Commentary

When WRNR went off the air this month, Annapolis mourned the demise of its only FM station. It was a refrain similar to the one two years ago when Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak sold WNAV for $1 to develop the land under the city’s only AM station. The new owners dropped local programming in favor of that syndicated sound you can find anywhere and everywhere. “Oh, woe is me,” cried Annapolis.

The observance of George Washington’s birthday reminds us not to tell lies. Yet, if he were a public school teacher these days, he would be forced to fib a lot. And if, in addition to being father of our country, he was father of a school child, there’s a good chance he would be badly misled about his child’s academic progress. Teachers are my heroes. They are under-valued, underpaid and overworked. And yet, am I suggesting that they are untruthful?

By the time Erik Heinonen, a humanitarian worker for Baltimore-based Catholic Relief Services, returned to his home in Irpin, Ukraine, last month, the coffee shops and grocery stores were open again. It was safe to walk the dog and take his daughter to the playground. Heinonen’s house was still standing. But his neighbor’s house, across the alley, was gone. The apartment building across the street had been hit with missiles. “We were lucky,” Heinonen said over the phone the other day, as the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approached. “A shell had landed in our front yard. It broke windows and punctured a fence and left divots in the wall of the house. We were fortunate.”

U.S. military richly deserve not just the nation’s thanks, but, whenever possible, financial benefits from retirement pay to health care. A lot of seniors deserve pension relief, particularly at a time of heightened inflation. Just last year, the Maryland General Assembly and then-Gov. Larry Hogan approved legislation providing a tax credit to retirees of up to $1,000 per individual and $1,750 per couple. Yet now, lawmakers in Annapolis have been presented by Gov. Wes Moore with a costly proposal, the Keep Our Heroes Home Act, that would further reduce taxes on military pensions — for individuals as young as 37 years old.

We’ve seen this before: An elected official responsible for public safety goes to Annapolis to implore state legislators to stiffen the penalties for people who commit crimes with guns. Numerous police chiefs and prosecutors have made the trip, and this week’s lead witness was Ivan Bates, the new Baltimore State’s Attorney. He wants judges to have the power to sentence to five years in prison anyone 21 or older caught with an illegal gun. The present maximum is three years, and Bates, a criminal defense attorney before taking office, knows well that most defendants consider a three-year penalty a joke.