Commentary

Teen vaping continues to be a public health crisis. For evidence, look no further than new data released by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on youth e-cigarette use. The study, drawn from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, found that an alarming number of adolescents regularly use these harmful, addictive products. The FDA will need to respond forcefully. According to the paper, 9.4 percent of middle and high schoolers — more than 2.5 million young people — reported using e-cigarettes in the month before taking the survey. That includes approximately 14 percent of high school students. This finding might be lower than the whopping 28 percent of high schoolers reported in 2019, but it is still far too many.

The third full week in October ushers in National Businesswomen’s Week each year. As women continue to make strides in the corporate and entrepreneurial world, there is also a growing trend in women’s giving. While women have long been thought of as taking the lead when volunteering talent and time, and they still do at 56%, women have also been slowly gaining momentum in another philanthropic category — charitable donations. Research about women and philanthropy shows that 73% of charitable donors in the world are women. Dialing that back to the U.S. in the high-net-worth category, it is estimated that approximately 93% of high-net-worth women gave money to charity, according to the “2018 U.S. Trust Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy.”

“I think it’s unfortunate that, you know, you have certain attorneys that try to exploit families,” Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby said, clearly a swipe at the lawyer representing the relatives of the late Hae Min Lee, the teenager who for 23 years was the affirmed victim of Adnan Syed, but now no longer. It apparently wasn’t enough for Mosby to enjoy the national spotlight again, this time for her lead role in “Serial” Syed’s release from prison. Baltimore’s outgoing (and federally indicted) chief prosecutor could not resist a cheap shot at Steve Kelly, the attorney for Lee’s relatives, who feel they were treated as an afterthought once Mosby decided that Syed’s 1999 murder conviction should be vacated.

Many sectors are reeling from massive labor shortages — but few affect families more intimately than what is happening with childcare. With lengthy waiting lists and soaring costs, the scale of the crisis is obvious. Less clear is how the country can quickly fix it. First, the problem: Like other caregiver industries, childcare was hit hard by covid-19. There are nearly 90,000 fewer child-care workers today than in February 2020 — an 8.4 percent reduction in the workforce. According to a February 2022 report by Child Care Aware of America, a nonprofit association, nearly 16,000 programs in 37 states shut down during the pandemic. With birthrates rebounding and millions of workers returning to the office, these closures have placed enormous pressure on parents.

Currently, many selective colleges consider race when they make decisions about which students to admit. In several cases since 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed that it is constitutional to do so to ensure diversity on campus. A ruling in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, the plaintiffs in the case, would require all colleges – both private and public – to no longer consider race when they make admissions decisions. Since nine states already have bans on affirmative action, it’s easy to know what will happen if affirmative action is outlawed. Studies of college enrollment in those states show that enrollment of Black, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students will decline in the long term.

Dear Comptroller Franchot, We wish to thank you for the many years of public service you’ve provided to the state we love. Throughout your time as a delegate and comptroller, you’ve served Maryland and its taxpayers with honor. As you come to the end of your tenure, we urge you to reject or defer a decision on Governor Hogan’s proposal to widen and add toll lanes to Interstate 495 and I-270, including awarding 50-year contracts to Transurban and Tutor Perini Corp, until the new administration takes office in January. Our coalition of more than 30 organizations with members throughout Maryland believes the current proposal is financially risky and fundamentally flawed, exacerbating the negative public health impacts of vehicle pollution and slowing our state’s progress to reach net-zero greenhouse gas pollution by 2045.