Commentary

The other day I was scrolling Twitter (now called X, a dumb thing I will never get used to), and read a thread by professor and Christian podcaster Heather Thompson Day that was both familiar and terrifying. She told the story of a man who followed her in his car while she was on a prayer walk. He then materialized on a different street, “rolls down his window and asks where I live. I just yell ‘NO SIR’ because I was terrified but also still felt the need to be polite,” Day wrote.

DEK: Decisions have set county on an unsustainable path. Let’s look at the work from home (WFH) trend. There are basically two sides. Many businesses have mandated “go back to the office” and return to life before the pandemic. Many workers say, “I’m never coming back into an office so just pay me as you did before COVID but now I’m doing it from wherever I want with no windshield time.”

If, as expected, Kevin Brown returns to the MASN microphone Friday night to call the game between the Orioles and Mariners, he might want to skip the part about Baltimore’s record against Seattle since 2016. It isn’t pretty, and the mention might get Brown another suspension. KB should probably leave out the part about Seattle’s starting pitcher having a better earned run average than Baltimore’s. Why go there? The boss might not like that.

Frederick’s aldermen have identified an important problem, highlighting the fact that the city has been collecting millions of dollars from developers that is supposed to go to build affordable housing and school facilities, but failing to spend the money. Since 2019, the city has received nearly $6 million in school mitigation fees — levied on developments where schools are already overcrowded — and almost $5 million for affordable housing, which was paid by developers rather than include affordable units in their projects.

It’s no accident that when television crews seek an attractive backdrop for Baltimore, they inevitably find themselves looking out across the waterfront. With views of Rash Field, Inner Harbor East, the Domino Sugars sign, the Silo Point high-rise and Harborplace, there is something that draws us in, some elemental need to visit the water’s edge.

On Aug. 6, 1926, the Democratic Advocate newspaper carried an article on the local “efforts of the newly formed Law and Order League for Carroll County.” According to historian Jay Graybeal, “The ratification of the 18th Amendment in January 1919 ushered in Prohibition but also spawned efforts, legal and otherwise, to thwart the ban on the sale of alcoholic beverages. A majority of Carroll Countians had supported Prohibition, and some took an active role in supporting its enforcement.”