Commentary

When it comes to transportation — like most policy issues of importance — elected officials have basically two options moving forward: They can take the easy road or the hard one. The former requires no difficult decisions; often it just requires kvetching about how you’ve been shortchanged. The latter means challenging your supporters to make meaningful choices — cutting projects or raising taxes and fees.

Earlier this year, Gov. Wes Moore proudly announced that Maryland has raked in record tax receipts from legalized medical and recreational use marijuana sales. “Our new adult-use cannabis market isn’t only generating extraordinary economic activity — it’s also helping us build new pathways to work, wages, and wealth for all,” Moore said, according to the upbeat press release issued in July by his office.

In the next few weeks, Maryland officials are expected to deliver comprehensive plans for how state agencies will tackle the growing climate crisis and deliver on Gov. Wes Moore’s promise to achieve zero emissions across all of the state’s key sectors in the next two decades. In June, Moore issued an executive order that set a Nov. 1 deadline for these detailed implementation plans as the next phase of a 2023 report called the Climate Pollution and Reduction Plan (CPRP).

You could hear the spittle fly as the Heritage Foundation shouted out its latest intellectual assault on the Naval Academy. All over Ruth Ben-Ghiat and a lecture the midshipmen likely will never hear. She’s a New York University historian with a book on what happens to the military when authoritarians take power. She shows up as a commentator on MSNBC, connecting former President Donald Trump to some of the dictators she’s studied.

In April, more than five tons – about the weight of a large pickup truck – of prescription medicines were collected in Maryland through the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) biannual National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. On Saturday, Oct. 26, the DEA will host another Take Back Day. While this program is a good start, secure medicine disposal is a year-round need that encompasses both prescription and over-the-counter medicine. Luckily, Marylanders don’t have to wait until Oct. 26 to conveniently dispose of household medicines.

“Sometimes wars do settle things though it’s unfashionable to say so.” These words from William F. Buckley Jr. carry a poignant truth often lost in the noise of modern diplomacy. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knows well that wars, when waged with moral clarity, are not intended to end in compromise, but in victory. Such is the nature of Israel’s ongoing conflict with Hamas—a battle that cannot be concluded by half-measures or ephemeral ceasefires.

Swallow Falls State Park, in western Maryland, has the cascading Youghiogheny River, the state’s tallest waterfall, old-growth hemlocks, hiking paths and cross-country ski trails. It’s a popular destination for visitors from throughout the region, including white-water kayakers and people who appreciate mighty, centuries-old trees.