Commentary

Few horrors in the world rival the pain, fear, shame and guilt felt by children who are sexually abused by adults who have been entrusted with their care. For decades, hundreds of children, if not thousands, in Maryland’s juvenile detention facilities were sexually abused and raped by staff hired by the Department of Juvenile Services.

Just days before what might be the only debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump, business leaders and local officials here at the Eastern Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce luncheon were not eager to talk about the choice before the country. They gathered on a sunny Thursday afternoon to hear from their Democratic member of Congress, Rep. Madeleine Dean.

As a relatively new Baltimore resident and a dedicated cyclist, I read your story regarding bike trails in western Baltimore with interest and after reading, decided to ride out and see the area for myself. That made for an interesting morning. The ride from my apartment in Federal Hill to Druid Hill Park is not a very bicycle-friendly ride, but traffic was light, so no problems.

Maryland is facing an unprecedented energy challenge. Our state’s growing dependence on aging infrastructure, coupled with rising demand from new industries like data centers and electric vehicles, has put enormous pressure on our power grid. As we grapple with these realities, the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project (MPRP) has been proposed as a stopgap solution to shore up our grid’s reliability.

It’s good news that in May, the National College Athletic Association and its power conferences agreed to pay college athletes over the next decade an estimated $2.8 billion from the megabucks that football and basketball teams generate. Athletes can give it the old college try while making a helluva lot of money.

As Gov. Wes Moore said in a recent op-ed of his own, jump-starting our economy is the key to unlocking Maryland’s promise and making sure no one is left behind. As chairman of Sparrows Point Alliance, a grassroots organization built to support the revitalization of Sparrows Point, I could not agree more. But unlocking the promise of Maryland will take more than just words; it takes real-world projects that create high-quality jobs, significant investment, and life-changing opportunities for our communities.

Harry Huntley wants you to know he’s not the mayor’s man. Despite being labeled an “insider” in a local news headline about candidates for an Annapolis City Council vacancy, he says he’s not that, either. “I don’t know how the heck I’m the insider,” he said during an interview Thursday morning. “I wasn’t terribly incensed about it, but it didn’t seem particularly accurate to me.”