Commentary

The plan to run ferries across the Chesapeake Bay — from Baltimore to Annapolis, from Annapolis to St. Michaels and other points — will provide an excellent boost for regional tourism. But, far more than that, it should be part of a long-term plan to reduce traffic on the bay bridges and instill an enduring public transit ethic in a new generation of Marylanders.

Last Wednesday marked another bad day for the administration of Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski. The county’s Board of Appeals delivered a stunning rebuke to the administrative law judge that Olszewski promoted to be head of the Office of Administrative Hearings. This comes just weeks after The Brew and Baltimore Sun reported that top Olszewski aides engineered a secret $83,675 payout to a firefighter with personal and business ties to the county executive.

The edge of Annapolis changes in 20-year waves. Today, right on time, a new swell of homes and retail is shaping up, promising to create the latest transformation of an area named for a long-ago prisoner-of-war camp, Parole. More than 750 new apartments in five- and six-story buildings are welcoming their first tenants. Another 750 townhouses, apartments and condos loom in various stages of planning.

In this episode, Patrick and Clay give their initial thoughts and impressions on the first day (so far) of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

As a born-and-raised Marylander, I share in the state’s obsession with blue crabs, our state flag and lacrosse. I spend summer vacations in Ocean City, and we served the famous Smith Island cake at my wedding. And to top it off, I have spent most of my professional career working to restore and protect the Chesapeake Bay. But while I may have been born with a love of crabcakes, my passion for the Chesapeake isn’t something that was instilled in me from a young age.

Fall may be approaching, but it’s only getting hotter in Ocean City. Recently, Ocean City’s leaders voted to hire lawyers to sue the federal government if, as expected, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issues the needed permit for US Wind’s plan to erect wind turbines off Maryland’s Atlantic Coast. Ocean City Mayor Rick Meehan characterized the effort as a “David and Goliath fight” — with Ocean City wielding the slingshot and the state and federal governments serving as the oversized Philistine warrior.

Last year’s Christmas break was memorable for me, and not just because of the special time with family. As someone who was raised in Lusby and currently works for a U.S. senator, I was motivated to encourage former Gov. Larry Hogan to seek Maryland’s open seat in the U.S. Senate. I believe he’s a generational leader whose service in the Senate would greatly benefit Maryland and the country, so I used my time off to write him a personal letter to make my appeal.