Commentary

As I return from a summer vacation with my family, I am always grateful for our time on the Chesapeake Bay. Yet, the sweltering temperatures and warmer than usual waters brought another reminder of our deepening climate crisis in the air and sea. In addition to warming water temperatures, coastal flooding and shoreline erosion, our U.S. seafood supply is in jeopardy.

Close to 600,000 people are expected to attend the Maryland State Fair that opens Thursday and runs for three consecutive weekends in Timonium wrapping up Sunday, Sept. 10. There will be the usual crowd-pleasing assortment of rides and games, musical acts, funnel cake and fried-pretty-much-everything. But as families flock to this traditional end-of-summer event, Maryland Agriculture Secretary Kevin M. Atticks hopes that many of these visitors, especially those who wouldn’t know a seed drill from a sprayer or a baler from a harrow, will take some time to learn about Maryland farming before they dash off to the Ferris wheel, the milk bottle toss or the All Time Low concert.

Over the next few weeks, hundreds of thousands of Washington D.C., Maryland and Virginia high school students will return to classrooms ready to take over the world. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they work and how many tests they pass, some may feel blocked from the job of their dreams by the news that the University of Chicago paid $13.5 million to settle allegations that it conspired with other universities to limit the amount of financial aid it offered.

For anyone who loves a child, the news about the cause of death of Ray Lewis III, former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis’ 28-year-old son, is heart-wrenching. His was yet another life cut short due to the relentless drug epidemic — in this young man’s case, he died from an accidental overdose after taking a mix of fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine. Regardless of his father’s fame, this could have happened to anyone’s child.

The headlining photo of a glossy spread that hit The New York Times on Monday morning featured not a player, a coach or a baseball operations executive from the team that still leads the American League. It was John Angelos, standing alone. He’s the exact figure in the Baltimore Orioles we all could use a little less of in the news cycle. If you’re one of those fans who wants to feel good about the future of their team, bad news, everybody: Angelos, and the aspects of the franchise he actually controls, continue to be the dark cloud hanging over baseball in Baltimore.

As Canadian wildfire smoke passes over Baltimore City again, I sit in deep contemplation about how to show up as a good community organizer. I run a program called Free Baltimore Yoga, and we host more than three free yoga classes a week. Many are outdoors. When the first wave of wildfire smoke passed over the city and the Air Quality Index soared to 150, Free Baltimore Yoga canceled all classes until the air quality was below 100.

Frederick’s mayor and aldermen have some important development decisions ahead as they consider two proposals that will have a major impact on the future of the city. The first, and far easier, decision is whether to rezone the site of the Westridge Square shopping center along West Patrick Street, which could be a major step in the revitalization of the city’s troubled Golden Mile.

I feel like I write this column over and over again. It’s probably not the last time. About a month ago I explained that my long-planned Amtrak trip to Montreal, for which my son and I were learning French, had been canceled because of the heat from Canadian wildfires, a literal casualty of climate change. Undeterred, I pivoted, adding stops in Mystic, Connecticut, and Maine, with a longer stint in New York on either end.