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Commentary

Classroom cameras must be installed in Frederick County
April 27, 2022 -

Once again, our state legislators have failed our most vulnerable children, killing a bill that would have required cameras to be installed in special education classrooms. Introduced for the third straight year, the bill would have required installing cameras in all self-contained special ed classrooms over the next two years. Lori Scott, vice president of The Arc Maryland and a leading advocate for the legislation, told News-Post reporter Jillian Atelsek that the House of Delegates “murdered the bill” by changing it to a pilot program for just 10 schools before passing the amended version 128-4. That stripped-down version never got a hearing in the state Senate.

Read More: Frederick News Post
Frank DeFilippo: Marilyn Mosby’s About to Meet Her Maker — the Voters
April 26, 2022 -

There are echoes of former mayors Sheila Dixon and Catherine Pugh in Marilyn Mosby’s campaign for reelection as Baltimore state’s attorney, none more relevant than the role of Black women voters in city elections. Many observers are sizing up the contest as simply a reprise of the 2018 election. That may be the case, but only in the sense that the same three Democrats appear on the primary election dance card — Mosby, Thiru Vignarajah and Ivan Bates.

Read More: Maryland Matters
Ocean City needs a bigger investment in workforce housing
April 26, 2022 -

Memorial Day is still weeks away, yet in Ocean City, civic and business leaders are already fretting about the seasonal challenges ahead. Weather? They can only hope for clear skies and warm temperatures. Traffic jams on U.S. 50? That’s in the hands of out-of-towners, like the Maryland Transportation Authority, the state agency that operates the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Good fishing, calm seas for boating? Again, strictly higher powers in control.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
In 50 years, the Baltimore oriole population fell by a third; will we risk losing more?
April 26, 2022 -

With spring migration underway, Maryland’s state bird — the Baltimore oriole — is returning home to breed. But fewer of those blaze-orange birds are making the journey these days, as about one in three Baltimore orioles has been lost since 1970, amid the staggering loss of 3 billion birds from breeding populations in North America. Yet hope remains. America can take a strong step forward in bringing back our birds, and other wildlife, by enacting the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Mohler: There is No Such Thing as “Just A Little Bit Crazy”
April 25, 2022 -

More and more, it is becoming clear that the Republican Party in its current form is not the party of Ike, Reagan, Bush, Romney, and McCain. It is the party of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Ron DeSantis, and thousands of local officials across the nation racing to see who can blurt out the next crazy thing that will trend on Twitter. It is the party that declares war on Mickey Mouse, but isn’t quite sure that Vladimir Putin is all that bad. They are the party that bans math books as well as a kindergarten book entitled “Everywhere Babies” that included such incendiary language as, “Every day, everywhere, babies are born.”

Read More: Mohler Communication Strategies
Could privatization solve the problems at Baltimore’s Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant?
April 25, 2022 -

When media outlets report that runaway pollution has resulted in dead fish and “volcanoes of black stuff,” it’s easy to point the finger at private companies up to no good. In reality, taxpayer-funded plants and utilities can degrade the ecosystem at significantly higher rates than their private sector counterparts. Maryland residents are just the latest victims of government entities’ blatant disregard for ecology. The state was recently forced to take charge of the Back River Wastewater Treatment Plant (previously run by Baltimore City officials) after inspections revealed hazardous discharges, clogged tanks and filters, and “floating solids” infiltrating waterways.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Increasing FCPS teacher, staff salaries should be a priority
April 25, 2022 -

The challenges facing Frederick County Public Schools are well known in this community — problems recruiting and retaining good teachers because of low pay, recovery from the lingering effects of the shutdowns forced by the coronavirus pandemic, the scandal in special education, the need to hire a new superintendent. The primary solution is also well known: more money. No, money is not the solution to every problem, but it is the solution for many of them. County Executive Jan Gardner, in the last year of her term in office, has included a significant increase in education spending in her final, $792 million proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1.

Read More: Frederick News Post
Opinion: MDOT’s Emails on Toll Lane Project Are Inappropriate PR Documents
April 25, 2022 -

On Feb. 11, the Maryland Department of Transportation emailed to the public a communication, “HOT Lanes Can Improve Access and Options, Reduce Traffic Congestion in Maryland,” promoting the toll lane project on I-495/I-270. On April 8, MDOT sent another questionable public communication where it again in a section called “Choose to travel for free” misleadingly stated, “2. Don’t want to pay a toll? Here’s what you can do instead. … Use the existing general-purpose lanes that are there today. These lanes will remain free for everyone and will get you where you need to go with less delay once the new HOT lanes are added.”

Read More: Maryland Matters
Wes Moore wasn’t born in Baltimore, but he’s long embraced it. We wish more political candidates would.
April 22, 2022 -

Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore has not always been as “clear and transparent” about his childhood ties to Baltimore City, as he says. Through the years, he’s allowed others to misrepresent him as a Baltimore native without correcting the record. And he’s used misleading terms like “coming home to Baltimore” when writing for this newspaper about moving his family here from the New York City area as an adult. His real geographic history is hardly a secret, however. As he’s pointed out himself, it’s largely laid out in his 2010 book, “The Other Wes Moore,” which contrasts his upbringing and opportunities with that of a Baltimore man of roughly the same age who shares his name and is currently serving a life sentence at the Jessup Correctional Institution for the murder of a Baltimore County police sergeant in 2000.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Dan Rodricks: Not to be contained, a Baltimore couple will build houses for the homeless
April 22, 2022 -

I think it would be accurate and appropriate to call Pamela and Christian Wilson the most determined-to-do-good couple in Baltimore. They won’t say it. I just did. I might be wrong, but I doubt it. I first met them for coffee in their Charles Village home in 2017. At the time, the Wilsons had a singular charitable undertaking: They supplied the ingredients of “weekend survival kits” for the 110 homeless children who were then attending six of Baltimore’s elementary schools.

Read More: Baltimore Sun

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