Commentary

In awkward efforts to console her, some people questioned the purpose of the long U.S. war in Afghanistan and, thereby, her husband’s death. It hurt to hear such comments, but Peggy Marchanti came to terms with the meaning of her husband’s service and his sacrifice in the weeks after his burial in Arlington National Cemetery. And she made a kind assessment of the people who had inadvertently made unkind remarks.

Baltimore’s Committee for Public Safety and Government Operations held an informational meeting for city agencies recently on Crime Prevention through Environmental Design (CPTED), to explore ways that the city might better utilize the strategy in everything from neighborhood planning to urban greening. CPTED is an approach to urban design that has its origins in the “urban crisis” of the 1970s, a time of national panic over rising crime rates, increasing racial tensions, and deteriorating material conditions in the American inner city.

I’ve been writing about Congress since the late 1980s, watching as filibusters in the Senate evolved from rare and usually doomed efforts by fringe factions into what they are today: a routine practice by whichever party is in the minority. Republicans and Democrats have put the legislative filibuster to a stress test over the past decade, exposing faults I’d been dismissive of before. (The filibuster has been nuked for judicial and executive branch nominees.)

The emergence of a bipartisan infrastructure deal in Washington was rightfully lauded as potentially addressing long-neglected needs around the country. Predictions that it may lead to more bipartisanship in the future are premature, however. Hopefully, they will be proved correct.

We have all heard how the Maryland Department of Labor has done a poor job handling unemployment claims. But, it is worse than you even know. Every single week, I set aside an entire day just to handle unemployment claims for the office of the delegate I work with. I ask every person who contacts our office about unemployment to follow up with me each Tuesday and then later in the week after I receive updates from the Department of Labor. I follow up with every one of those emails to let constituents know what new information I had received about their case.

Children can’t learn and grow on an empty stomach. We see how hunger impacts our communities, especially families with children. Prior to COVID-19, hundreds of thousands of children in Maryland lived in homes that struggled to put food on the table. Since the onset of the pandemic, an alarming spike in food insecurity among children has been reported.