Commentary

What exactly are the schools in Baltimore City doing? That is the question many should be asking after recent statewide test results showed that only 7% of its students are proficient in math, including 23 schools with zero students meeting standards. It's unacceptable and yet another indication that the Democrats in the city who run the schools are as competent at their jobs as their students are in rudimentary arithmetic.

The two people charged in federal court with plotting to blow up Baltimore’s power grid are certainly to blame for putting the region in danger, if the allegations against them are accurate. But they’re not the only responsible parties. You can draw a direct line from the foiled neo-Nazi plot, revealed by federal authorities Monday, to conservative commentators and conspiracy-mongering cult figures like Donald Trump, who for years have riled up their minions on the alt-right with distortions about Maryland’s largest city.

With a jump shot last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron James did it. Despite the Lakers’ 133-130 loss to OKC, no NBA great — from Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul Jabbar to Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant — can ever say that they scored more NBA regular season points than James. Now it’s official: James is the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. He didn’t need the record to cement his place as one of the greatest talents to ever step on the hardwood. But here we are.

Your body mass index is a calculation of your health based on a simple calculation using your height and weight. Now, imagine a far more complex bit of math. This one uses layers of equations to sort 30 million data points instead of just two. To help, you get to use powerful computer systems once available only to government agencies or to well-funded researchers. Right now, an increasing number of scientists around the Chesapeake Bay are doing just that, using artificial intelligence to answer huge environmental questions that define the future of a watershed where more than 18 million live across six states.

The workforce of the U.S. government is aging. Today, just 7 percent of permanent full-time federal employees are younger than 30 compared with 20 percent in the broader labor market. Meanwhile, 31 percent of all government employees are eligible to retire by 2025. Young people are keen. They are not the problem. Federal leaders should pay more attention to hiring young people to sustain the workforce, and some managers have a tendency to hire for experience instead of building the talent bench. Recruiting on college campuses is suboptimal. Individuals younger than 30 who do apply are discouraged by lengthy and convoluted hiring processes and a pay system that is outdated.

I was still at an age where a Scholastic book fair on a day when golden-brown leaves might rustle underfoot in The Bronx or when a ham and cheese Lunchable were enough of a rare treat to excite me when I learned about fake drawer fronts. I’ll explain later. My mother, aged at what I assumed to be as young as the women on Living Single but definitely not as old as the ladies on Golden Girls, lived in a high-rise building owned by the New York City Housing Authority, known to most as the projects. The projects are known for their pungent hallway smells, metal doors, and stairs which were always of good use when the elevators were frequently broken — especially on days when you and your mom might have grocery shopped for oxtails, goldfish snacks, cabbage, and other goods at C-Town, a chain of supermarkets in the northeast.