Commentary

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.

Two unlikely stars in recent weeks have delighted all ages with their joyful cheerleading for Team USA — NBC’s Olympic-gold star Snoop Dogg and America’s favorite new football coach, Tim Walz.

When asked, most people probably lie — a little or a lot — about how often they eat leafy green vegetables or drink water or exercise. And if it’s not outright lying, there’s probably some self-delusion at play, an inflated sense of the healthiness of our personal habits.

On the day in July that a 20-year-old man named Thomas Crooks tried to assassinate former president Donald Trump, too many officials and agencies came up short, as we’ve heard again and again. But we’ve heard far less about another category of first responders — one that appears at every major emergency — who have received very little scrutiny or credit. Who were among the first to notice that there was a man behaving suspiciously on a nearby roof?