50th concert season. Hamelin, nominated for 11 Grammy awards, has been called “a performer of near-superhuman technical prowess” by The New York Times. “He is, without a doubt, one of the most brilliant pianists of today,” Irina Kaplan Lande, Candlelight’s artistic director, said. “It is an incredible opportunity to see him perform live.” Hamelin will perform Beethoven’s Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-flat Major, commonly known as the “Hammerklavier Sonata.” Other works Hamelin will present include selections by Gabriel Fauré and the Maryland premiere of a composition by Hamelin. The performance begins at 7:30 p.m. at UMBC’s Linehan Hall.
Grammy-nominated pianist to perform as Candlelight Concert Society comes to UMBC in its 50th season
Opinion: War against COVID-19 is far from over
The yellow caution lights are flashing urgently as the fall arrives, with danger signs everywhere that COVID-19 and its deadly variants may be ready to return to sicken and kill thousands of Americans. We’ve written this before, but it bears repeating: We may think we are done with COVID, but the virus is far from being done with us. The New York Times reported last week: “As we enter our third pandemic holiday season, some doctors are fearing a seasonal surge in COVID. In Europe — which many experts consider a bellwether for COVID cases in the U.S. — cases are starting to mount, prompting the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization to warn that a new wave of infections could be starting.”
Wes Moore campaign, Maryland Democratic Party slam Dan Cox for accepting a gift from Proud Boys member
With less than three weeks until Election Day, heavy hitters in Maryland’s Democratic Party condemned Republican gubernatorial nominee Dan Cox’s acceptance of a gift from a member of a far-right, extremist group at his primary night party. “Dan Cox gleefully embraced and accepted a gift from a white supremacist domestic terrorist organization,” Carter Elliott IV, a spokesman for Democrat Wes Moore’s gubernatorial campaign, said in a statement. “This shows what we’ve known all along, Cox is a dangerous extremist that doesn’t belong anywhere near the governor’s office.”
Political notes: Glassman and Lierman differ on role of comptroller, Pittman’s horse sense, and new endorsements
With Peter Franchot (D) set to step down after four terms as Maryland’s comptroller, voters will select someone new for the post in a little more than two weeks’ time. During a radio debate on WAMU’s “Politics Hour” Friday, the candidates vying to take his place sketched out very different visions of how they would approach the job. Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City) said she would bring an expansive, values-driven outlook to the Goldstein Treasury Building — and she accused her opponent, Harford County Executive Barry Glassman (R), of being out of step with the electorate. “My opponents thinks that climate change, gun violence, workers’ rights, education, transportation and economic fairness are outside the purview of the state comptroller’s office,” Lierman charged. “But I think those values are central to the comptroller’s mission…”
Democrat Heather Mizeur targets Harford County in long shot push to unseat U.S. Rep. Andy Harris
Democrat Heather Mizeur’s bid to upset Republican U.S. Rep. Andy Harris relies on making inroads in GOP-oriented Harford County, which accounts for 35% of voters in the newly redrawn 1st Congressional District and has demonstrated an independent streak. The district, which also covers the Eastern Shore and a piece of Baltimore County, is the only one in Maryland where Republican voters outnumber Democrats. That means Mizeur, a former state delegate and 2014 gubernatorial candidate who lives in Kent County, must assemble a bloc of Democrats, unaffiliated voters and moderate Republicans in her long shot challenge to Harris, whom she has sought to label a “traitor” for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
‘Rebirth’ of Baltimore’s historic Lexington Market launches with a soft open on Monday
Baltimore’s historic Lexington Market will reopen on Monday with a soft launch, marking the unveiling of a new south market building, a $45 million redevelopment project that has been in the making for four years. “I am so excited to see this brand-new building with all the natural light streaming in,” said Paul Ruppert, president and CEO of Baltimore Public Markets Corporation. “I think our customers who come in through the door will be blown away by the building itself.” Starting Monday, Lexington Market will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week, closing on Sundays. Initially, the space will feature four stalls and three kiosks as other vendors are waiting on construction and permitting, he said.
Curtis Bay residents are suing CSX following explosion at coal facility
For Ray Conaway, it started when he was a child. Spending time in Curtis Bay, he’d notice an acrid smell and ask his mother what it was. “‘Something not good for us,’” he said his mother would reply. Conaway believes the smell he remembers was almost certainly tied to the heavy industry there — including the coal terminal operated by CSX Transportation along the water. Now 27, Conaway is one of the co-presidents of the community association in Curtis Bay, in South Baltimore. He lives about four blocks away from the CSX coal facility, where an explosion in December 2021 rattled houses, broke windows and sent a plume of coal dust into the air and neighborhood.
As democracy report finds Md. is a national leader in voting integrity, a nonpartisan election observer prepares for Nov. 8
Maryland ranks second in election integrity according to a report released recently by the Democracy Initiative Education Fund, a coalition of 75 civil rights, environmental and civic organizations dedicated to building democracy. The score card reflects all aspects of the voting process, from registering to vote and casting a ballot, to confidence that the vote would be counted accurately and safely. This doesn’t surprise Barbara Sanders from Silver Spring, who after a career as a reference librarian for the United States Information Agency, tasked with explaining American life abroad, has directed her energy to the Montgomery County non-partisan League of Women Voters. There she has headed efforts to produce the group’s popular Election Voters’ Guide and chaired the Making Democracy Work Committee.
Mohler: Advice to beleaguered Democrats as the campaign ticks down to its final days
Democrats often make the mistake of failing to talk like real people talk. They embark upon wonky policy discussions that voters hear in the same way that Charlie Brown and his pals heard their teacher, “Wah wah woh wah wah.” So as we sprint to the finish line, I have a few humble suggestions for my Democratic friends. Stop wringing your hands over how in the world elections across the nation can be so close when one party is running a cast of characters who make Lenny and Squiggy look like Rhodes Scholars. Here is the answer: there are millions of Americans who don’t wake up each morning to turn on “Morning Joe” or “Fox and Friends” before having their morning coffee.
Opinion: Here’s who The Post endorses for Congress in Maryland
Registered Democrats outnumber Republicans in Maryland by 2-to-1, and the party’s lock on state politics is reflected in its two U.S. Democratic senators and eight-member House delegation, which includes just one GOP incumbent. Gerrymandering has cemented the Democrats’ advantage, stripping most congressional races of suspense. Months of legal wrangling this year over a new electoral map did leave the GOP with a plausible shot at one Democratic-held district, Maryland’s 6th, which stretches west from the D.C. suburbs to the border with West Virginia. The incumbent, Rep. David Trone, has earned a third term.