Commentary

If you focus on the Supreme Court’s expansion of equal rights since the 1950s, you could see Samuel Alito’s stunning, leaked draft opinion as a shocking, anomalous reversal, a decision at odds with the trajectory of the court. But in doing so, you would also have to ignore the fact that for much of the court’s history, it has been used as an instrument of oppression.

When I was young, I couldn’t wait for the grass to grow so I could take my lawn mower out and cut some of my neighbors’ yards. The days it snowed were great opportunities for me to get out my shovel, walk around the neighborhood and seek out members in the community who wanted their snow removed. A few of my friends, on occasion, and I would easily make $25 to $30 a day after school. What I realized was that it wasn’t just the money that really benefited me; it also was the relationships I developed with my neighbors, many of whom were either middle-aged or elderly.

As the United States surpasses the tragic milestone of 1 million deaths from covid-19, we must decide where we go from here. The bad news is that this coronavirus is here to stay. It will continue to cause surges fueled by new and possibly even more contagious variants. The White House is projecting that as many as 100 million Americans could contract covid-19 this fall and winter.

In the wake of the Watergate scandal, policymakers in 1974 created what became the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (PECF), letting taxpayers check a box on their tax returns to allocate $1 of their taxes ($2 for married couples) to publicly fund campaigns. (Today, that amount has risen to $3 for individuals and $6 for joint filers.) Unfortunately, no major presidential nominee since Republican John McCain in 2008 has accepted general election public financing because it comes with limits on spending. As a result, more than $412 million now sits unspent in the PECF, which will undoubtedly grow as candidates continue to shun spending limits.

Our county has been struggling for most of a decade with overburdened roads. The Frederick County Council is considering a concrete step to address the problem. And yes, the pun is intended. Under proposed changes to the adequate public facilities ordinance now before the council, large developments would be required to meet a higher standard for easing future traffic congestion before proceeding with construction.

No, we definitely were not on Zoom anymore. The ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Baltimore packed more than 500 of Baltimore's business and civic leaders — Mayor Brandon Scott, Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski and M&T Bank local head Augie Chiasera among them — for the standing-room-only Downtown Partnership of Baltimore annual meeting on Monday.

Dear Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Thomas: As you’ll no doubt agree, Roe v. Wade was an ill-judged decision when it was handed down Jan. 22, 1973. It stood on the legal principle of a right to privacy found, at the time, mainly in the penumbras of the Constitution. It arrogated to the least democratic branch of government the power to settle a question that would have been better decided by Congress or state legislatures.

Most of the “late-breaking news” on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” the “breaking news” announced during the new fourth hour of “Morning Joe,” and the opinions expressed on Fox News have a familiar ring to them. Even the guests and conversations on the network morning shows and the evening news sound like reruns of shows shown the day or the week before. That is true even if occasionally some new fact is injected into the coverage. The reason is that so much of what is labeled as “news” is really nothing more than political theater, presented to the public watching and listening by insecure politicians in order to gain their attention or even affection when they feel the need to feel their love.