Commentary

Medicare-eligible seniors in Maryland suffer from a limited number of health insurance benefit options compared to other states. While the share of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans climbed to almost 40% nationally in 2020, in Maryland only 13% of seniors enjoy the added security these plans provide. Thankfully, efforts by local leaders as well as the Biden administration can help our state’s seniors by improving access to coverage choices and supplemental benefits not otherwise covered under traditional Medicare.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in the case of a Baltimore County man killed by police after he fatally shot three of his neighbors and injured a fourth. Among them: Did 56-year-old Everton Brown have a mental condition that caused him to lash out? So far, all we know now is that people in his Woodlawn neighborhood speculated that was the case. Reports of extreme paranoia and a belief that the CIA, FBI and various neighbors were watching him certainly leave it within the realm of possibility. Other erratic behavior also raises suspicions.

In a recent interview, Mayor Brandon Scott committed to a “total re-imagining” of downtown Baltimore as the city emerges from the pandemic. It’s a message that residents of Baltimore’s City Center have been waiting years to hear. If you ask the growing residential population in Baltimore’s downtown core, they’ll tell you that they are bullish on City Center’s recovery, but it’s only going to work if we take a frank look at where we are and get creative about tackling the problems that have held us back for too long.

The Howard County Education Association recently told teachers that they should not work at all outside of their contractually obligated work times (“Without vaccinations, teachers vote to work-to-rule,” Feb. 25). This is the wrong call for our students at a time when they need us most. This misguided resolution states that educators cannot work before and after school, on weekends or on holidays. This includes grading, mentoring, student support, answering parents’ and students’ emails after those hours, and sponsoring student teams, clubs and organizations.

I agree with the Maryland Sierra Club that Gov. Larry Hogan should not waste one dollar in pursuing a “maybe” project that is years in the future (The Capital, May 10). Please governor, take what dollars you were going to spend on MAGLEV and put it into the crumbling roads in Maryland. Twice I have sent a complaint to Hogan’s office about the conditions of the roads in Maryland and specifically in Anne Arundel County.

With the Preakness set to run Saturday, it’s the right time for tuning up a new state song. Herewith are some humble suggestions. There are two ways to go, get an off-the-shelf song and make it the official Maryland melody. The state has done something like this, adapting a successionist screed to “Oh, Tannenbaum,” the German Christmas carol more commonly known as “Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree.” We all know how that worked out.

This weekend, The Baltimore Sun reported a fire and deadly shooting in Woodlawn, Maryland. The fire was at the home of a 56-year-old man who for years claimed that the federal government surveilled him. He accused neighbors of being involved in this government surveillance. The neighbors recounted that he would sometimes march up and down the sidewalk with a gun or yell accusations from his porch through a bullhorn. On Saturday, authorities say the man attacked four people, killing three of them, before he was killed himself by Baltimore County Police officers.