Commentary

“The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.” That’s what Hal Holbrook, who portrays the shadowy informant Deep Throat in “All The President’s Men,” says about the botched burglary and subsequent coverup that culminated in Richard Nixon’s resignation. Fast-forward 50 years, and the same could be said of the hide-and-seek hijinks of former President Donald Trump and his “body man” Walt Natua as they scrambled, Benny Hill style, to stay one step ahead of the federal agents searching for the alleged national security secrets stashed willy-nilly around Mar-a-Lago.

In the coming decade, Frederick County will need to replace one aging high school and add a new high school, as well as build more elementary and middle schools as the system copes with the exploding numbers of students. Many millions of dollars will go into new construction for the school system. Then we will have to hire staff members for all of those new schools — administrators, teachers, guidance counselors, coaches, secretaries and janitors. That means many, many millions more every year for education, just to stay in place.

Romy Pittman’s last day at Annapolis High School was Wednesday. She packed up after four years of teaching U.S. history and headed for the door one final time. While teaching at one of Maryland’s most diverse, complicated schools, Pittman proved herself a mentor for teachers and students. But that last drive from the school parking lot onto Riva Road wasn’t the end of her 30 years in education.

With the official start of Maryland’s summer beach season — the Fourth of July — within view, you can bet that weekend traffic backups along U.S. 50 at Sandy Point and Kent Island are not far off. It’s a tradition as old as the first two-lane Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which opened in 1952, and has kept right up through the addition of the three-lane parallel crossing in 1973 (especially Saturday morning eastbound and Sunday afternoon headed west).

In politics, money talks. And no one knows this better than the politicians running for elected office. It takes a lot of cash to pay for all those campaign ads, from TV commercials to pop-ups on social media, and the fastest way to raise the needed funds is to ask those who have a major stake in decision-making — from big business and labor unions to government contractors — to write the checks.

The news that Frederick County has a new flag likely provoked a few questions among residents, including “Why?” and “Why that one?” Some might have wondered: “Frederick County has a flag?” The winning design for the county flag was done by Marc DeOcampo, a registered architect who is the city of Frederick’s director of strategic planning.

What’s in a name? When a fire or other disaster strikes, do we turn desperately for rescue only to firemen, or do we welcome help from any and all firefighters? Right now, the name of our state’s firefighter’s association is Maryland State Firemen’s Association. Fortunately, the MSFA has the opportunity to modify its name at its June convention.