Commentary

The year 2020 was certainly a scramble for many businesses when the pivot to remote work seemed to happen virtually overnight. Thankfully, this quickly enabled companies to keep their operations going, and many discovered the added benefit of more productive and happy employees working from home. But with so many companies now embracing hybrid work environments, there’s an expanded need for reviewing any employee fraud controls that were put into place in 2020.

Maryland will pay the large law firm of Venable LLP roughly $382,000 — a discounted rate — for its failed efforts to defend Gov. Larry Hogan’s unlawful attempt to prematurely terminate federal unemployment benefits. No doubt, the case involved significant legal work. There was the unsuccessful attempt to remove the case to federal court, followed by a hearing in state circuit court. Then, the court issued a temporary restraining order against the governor, which led to more legal motions and appeals to both the Court of Special Appeals and the Court of Appeals, all futile.

In crowded Democratic primary elections, smart candidates play the percentages. When Comptroller Peter Franchot, his resume boasting 35 years in elective office, announced his candidacy for governor ahead of the pack, he might have foreseen — but failed to scare out — a rush of eight other candidates for the open seat to succeed term-limited Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R). Ditto Doug Gansler, who served eight years as attorney general, then lost in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary.

When the General Assembly overrode Governor Hogan’s veto of the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future in February 2021, they bolstered Maryland’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic in ways we don’t yet know how to measure. The Blueprint is a long-term education funding and policy shifting plan with the explicit goal of creating world-class schools over the next decade and the potential to secure a prosperous future for the entire state.

As Marylanders, we like to think of ourselves as being at the vanguard of technological and social progress. Often, we have been, producing the world’s first dredger in 1783, developing the first gas streetlamp in America in 1817, and giving birth to American railroading in 1828. Though we have occasionally been resistant to rapid social change, we still managed to produce many great civil rights leaders, have taken steps to protect the Chesapeake Bay and have striven to expand business participation among minorities and women.

When I teach undergraduate and graduate students about food insecurity, I sometimes mention that my perspective is based not only on professional expertise but also on my personal experience. Food insecurity might sound like the same thing as hunger, but that’s not the case. The somewhat technical term food insecurity applies when people can’t get the food they need for themselves or their families because of a lack of money or other resources.

Last weekend, a full slate of college football games was played across the country. This weekend, the NFL is in full swing, highlighted by the Ravens playing on Monday Night Football against the Raiders in Las Vegas. At least the Ravens will be in a place where sports betting is allowed this weekend. The Maryland General Assembly passed legislation legalizing slot machines in a special session in 2007. Ever since, Maryland has been viewed as acting too passively on expanding gaming options.

A bombshell, with uncertain force, is about to land on school reform in Maryland. It’s the startup in the next several weeks of the Accountability and Implementation Board (AIB) created under the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future. More than any other part of the blueprint, the AIB is a radical experiment in school governance — untested anywhere in the U.S. — with virtually limitless authority to make or break school reform for generations to come.

Twenty years ago, I stood in my kitchen in Baltimore and watched in disbelief as two planes hit the Twin Towers. Days later, I was compelled to go to Ground Zero myself to bear witness to the crime. I won’t ever forget the eerily silent procession of stunned residents walking slowly through the white ash of pulverized cement, steel, drywall, window glass that covered everything. We breathed in dust containing the remains of the people killed in the attack, along with the hair and skin cells of those who had worked in the World Trade Center decades before. The mood felt sacred, and we were congregants receiving communion together.