Thursday, October 31, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Commentary

Kurtz: Has Maryland Become Fritters, Alabama?

Last week’s Democratic rally in Rockville, headlined by President Biden and featuring an all-star cast of party luminaries, was a big hit, a rollicking show. It gave the party faithful the red-meat rhetoric they were looking for, and just as important, it gave them hope. Maybe the midterms won’t be as disastrous as the Democrats once feared. As I sat in the press section of the raucous gym at Richard Montgomery High School, penned in by the camera riser and some temporary fencing, I found myself wondering, why Maryland and why now?

Goldberg: Our cultural stagnation explained

In May, literary critic Christian Lorentzen published a Substack newsletter about being bored. “Hollywood movies are boring. Television is boring. Pop music is boring. The art world is boring. Broadway is boring. Books from big publishing are boring,” he wrote. Since I have been rather bored, too, I paid $5 to read the entire piece, but was unconvinced by his conclusion, which lays the blame for artistic stasis on the primacy of marketing. The risk aversion of cultural conglomerates can’t explain why there’s not more interesting indie stuff bubbling up. I had hoped that when the black hole of the Donald Trump presidency ended, redirected energy might allow for a cultural efflorescence. So far, that hasn’t happened.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Dan Cox’s now-deleted Gab-fest shows why he’s unfit to lead Maryland

Maryland state Del. Dan Cox, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has been an active poster on Gab, one of the internet’s better-known and most nauseating cesspools of conspiracy-mongering, florid antisemitism and white supremacist hate speech. What did Mr. Cox post there? We can’t say, and Maryland voters have no way of knowing — because he recently deleted his account, along with more than 1,000 posts on the noxious site.

In Baltimore, the real news is DLA Piper’s move downtown, not ‘Lady in the Lake’ production problems

The big news this week regarding Baltimore’s economic future is the announcement that DLA Piper, the international law firm with city roots, is moving its local office back downtown after two decades in the suburbs. The move from Mount Washington just over the line in Baltimore County to the heart of Harbor East is minimal in terms of distance, just 8 miles down the Jones Falls Expressway. But in terms of reasserting the city’s importance to Maryland’s economy, it’s enormous.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Proposed Anne Arundel flag ban a sign of our intolerant times

Outside the Arundel Center, the headquarters of Anne Arundel County government in Annapolis, a POW-MIA flag proudly flies. If the county adopts Bill 74-22, it will have to be taken down. The flag honoring those still missing and unaccounted for from the Vietnam War would also be banned from any other county-owned flagpole, nor could it be displayed inside or outside any county building. Under the ordinance filed by County Councilman Nathan Volke, only the national flag of the United States, the state flag of Maryland and the official flag of Anne Arundel County could be displayed anywhere on county property.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Jesse Jackson: Right to register and vote is not a partisan issue

The right to vote, Dr. Martin Luther King taught in his famous “Give Us the Ballot” address, is one of the “highest mandates of our democratic tradition.” Democracy is founded on the right of citizens to decide via popular, free and fair elections who should represent them. Across the world, the U.S. champions democracy. Yet at home the right to vote is embattled.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
red apple fruit on four pyle books
Opinion: Baltimore City students deserve better education opportunities

As Baltimore students head back to school, consider the long odds they face to have a successful year. A 2019 national test found that more than half of Baltimore City’s eighth-grade students scored below basic in reading or math. Fewer than 1 in 3 Baltimore City public school students scored “proficient” on the last state assessment before the pandemic. That was before prolonged school closures caused students to fall even further behind. In 2021, Baltimore City reported that 65 percent of secondary students and half of elementary school students were failing at least one class.

Opinion: UMB Center for Violence Prevention seeks to save our cities

Our cities are in peril. We can and must save them. Here in Baltimore, police report more than 665 shootings so far in 2022. That’s an average of 88 shootings a month, up 12% from last year at the same time. Across the country, the story is the same, and we fear the public has become numb to the vast number of shootings and homicides. Each victim of violence is a person with a family. Gun violence often alters a person’s life forever as well as that of their families. Our clinical staff at the R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore fight to keep people alive, while the violence only intensifies. Imagine having to tell a family they’ve lost a loved one.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Opinion: Stronghold, Frederick County must reach compromise on Sugarloaf

It is not really a surprise that the master plan Frederick County has been trying to produce for the Sugarloaf Mountain area is generating some controversy. It is a document of sweeping scope, 200 pages covering the history of the region, the economic pressures on it and the many excellent reasons to protect the area. The authors write for the present time, but are speaking to the future, as well, to future officials and planners explaining why they are making these choices in this way. The County Council, which is reviewing the Sugarloaf Treasured Landscape Management Plan in multiple workshops, has heard from area residents and advocacy organizations seeking changes, including about one paragraph in particular.

Opinion: Hogan’s plan is a step closer to relieving commuters’ misery in Maryland

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s persistence paid off last week with a milestone in his ambitious toll lane plan to expand portions of the Beltway and Interstate 270, two of the most gridlocked highways in one of the nation’s most gridlocked metropolitan areas. After years of study, the Federal Highway Administration approved a massive environmental review, thereby clearing the way for federal funding. Now Mr. Hogan, a Republican, has less than five months in his term to get further approvals. He’ll need it.

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