Friday, January 10, 2025 | Baltimore, MD
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Commentary

Dayvon Love: Hogan’s Flawed Approach to Public Safety

Gov. Larry Hogan’s legislative thrust regarding public safety in Maryland is based on faulty premises. His approach is based on the idea that there needs to be enhanced sentences on existing criminal penalties to deter crime, and that judges need to give out tougher punishments to people who come before them. There are a few major flaws in this narrative.

Franchot: Why I support a vaccine passport for Maryland

Here’s why I support a vaccine passport: Because it’s time for people who follow best practices and science — a vast majority of our state by any measure — to be able to return to their daily lives and routines. As the coronavirus evolves, so must our strategies. We cannot continue in this climate where the small percentage of the unvaccinated determine the course of life for the overwhelming majority of people who did the right thing and got vaccinated. We must work collaboratively to find the best solutions that ensure the safety of all Marylanders.

From pigs that glow to life-saving swine: how decades of research led to this month’s heart transplant

It was only three months ago that surgeons successfully attached a kidney from a genetically altered pig to a human recipient. Since then, new successes continue to pile on. In December, the kidney procedure was successfully repeated. Then, earlier this month, we celebrated another huge leap forward in such xenotransplantation: Surgeons successfully transplanted a pig heart into a human patient who lives in the Baltimore area. For this accomplishment, congratulations are in order.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Paul J. Wiedefeld’s tenure at Metro

“Can Metro’s new leader fix problems he says are ‘worse than I thought’?” The answer to that question we posed, in February 2016, remains in doubt. But this much seems certain as Mr. Wiedefeld, 66, who gave notice Tuesday that he would retire this summer, wraps up what will be a nearly seven-year stint as head of one of the nation’s three busiest transit systems: Notwithstanding lingering problems and a pandemic that has left every transit system reeling, he has pointed Metro in the right direction.

Maryland is falling behind in funding historic preservation tax incentives

In real estate development and financing, when you hear the word “preservation” I already know what you’re thinking – rehabilitating old buildings is expensive, and the red tape to adaptively reuse them can be extensive. However, neither of those issues has to prevent a project from successfully moving forward thanks to a tax credit that has been around for decades.

Charles M. Blow: It was too little too late from the White House on voting rights

After Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema made it clear that they were not in favor of altering the filibuster to pass voting rights legislation, essentially dooming the bills to failure and ensuring that Republicans could continue their efforts to unleash an era of modified Jim Crow, the best the White House could say not to sound completely defeated was that they were going to keep fighting.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Mizeur, Gerrymandering and Maryland Farmers

Imagine that, in her version of the famous Grant Wood painting, Heather R. Mizeur posed as a high school student with her welder-farmer father with a pitchfork in front of their “American Gothic” house in the prosperous agricultural township of Blue Mound, Ill., which had a population of 537 in the 1980 census. No doubt her high school had a Future Farmers of America chapter. Now working the 34-acre organic farm called Apotheosis Farm near Chestertown, on the gorgeous Eastern Shore, Mizeur runs for the Democratic nomination in the 1st congressional district primary. According to her campaign website, her family has been farming for seven generations.

Roe v. Wade has never been enough to ensure abortion access

Last month, the Supreme Court declined to block Texas’ restrictive 6-week abortion ban. And later this year, the same nine justices will decide whether to overturn Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion in the U.S. exactly 49 years ago as of Jan. 22. While the legal right to an abortion is vital, the truth is Roe has never been enough. We at the Baltimore Abortion Fund (BAF) continue to witness how systemic racism creates unnecessary obstacles to care, especially for people of color and those working to make ends meet.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Deal-Zimmerman: Our hopes for Baltimore in the new year

It’s that time of year when everything feels bright, shiny and new. Except it doesn’t. Not here in Baltimore. Our foe, COVID-19, is in the throes of a hellish comeback; a funeral was just held for one of Baltimore’s finest; another city official was indicted on a charge of lying and betraying our civic trust; and there have been nearly as many murders as days so far in January. It’s hard to hang onto hope that 2022 will be better.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Sumano, Patinella & Silverman Andrews: Coalition Wants to Be Heard by MSDE Workgroup on English Language Learners

The authors want to acknowledge after submission of this commentary, but before its publication two positive developments: MSDE staff communicated willingness to talk with the coalition and added a feedback form to its website. Labor Day weekend, we began the work of forming a grass-roots coalition to monitor, provide input to and improve the policy recommendations of the Workgroup on English Language Learners in Public Schools, which was created by the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future/Kirwan legislation and housed within the Maryland State Department of Education.

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