Commentary

When Wes Moore first ran to be Maryland’s 63rd governor, his pitch came down to this: “No matter where you start in life,” he would often tell his audience, “you deserve an equal opportunity to succeed.” In signing into law legislation to restrict who can carry firearms and where they can be carried, as he is expected to do this afternoon, and to make it easier for individuals convicted of a crime to have their records expunged once they meet certain criteria, Governor Moore has made his most serious effort to date to provide that opportunity.

Human rights tops Ben Cardin’s list of accomplishments as a senator — specifically, his sponsorship of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, a law imposing economic sanctions on bad actors in Russia and around the world. There are other items on Cardin’s list: Subsidies for small business; federal funds for the Chesapeake Bay; improving ways for Americans to save for retirement; addressing health disparities.

You don’t have to live next door to the LaFarge Quarry in Middle River to recognize that there’s something amiss with how Baltimore County makes land use decisions. To those who haven’t tracked the on-again, off-again dramatics surrounding the plan to turn what had been a sand and gravel quarry into an industrial park, here’s the short version: The controversial project was given fast-track approval last fall when it was located in the district of Councilmember Cathy Bevins, a Democrat who chose not to run for reelection.

There is no shortage of opportunity in Baltimore. Yet, there always seems to be a shortage of resources to seize those opportunities. Even when hundreds of millions of dollars come our way, it feels like a drop in the bucket after decades of disinvestment. Too often, that feeling of scarcity leads to resignation and a lack of imagination.

A nation of laws, not men — a principle undergirded by a system of checks and balances designed to secure liberty and justice for all. In striving to live up to these ideals, the work always begins with owning up to the reality of injustice. When we are silent on the rights of others, or when the will of those in power is forced on the voiceless, we stray dangerously far from justice for all.

Forests and natural areas are our communities’ best defense against water pollution and the climate crisis. Trees sequester carbon, cool temperatures, reduce flooding, and protect our rivers, lakes, and drinking water sources from polluted runoff. Locally, forests are the most important landscape to conserve for the health of the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. But in the greater Baltimore-Washington, D.C. metro area, and in every other urban center around the world, our greatest environmental asset is also the one most often discarded.

Frederick County Board of Education members have an unenviable task over the next several weeks, as they try to maintain educational gains, keep important promises to staff and parents, and fill a budget gap. At the start of the month, the school board was contemplating more than $40 million in budget adjustments.

It took Angela Rockstar about a year and a lot of nudging the CBS publicity department to get a blue check on Twitter. But she lost it April 1, along with about 400,000 other people who were previously verified. And she doesn’t think she wants it back. “Having that checkmark opened up so many doors for me,” said Rockstar, a Columbia resident who was a houseguest on the 20th season of reality show “Big Brother” back in 2018.