Episode 72 of Center Maryland’s The Lobby Podcast features Omar Lazo, a community leader from Montgomery County. Omar is the owner of Los Chorros Restaurant, a local activist, and member of several boards including Montgomery College, Montgomery County Workforce Development, & Wheaton Arts Parade.
We caught up with Baltimore City Councilwoman Phylicia Porter before the Saint Agnes Legislative Breakfast earlier this month. She joins host Damian O’Doherty to talk about healthcare access and more.
Grants are essential to bolstering communities with better infrastructure, innovative technology, and general economic stimulation. They are critical when the beneficiaries are communities that might feel forgotten or oppressed. Thanks to the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and President Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, billions of dollars in grants were earmarked for community development, infrastructure modernization, and rail and safety improvements.
As one of the founders of a sanctuary in the 1980s, I’m reminded that arguments leveled against whale and dolphin sanctuaries in a Baltimore Banner article have all been tried and disproven over many decades. In the past half-century, sanctuaries have been established for land animals of all kinds that suffer from exploitation. For example, elephants who had been housed in the cramped compounds of zoos or in trucks being shuttled from town to town to dance and do handstands at circuses are today free to roam the pastures of sanctuaries such as the Performing Animals Welfare Society in California and the Global Sanctuary for Elephants in Brazil.
One of the most dangerous things a leader can do, be it mayor, governor or other prominent elected official, is send a message that you can break the law. Tragically, anti-law-and-order leaders are not uncommon nationwide. Particularly affected states are those such as Maryland, New York and California, whose leaders have enacted policies that permit flagrant criminal activity and violent acts of injustice with minimal, if any, repercussions.
Mark Graber, the Maryland law professor whose constitutional expertise helped disqualify from office a New Mexico man who joined the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, has concluded that Donald Trump’s words and actions fit the historic definition of an insurrectionist — strongly suggesting that he, too, should be barred from office. In a brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court, Graber argues that the former president engaged in insurrection in its well-documented, well-understood meaning. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment clearly forbids anyone who engages in insurrection, after swearing to support the Constitution, from holding office.
We should all be able to go to work each morning without the fear that we won’t make it home to our loved ones. But our election workers don’t have that security right now, and it is our collective responsibility to change that. A poll by the Brennan Center found that 45% of local election officials said they fear for the safety of their colleagues. Nearly one in three election officials have been harassed, abused, or threatened because of their job, and more than one in five are concerned about being physically assaulted on the job in future elections.
As briefly satisfying as it may have been to watch some Big Tech CEOs squirm under a bipartisan grilling from the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday — including an outright apology from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to parents who say social media contributed to their child’s exploitation and, in some cases, death — it’s also fair to wonder if a dysfunctional Congress is capable of doing much about online youth safety.
Given the public’s continued concern about youth crime in Maryland, it was no surprise that top Democrats in Annapolis — including Gov. Wes Moore, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones — formally unveiled plans to strengthen accountability in Maryland’s juvenile justice system. But make no mistake, their idea of accountability centers on improving outcomes for all.
Last summer was the hottest on record, 0.41 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than any other summer. Environmental disasters accompanied this record heat: forest and grassland wildfires, unsafe air quality, dangerously high ocean temperatures, and perilous chain reactions common of decimated ecosystems — for instance, widespread drought, producing saltwater intrusion that contaminates drinking water.
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