Editorial: Was it really a lack of resources that led to the failures of Jan. 6?
March 10, 2021 -

A review of security at the U.S. Capitol commissioned by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 incursion concluded that the Capitol Police force is “understaffed, insufficiently equipped and inadequately trained.” It recommended an increase in staff of more than 850 officers and other major investments. One would not know from reading the report that the agency is already one of the largest and best-funded police departments in the country. With a budget of more than $460 million and 2,300 employees, it is roughly equivalent to the police forces of cities such as Atlanta. It is charged with guarding two square miles.

Read More: Washington Post
Greene: Improving Support for State’s Behavioral Health Care Providers
March 10, 2021 -

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to highlight the behavioral health challenges facing many of our Maryland neighbors. As someone who has lived and worked in Maryland for much of my professional career, I agree with many of my colleagues in the behavioral health community these challenges will only increase as we emerge from this global pandemic.  This is why Optum Maryland is deeply committed to support providers’ work in delivering vital care to their patients. As the contractor tasked to deliver the Maryland Medicaid and state behavioral health plan claims payment system, our mission is to ensure that care providers can get paid quickly and accurately for the services they deliver to some of our most vulnerable who live in our community.

Read More: Maryland Matters
Maryland’s broken unemployment system needs an overhaul. Here’s how to fix it.
March 9, 2021 -

Maryland’s broken unemployment system has caused tremendous damage to workers in the state. In our union, UNITE HERE Local 25, 90% have still not returned to work. As hotel and hospitality workers, they were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. For too many, the unemployment insurance system became a logistical nightmare rather than the lifeline they needed. Many of our members are in dire, frightening financial circumstances because of the economic fallout from COVID-19. Most of them continue to rely on government services like unemployment insurance so they can meet basic human needs for themselves and their families.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Montgomery County Council declared a ‘climate emergency’ — then sabotaged a solar program
March 9, 2021 -

Talk is cheap. Or, in the case of the Montgomery County Council, declaring a “climate emergency” and then sabotaging affordable clean energy. This week, the council debated a bill to allot 2 percent of rural land for solar energy development under the state’s Community Solar Pilot Program, and then amended it to such an extent as to make it unfeasible. Community Solar, a program approach that incentivizes developers to offer solar-based electric service to low- and middle-income customers, allows individuals, communities, nonprofits and others to buy in to solar energy without having property on which to build a solar installation. The original intent of the county’s bill was to increase the county’s solar resources for this program.

Read More: Washington Post
Lisa Kershner and John ‘Butch’ West: Legislation would remove enforcement flaw in Maryland public information law. Lawmakers should pass it.
March 9, 2021 -

Right now, transparency in government is critically important. In some areas, peoples’ trust and faith in the ability of government to act in their best interests and to protect their health and welfare has diminished. If properly functioning and fairly enforced, Maryland’s Public Information Act can do much to restore that trust and faith. In Maryland, the “PIA” promotes government transparency by affording citizens’ a broad right of access to records of State and local government agencies “with the least cost and delay.” Though the right to access records is subject to certain exceptions for confidentiality, privacy, and privilege, the core of the PIA is a belief in the right of citizens to know what their government is up to.

Read More: Capital Gazette
Carlester Smith is a symbol that Annapolis can accept people who are different
March 9, 2021 -

The temptation, of course, is to think that only people in power make a difference in our lives. Carlester Smith proved the notion wrong. To his family and friends, Smith was a kind and caring figure who grew up in Annapolis after his family relocated following a fire. He attended local schools until the sixth grade in the 1960s, an era of education that didn’t work very hard to find a place in the classroom for students with developmental disabilities. Smith was placed in a vocational institute.

Read More: Capital Gazette
Editorial: Election reform: Judge Sarbanes’ proposal on merit, not partisan advantage
March 8, 2021 -

There has always something essentially quixotic in Rep. John Sarbanes’ “For The People Act,” its title as idealistic as anything found on its nearly 800 pages of content. In sum, what H.R.1 attempts to do is fix much of what is broken in this nation’s election system, chiefly by making voting more accessible, ending partisan redistricting, raising ethical standards, and exposing and reducing the influence of big money in politics. Americans should be celebrating its passage in the U.S. House of Representatives late Wednesday and giving thanks to the 58-year-old Maryland Democrat, the eldest son of the late Sen. Paul Sarbanes, who has made this worthy cause a personal crusade.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Capehart: Time for some more ‘good trouble’ on voting rights, 56 years after ‘Bloody Sunday’
March 8, 2021 -

On Sunday, March 7, 1965 — exactly 56 years ago — the Rev. Hosea Williams and 25-year-old John Lewis walked side-by-side as they led some 600 Black men, women and children on a march for voting rights from the Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma, Ala., to the state capitol in Montgomery. Only, they never made it to Montgomery. In fact, they were just about one mile into their 54-mile march — just over the Edmund Pettus Bridge — when a line of Alabama state troopers advanced on Lewis and the peaceful marchers with billy clubs, tear gas and horses.

Read More: Washington Post
Fani-Gonzalez: Too many struggle with Montgomery’s housing costs. Here’s how government can help.
March 8, 2021 -

Within 30 minutes, on a Friday afternoon in the fall of 2020, I was able to capture the agony of the American experience: “[Housing] is too expensive unless you make over $60,000.” “You get what you pay for . . . as long as you have steady pay.” “Half of my monthly salary goes to pay the rent.” “About 70 percent of my monthly salary is used to pay the rent.” Those were some comments I received when asking working adults about their housing experience in Montgomery County, one of the most diverse counties in the nation — ethnically, racially and economically.

Read More: Washington Post
Downie: When states unmask, we know what happens next
March 8, 2021 -

A year ago this week, Mississippi recorded its first confirmed case of covid-19. The state’s new governor, Tate Reeves (R), seemed unconcerned: Rather than issue stay-at-home orders or other statewide mitigation measures, he took a family trip to Europe and urged Mississippians to trust in the “power of prayer.” By the end of the month, the state had the highest hospitalization rate in the country. Then, in August, after thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths, Reeves issued a statewide mask mandate — only to lift it again less than two months later.

Read More: Washington Post