Commentary

It was not surprising that the CEO of the trade association that represents builders and developers in Baltimore County pushed back on my opinion that the county’s ordinance supposedly ensuring that public schools have adequate capacity to accommodate new residential development (APFO) needs revision (”Building association: Development not cause of overcrowded Maryland schools,” July 28). It also was unsurprising that the CEO implied that the current law is responsible for a decline in single-family housing starts in the county, even though the decline is part of a national trend that has nothing to do with the school APFO.

Here’s how Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, the state’s lone Republican in Congress, reacted to the latest federal charges against the leader of his party: “Indicting political opponent candidates during a presidential election is what happens in banana republics and Third World countries.”nThis is typical Andy Harris, defending Donald Trump no matter what crimes the former president is alleged to have committed.

In Harford County, home to horse farms and silt-filled waterways, a bit of mudslinging is not unknown. But what appears to have started with tensions between County Councilman Aaron Penman and County Executive Bob Cassilly, two Republicans elected to their positions last November, over funding for the sheriff’s office has escalated into a bitter internecine battle among members of the GOP.

The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) recently sent a dire plea to the community that it was in a state of emergency, following a deluge of animals that came into its care. The numbers have been staggering, even for Maryland’s largest shelter, as BARCS had taken in 3,737 animals in the preceding 90 days, an average of 40 animals per day. To put this in perspective, that’s 700 more animals than the Maryland SPCA accepted in 2022.

When July hit, I saw a lot of cannabis content on my timeline. Marylanders get to grow two plants and may possess up to 1.5 ounces of dried flower. There are going to be a lot of plants inadvertently dying prematurely in the next couple of months as people get the hang of cultivating a new crop. There is still no smoking in public or businesses. Wherever you can use tobacco products, you should be able to use cannabis products, also.

We took up the entire row “J” of the Senator Theatre in Baltimore, my 21-year-old daughter, her best friend, my friend, her 18-year-old daughter and my mother, all in our pink and glitter. My 12-year-old son, dressed in coral shorts and a salmon colored button down hawaiin shirt wanted to sit in his own row, a row behind us with his bag of popcorn.

When the trial was over last week for a teenage squeegee worker who fatally shot a Hampden man after a confrontation at a Baltimore intersection, a unanimous guilty verdict on manslaughter charges had been rendered. Their deliberations done, the jury filed out. But witnesses noticed one tearful juror, a woman, who looked at the defendant and mouthed “I’m sorry” as she left the courtroom.