Commentary

Job vacancies are bedeviling countless industries, not least health care, where employers are at wits’ end trying to fill nursing and other critical jobs. State lawmakers can help alleviate that problem by waiving citizenship as a requirement for licensure, a needless encumbrance. Yet even as hospitals and other facilities plead for relief, they face an uphill battle in many states, particularly ones dominated by Republicans determined to impede opportunities for undocumented immigrants, no matter how badly their skills are needed.

After all else failed — the naked partisan trickery; the cartographical sleight of hand; the threats of months of litigation — Maryland’s political tribes finally agreed on a redrawn congressional map. What a waste of time. Gov. Larry Hogan (R) had pressed for years for redistricting reform that could have ended the decennial brawls in Annapolis over electoral-district line-drawing by turning it over to a bipartisan commission. That might not have been a panacea, but it would have rated as an improvement, because almost anything would have. Democrats who rule the legislature refused, repeatedly.

As we start another baseball season, it’s time to confront a painful reality: The Orioles have a terrible cap. “Which cap,” you ask? The goofy cartoon bird? The “ornithologically correct” one from the ‘90s? The various folk-art birds from the ‘50s and ‘60s? The one that says “O’s?” The one with the “B?” This is the heart of the problem: The Orioles lack a definitive cap.

As a former state delegate of 20 years, I’ve heard the old quip about the 90-day legislative session: 90% of the work gets done in the last 10 days. That may be a slight exaggeration, but the statement conveys a general truth: some bills emerge from out of nowhere and move at breakneck speed to win passage, while others get bogged down in parliamentary technicalities that spell its demise. Essentially, if leadership wants to either get something across the finish line or stuff it in the drawer, it doesn’t matter how many days or even hours remain in the session.

Greater Baltimore Committee president and CEO Donald C. Fry discussed inclusionary housing. Inclusionary housing taps the economic gains from rising real estate values to create affordable housing for lower-income families, according to the Inclusionary Housing Database. Legislation has been introduced in the Baltimore City Council to increase more housing units for low-and middle-class residents.

Like many places across the country, Maryland residents are navigating a housing crisis. A 2020 report commissioned by the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development (MDHCD) reported a shortage of 85,000 affordable apartments in Maryland for families and individuals earning less than 30% of median income. Meanwhile, an additional 97,200 families and individuals earning less than 50% of median income are expected to move to the state by 2030, the study also noted, which will require a dramatic increase in affordable housing supply over the next 10 years.

When it comes to violent crime in Baltimore, April has so far proven to be as gloomy as the proceeding three months. Three people were killed and two others injured in multiple city shootings last Sunday alone, keeping the pace of homicides in 2022 ahead of last year. A 38-year-old Johns Hopkins acute care surgeon was shot during a carjacking on his way to work at 7 a.m. Friday morning. Shootings with multiple victims are up and so are robberies. Cars recklessly spinning out “doughnuts” to an audience at busy city intersections has apparently become a thing.