Commentary

Marylanders were fortunate this year in that both candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for attorney general during the primary race were highly qualified. Each also stood to break a barrier as being the first elected to that statewide office if victorious in November: retired Baltimore District Court Judge Katie Curran O’Malley as the first woman, and U.S. Rep. Anthony Brown as the first African American. While we endorsed O’Malley in the primary contest, we are not in the least disappointed that Brown won. It was an extremely difficult choice then, and we now enthusiastically put our support behind him in the general election. Anthony Brown has our endorsement.

No woman has ever been elected to the position of Maryland comptroller, a job that essentially amounts to serving as the state’s chief accountant and tax collector. In fact, no woman has ever been elected to statewide office, outside of lieutenant governor — a glass ceiling that can be shattered with the choice of Del. Brooke Lierman to be our next comptroller. Setting that historic opportunity aside, voters can be assured that Lierman is the best qualified person for the job. The 43-year-old Baltimore attorney and mother of two has developed an expertise on state fiscal matters during her two terms in the House of Delegates and a track record in Annapolis of bipartisan consensus building, a skill that’s desperately needed in these politically polarized times.

The prospect of redemption is a hope dashed time after time, so it is worth celebrating when someone lives a redeemed life after a life of crime — and a decade in a federal penitentiary. That was the life of Rocky K. Brown Sr., who died Aug. 8 in Baltimore at 68. His stature in the community is clearly evidenced by two murals in East Baltimore’s Bocek neighborhood, which he helped transform after his stint in prison. A dramatic, two-story mural adorns the side of a rowhouse just off Monument Street, the major east-west thoroughfare bisecting the neighborhood. Brown’s likeness stares intently into the distance as a lion looms over his shoulder. The mural was created in 2018 by artists Elise Victoria and Justin Nethercut of the Baltimore-based Arts & Parks organization. The pair painted a similar image of Brown’s sister, Maxine Lynch, on a rowhouse at the other end of the block.

The number of women’s colleges in the United States has declined since the 1960s, leading some to question if there is still a need for them. Women’s colleges started in the 1800s to provide women access to higher education. However, a women’s college education provides many benefits that go far beyond providing the simple access once denied. Women’s colleges provide safe spaces, allowing young women to find their voices and to fill leadership and other extracurricular roles that are often filled primarily by men. The Women’s Colleges Coalition notes more women graduate in four years or less from women’s colleges than from coed institutions. Other benefits typically include small class sizes, faculty using student-centered teaching styles, collaboration with other women, and opportunities to be mentored by women.

Almost everyone remembers being in the school nurse’s office when growing up. School nurses were there to tend to the scrapes, stomach aches, and minor illnesses that are just part of childhood. But policymakers know that school nurses do much more than that. School nurses are the backbone of the health care services that ensure students can stay in school and learn. When the Maryland General Assembly passed the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, funding was designated for health services with the highest priority placed on supporting more full-time school nurses in high-poverty schools.

As throngs of podcast fans cheered the release of Adnan Syed, the family of 17-year-old murder victim Hae Min Lee cried. A judge agreed to the prosecution and defense’s joint motion to overturn Syed’s guilty conviction after his 23 years in prison. Given only a weekend’s notice of the latest hearing, the Lee family is appealing the outcome, asserting that the judge denied them a meaningful opportunity to participate as mandated by the state’s victim’s rights law. The rationale Baltimore’s chief prosecutor, Marilyn Mosby, gave for her decision in her news release, court filings and news conference was flimsy at best. What Mosby did offer the media and the public was a grand distraction from her own legal woes.

This is in response to Josh Kurtz’s article on September 28th, “Report details alarming levels of toxins being dumped in Maryland’s waterways.” It is disturbing to hear about the thousands of pounds of toxic chemicals, including PFAS — “forever chemicals” — being dumped in our Maryland waterways and that the actual release may be much higher. Marylanders are bearing the real human cost to releasing these destructive chemicals into our environment which are linked to increased rates of cancer and disorders that affect human development and reproduction. It’s not just pollution in our waterways. Communities like Curtis Bay, Lothian, Brandywine, and counties including Prince George’s, Calvert, Wicomico, and Worcester are bearing the burden of air and water pollution from power plants, landfills, superfund sites, and industry that is permitted next to residential communities of color.