Commentary

You hear stories of trauma and wonder how survivors ever manage to smile again. Many don’t. Deanmichael Harrod, however, has an electric smile despite decades of trouble and despite the fearsome challenge ahead — what he calls his “last shot” to finally leave a life of hard drinking and homelessness. Harrod smiles when he speaks. You can see happiness in his face and in the smart clothing he wears.

Judge Robert A. Greenberg of the Frederick County Circuit Court earlier this month ordered the county government to release records that officials were trying to keep confidential about the evolution of the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan. The result? Another example of how trying to develop government policy in secret almost never works out.

As Congress works through its must-dos before the August recess, one headline-generating topic I hope they’ll deal with is an obscure federal regulation that has governed flights in and out of Reagan National Airport (DCA) for nearly 60 years. The “perimeter rule,” as it’s known, has stymied the airport’s growth and had a negative impact on travelers to and from our nation’s capital. It’s time to dispense with it.

As a pediatrician a big part of my work is to advise families on nutrition and healthy eating. These days, I find myself talking with parents and patients more often about how they prepare their food — as in what appliances they are using to cook. Several studies in recent years have examined the dangers of having a gas stove in the home.

There’s no secret why there’s been a rash of legislative proposals across the United States in recent months aimed at transgender and nonbinary people. The various measures seek to restrict where individuals can go to the bathroom and whether they can receive gender-affirming care. Most recently, the legislation is aimed very specifically at banning transgender adults and youth from sports competitions that match their gender identity. It’s red meat for right-wing politicians seeking to win over Christian evangelicals and other social conservatives.

Saturday marks the legalization of adult recreational cannabis use in Maryland, and much attention will be paid — likely for weeks to come — about this historic change in state law and the challenges it poses to producers, regulators, families and law enforcement. Medicinal marijuana use was approved a decade ago in Maryland, but the march toward recreational legalization was slow, even as the state came to grips with its unusually high incarceration rate for cannabis possession (ranking fifth among states as recently as 2010), and the damage this had wrought, particularly on low-income predominantly Black communities.

Over 23 years ago, when I ran for Congress, I emphasized three key issues on the campaign trail. One was banning handguns, which Republicans turned into “common sense gun control,” which has morphed into nothingness. Another was increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour — a living wage then, but where are we today with 23 years of inflation behind us?

Look out: Here comes Sheila Dixon again. The one-time Baltimore mayor, who twice came close to regaining the office she departed in scandal 13 years ago, apparently wants to make a third run at a political comeback. During an hourlong appearance on a Fox 45 “town hall” that no one but Dixon and host Armstrong Williams attended — no studio audience, no calls from viewers — the former mayor said there was a “strong possibility” she’ll be a candidate in next May’s Democratic primary.