Commentary

We already knew that finding a great new leader for the Frederick County Public Schools system was going to be a challenge, but results from a survey of community attitudes toward the system reinforces our concerns. The survey conducted by the search firm the school board has hired to help find a new leader shows significant unhappiness with the county school system by almost every group of stakeholders in the community — except the school administration itself.

Up a Harford County hill, where the world is quiet — no guns, no missiles, no fire, no war — Josh Pons offers a couple of old racehorses a morning treat to get them in a socializing mood. They are both geldings, so, given the business model, I asked the co-owner of the place what purpose geldings serve at Country Life Farm, one of the top thoroughbred breeding grounds in the Mid-Atlantic.

The Maryland General Assembly is leading an effective, sensible, collaborative approach to packaging producer responsibility legislation to develop an effective circular economy for recycling in the state. Packaging producer responsibility legislation is a policy framework to help design and run modernized materials recovery and processing solutions that will drive results.

During World War II, sailors departing ships for shore leave would follow a beacon of light emanating from the steeple of San Pedro United Methodist Church. Upon arriving, they could take a shower, eat a meal prepared in our kitchen, maybe write a letter home. History is never far away when the church you lead, and worship in, was built in 1923. It’s a grand three-story structure with beautiful stained-glass windows and a sanctuary with an open-beam vaulted ceiling that can seat 350. It’s a big church, and over time we have become a small congregation.

The usual date given for the start of World War II is Sept. 1, 1939, when Hitler invaded Poland after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. But that was just one in a series of events that at the time could have seemed disconnected. Among them: Japan’s invasion of Manchuria in 1931. Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia in 1935. The remilitarization of the Rhineland in 1936 and the Spanish Civil War, which started the same year. Anschluss with Austria and the Sudeten crisis of 1938.

As three youth justice reform bills sit before the Maryland legislature, the time is now for lawmakers to heed the science that tell us “kids are different.” If passed, these bills would improve outcomes for youth in the criminal system, but equally important, they’d make Maryland residents safer. Specifically, these bills would require police to notify parents before questioning a child in custody; ensure kids get a judicial hearing before their cases are moved to adult court; ban incarceration for kids who violate technical terms of their probation; and create more youth diversion opportunities, among other measures.

It’s a big number: $1.8 billion. And one I’ll be telling a lot of people about as I arrive in Baltimore for trans-Atlantic trade talks. The dollar figure is the total worth of all the goods and services that Maryland exported to the United Kingdom in 2019, just before the pandemic hit, making us Maryland’s fourth largest export market. In fact, it seems we Brits can’t get enough of Maryland’s world class goods: State exports to the U.K. are up 49% to $545 million in the decade leading to 2019, and services trade dollars increased by 30% to $1.2 billion over the same period.

Elected officials in Annapolis have a chance to do something great this legislative session. The faith community and Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake thank Sen. Paul Pinsky and the Maryland Senate for passage of Senate Bill 528, and we encourage the House of Delegates to support the Climate Solutions Now legislation. Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake works with hundreds of congregations of all faiths across Maryland who have made a strong commitment to our environment.