Wednesday, October 30, 2024 | Baltimore, MD
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Commentary

Fort Meade: Two tanks to find new homes as educational tools

Nearly three years after the Fort Meade Museum closed, a contractor team moved three tanks from the vacated building April 18 and 19, so they could be transported to new homes and once again serve as educational tools. The Liberty Mark VIII and M-3A1 light tank will become part of the U.S. Army Armor & Calvary collection at Fort Benning, Georgia, and the FT17/M-1917 hybrid light tank will be on display at the 1st Cavalry Museum at Fort Hood, Texas.

Behind the Buffalo massacre: virulent ‘replacement’ racism that must be universally condemned

We will not repeat the name of the 18-year-old police say drove from the Binghamton, New York, area to shoot 13 people at a Tops grocery store in east Buffalo on Saturday afternoon. He will have to find his fame elsewhere. We would, instead, call greater attention to the innocent victims of one of the nation’s deadliest racist massacres including Aaron Salter Jr., the retired Buffalo police officer working as a security guard at the store who died heroically trying to stop a sociopath clad in body armor and wielding an assault rifle.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Gile: Time to Care Act is a blessing for working families

As an attorney, military spouse, and mom of three, balancing my career with motherhood and the demands of my husband’s active-duty service has always been a challenge. I remember well the birth of my second child and being relieved that my husband — who was gone for most of my pregnancy — was able to be home for the birth, although he had to leave just a few short days after I returned home from the hospital.

Dan Rodricks: In one America, a righteous stand against racism. In another, racist violence and death.

On Saturday, at the very hour that the people of Chestertown, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, gathered to remember the Black man lynched there by a white mob in 1892, police say a white teenager fueled by racist hatred started shooting people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood of Buffalo, New York. He is accused of shooting 13 people in all, 11 of them Black. Ten of his victims died.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Leopold: Better communication can help prevent mental health tragedies

Although the county over the past 15 years has increased the health department budget for mental health services for returning veterans and others, mental health budgets have generally been slashed at all levels of government — federal, state and local — and some state governors have ill-advisedly refused to expand Medicaid coverage that could have boosted investments in mental health services. While serving as county executive, I organized two public forums at Anne Arundel Community College to address the need to improve access to behavioral health resources, and we began to outline a strategy focusing on prevention, early intervention and treatment.

Policeman watching the St Patrick's parade
Glass & Ivey: Community policing in Montgomery County — by the community

It has been almost two years since the tragic death of George Floyd. In the aftermath, Montgomery County and local communities across the country have made significant efforts to reimagine public safety and support policies that improve racial equity and social justice. One of the most important areas of this work has focused on police reform and ensuring that every resident — regardless of race, immigration status or Zip code — feels safe in the community. As we emerge from the pandemic, the entire country is experiencing an increase in crime and violence.

Stokes & Walters: The problem with Baltimore’s ‘TIF’ strategy

As legendary heroes go, Robin Hood is as popular as any. Who can be against robbing from the rich to give to the poor? Unfortunately, for too long Baltimore has been using a redevelopment strategy that does the opposite: We frequently punish the poor and working-class while privileging the well-connected and well-to-do. The latest example is a proposal to create a “downtown TIF district” to rescue that area from decline. For readers not up on the latest urban renewal jargon, “tax increment financing” involves giving developers a big subsidy on their upfront project costs.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Michelman: Draft opinion striking down Roe brings ‘fire to this fight once again’

The now infamous Supreme Court draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito, repealing Roe v. Wade, is not just a shameful ransacking of a 50-year-old precedent, it is an epic assault on the fundamental right of women to participate as equals in American society. Roe is not just about the medical procedure of abortion and protecting women’s health and lives, it is also about women’s autonomy, dignity and status as citizens.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Thompson: Where did Maryland’s George Wallace voters go?

Fifty years ago, the day before the 1972 Maryland presidential primary, then-Alabama governor and Democratic presidential candidate George C. Wallace was shot at the Laurel Shopping Center in Prince George’s County. Wallace won Maryland — and Michigan, held the same day — but he was permanently paralyzed by the shooting. Despite winning two more terms as Alabama’s governor, he never again was a serious presidential contender. Wallace was never nominated for president, but his influence on the politics of the 1960s and 1970s was important, and his popularity in Maryland was significant.

Business newspaper pages
Rodricks: Comforted, criticized and challenged by Sun readers since 1976

I confess that, covering my first election for the Sunpapers of Baltimore, I broke a rule: I accepted a free meal. It was Nov. 2, 1976. An editor assigned me to write a story about Election Day politics in East Baltimore. I ended up in front of a giant bowl of spaghetti and meatballs, my journalistic integrity in shambles, overpowered by Highlandtown hospitality.

Read More: Baltimore Sun

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