Commentary

When I served in the Maryland House of Delegates from 2007-2011, my number one priority was making state government more transparent. At the time, votes taken by legislators in committees (and those are the most important votes) were not posted online. The only way a member of the public could access them was by travelling to Annapolis and requesting them in-person. I changed all that with the Legislative Voting Sunshine Act. Now those votes are promptly posted online and everyone can easily see them.

The three of us come from different backgrounds — one is a small-business owner, one provides biotech training to under- and un-employed people, and one runs a program to help people overcome obstacles and land family-supporting jobs. But we come together to plead with our elected leaders to pass legislation to fix Maryland’s inadequate transit system.

A new report, “Blind Eye to Big Chicken,” documents a near complete abdication by Maryland agencies of their responsibilities to enforce critical pollution control regulations to rein in massive poultry industry pollution. The report by the watchdog group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) details how chicken growers continue to violate state laws with impunity regarding the handling of raw chicken excrement and polluting nutrients.

Frederick County Public Schools secluded and restrained students with disabilities thousands of times over three years, in repeated violation of federal law, a federal investigation revealed. In a settlement agreement announced this week, the school system acknowledged the findings of the investigation and pledged to change its practices. We are ashamed and embarrassed for our school system.

Last week, many of the major politicians and transportation leaders representing Baltimore — from a senator to the mayor to the U.S. and state transportation secretaries — gathered to announce the city’s big award from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Wait for it … $22 million for some improved bus stops. Really?

Did you hear the one about the Towson priest who spoke out against COVID-19 vaccination mandates as going against the teachings of Jesus? And no, that’s no a setup for a bad joke. Edward Meeks, pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church in Towson, can be seen on a YouTube video gravely warning his congregation that “no earthly king or president or public health official or billionaire technocratic gets to dictate what we must put into our bodies.” It’s gotten thousands of hits and national attention.

As a speaker at the fall conference of the Municipal League of Maryland, I recently expressed a positive sense of the impact of technology on people with disabilities but also a clarion call that society must continue to improve its accessibility. Considering the continuous robust discussion in such fields of law and policy as administrative law and civil rights, I thought the National Disability Employment Month an opportune occasion for fostering dialogue.

In early 2020, tenant lobbyists began to warn of an imminent eviction tsunami that could cause as many as 100,000 evictions and decimate Maryland’s economy. That tsunami never arrived. Even as evictions remained at historical lows into 2021, predictions of an eviction tsunami reached a crescendo in Annapolis during the state legislative session. Stoking fears of a tsunami became the most popular method to push extreme and unprecedented housing policies that would have exponentially inflated rent prices and decimated affordable housing across the state.

Bob Kleinschmidt is a mild-mannered, self-employed management consultant and corporate leadership coach. He teaches managers how to be better managers, and all workers of the world know what a vital service that can be. Kleinschmidt has been doing this sort of work for 20 years, the last five trading as C3 Transformation. His clients are in health care and higher education, biotech and pharmaceuticals; they include managers in government agencies, companies and nonprofits.

In our high-risk pregnancy clinics there are three vaccine conversations that we have with patients regularly. First, there are patients who are vaccinated for COVID-19 and counting down the days until they can schedule a booster shot. Then there are patients who will accept vaccines for influenza and Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis), but not COVID-19. The third conversation is with expectant mothers who not only decline a COVID-19 vaccination but also other vaccines recommended in pregnancy.