Commentary

A is for Adnan Syed, who served more than 20 years in prison for the killing of Hae Min Lee in 1999, the focus of the groundbreaking podcast “Serial.” He was released in September, his conviction vacated and Baltimore’s top prosecutor ultimately deciding not to pursue further charges. Yet questions still linger, including over the treatment of the victim’s family, who would like a redo of the hearing that led to Syed’s release. B is for Baltimore City Fire Department and the loss of three firefighters in a Jan. 24 blaze in a vacant house on South Stricker Street. The community mourned the loss of Paul Butrim, Kelsey Sadler and Kenny Lacayo, and the tragedy already has spurred reforms in how empty dwellings — potential tinderboxes — are tracked, as well as raised questions about whether stations are adequately equipped. Fire Chief Niles R. Ford resigned from office with the release of a 182-page report critical of the city’s performance.

China’s “zero covid” policy was unsustainable and abruptly scrapped, but the absence of a coherent fallback strategy threatens a fresh set of nightmares for its population, its economy and the Communist Party leadership. A new crisis could shake the whole world. As the Wuhan outbreak demonstrated three years ago, what begins in China does not necessarily stay there. President Xi Jinping’s government had imposed draconian requirements for lockdowns, tests and forced quarantines during most of the pandemic. But once lifted on Dec. 7, the measures were followed by little guidance from the top. China’s party-state usually declares that everything is under control. Now, it appears to be quite unsettled. A wave of omicron infections is sweeping Beijing and might soon hit the rest of China.

What’s so special about the number 2? Quite a lot, if you’re a central banker – and that number is followed by a percent sign. That’s been the de facto or official target inflation rate for the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and many other similar institutions since at least the 1990s. But in recent months, inflation in the U.S. and elsewhere has soared, forcing the Fed and its counterparts to jack up interest rates to bring it down to near their target level. As an economist who has studied the movements of key economic indicators like inflation, I know that low and stable inflation is essential for a well-functioning economy. But why does the target have to be 2%? Why not 3%? Or even zero?

If the desire for lighter skin and smaller waists is so well documented in what we see in beauty trends, diet fads, social media and even the relationship choices of so many people around us from celebrities, close friends and even couples we might admire from afar on the internet through the scope of hashtags like couple goals or #blacklove, why is it so confusing when I bring up my literal experience of who gets chosen in relationships when we know who often gets picked for long-term, loving, marital or even platonic connections? People who look good.

Many were undoubtedly surprised to hear that the grounding of the MV Ever Forward was the fault of a marine pilot who was paying more attention to his cellphone than keeping the ship on course, leading the container ship to spend a month stuck in Chesapeake Bay mud last spring. But that was the recent finding of U.S. Coast Guard investigators looking into why the Ever Forward drifted off course in its passage from Seagirt Marine Terminal to Norfolk, Virginia, on March 13, 2022. Among other things, their 27-page report also strongly recommends that vessel owners and marine operators develop a better policy on cellphones.

The midterm elections showed that tens of millions of voters are concerned about threats to democracy and fair elections. An Associated Press report stated that the “future of democracy was an even greater factor than Roe for women voters.” In state-level contests in which control of election administration was on the line, election deniers finished several percentage points behind their Republican colleagues who were not tied to the Big Lie — claims that widespread voter fraud have denied election victories to Donald Trump and other Republicans.

I first learned about Hanukkah in third grade, when a Northwood Elementary School classmate of my sister’s named Ann Zeidman did a presentation about it. Other than the eight days of gift-giving, which was intriguing for a 9-year-old, I remembered that it was a holiday about oil that miraculously lasted longer than expected. That fascinated me. How had that happened? Was it real? And could a miracle really shine light into a time of terrible darkness? It’s 42 years later, in a wildly disjointed time of open hate and violence, and the Jewish community is facing a renewed period of darkness.

Wes Moore’s foreseeable victory has allowed him and his team plenty of time to develop policy priorities, and his transition team’s Executive Policy Committees have already gotten to work on how to achieve goals that will fall under the Departments of the Environment, Commerce, Education, and more. But the incoming administration has done little to telegraph how it will manage the Department of Agriculture, and as Josh Kurtz recently noted in Maryland Matters, it’s hard to speculate directly on appointments. Without public clues as to who the administration is considering to lead the department, all that’s available is to lay out what directions they might take and why.