Commentary

As of Sept. 14, the Baltimore Police Department had confiscated 323 “ghost guns” so far this year. These are firearms assembled from parts that are potentially untraceable; they have become the preferred weapon for those seeking to avoid federal and state gun regulations. Last year, the city had confiscated 231 such weapons by Sept. 14, which means there’s been a 33% increase. And that’s just over the last year: In 2020, the city confiscated 126 ghost guns and in 2019, just 29. Recognizing this rising threat, the Maryland General Assembly earlier this year passed a law banning anyone from buying a gun or even its major component, an “unfinished frame or receiver,” unless it included a serial number or similar personal identification code.

One Monday night, my freshly showered, rambunctious almost-3-year-old did not want to put on his pajamas and threw them off his changing table. As I leaned over to grab them, he threw himself off the table next. Four hours later, we were back from the emergency room, with three new stickers, two X-rays, one red Popsicle and a newly splinted broken leg. When we met the pediatric orthopedic surgeon a few days later, I had two questions for him: First, how long would my son need to wear a cast? And second, what advice did he have for bathing him? One month, he said, and the cast was waterproof. I was pleased. “Wow,” I said. “The miracles of modern medicine, huh?”

The business side of sports can be a rich source of instruction on what to do and not to do in negotiation. Contract terms for athletes, trades between teams, labor negotiations, broadcast licensing, etc., are in the news regularly. Dig into the details of a particular deal and you might find some interesting lessons that can inform your own negotiations. Consider Franco Harris, the famous running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. For those of us old enough to remember, Harris was very close to breaking the all-time pro football rushing record when his contract was up for renewal.

The Baltimore Banner has been reporting on how, right now, in Maryland, children in the state’s care are living in hotel rooms and office buildings. We’re told the problem is a “shortfall of placement options” and the fact that group homes have closed. But this framing ignores the actual problem: Maryland doesn’t have too few foster homes, Maryland has too many foster children. We should be horrified not simply by where children are being housed, but also because they are being unnecessarily removed from their families in the first place. At a fundamental level, the overwhelming majority of cases are nothing like the horror stories in the news. In Maryland, over 62% of the children in the foster system are there due to neglect. 

Hydrocephalus occurs when excess cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in cavities of the brain. The only known treatment is brain surgery, which often involves implanting a device called a shunt in the head to drain the excess fluid. Unfortunately, shunts are prone to failure over time, thereby requiring surgical replacements. According to the Hydrocephalus Association, over 36,000 shunt surgeries are performed each year, averaging to one every fifteen minutes and making it the most common reason for brain surgery in children.