Commentary

The widely awaited first congressional hearing on GameStop took place Thursday, and it was nowhere near as climactic as expected. True, most — though not all — representatives quickly agreed on the villain: Vlad Tenev, CEO of Robinhood, the platform many of the investors in the game retailer used to run the stock up from low double digits to more than $500, before it plunged back to earth. Of course, Tenev apologized in the semi-groveling, semi-self-aggrandizing way typical at these hearings, promising to do better in the future — but it wasn’t clear what exactly needed to change. When asked point blank by Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) what “mistakes” he specifically made, he couldn’t answer.

More than a dozen pieces of legislation in the Maryland legislature are aimed at correcting what The Post has called a “rights equation [that] is badly tilted in [landlords’] favor.” Scores of regional and statewide organizations, the attorney general’s office, responsible legislators and hundreds of thousands of renters are looking to the legislature’s leadership to act. Yet the prevailing wisdom of these leaders and landlord supporters is that the system works. It does, but mostly for landlords. In coming months, more than 200,000 Maryland renters risk eviction from their homes. They will feel what one Gaithersburg retiree felt as he simultaneously faced heightened vulnerability to the coronavirus and the loss of housing.

Tax policy is never an easy topic of conversation in Anne Arundel County, where a revolt by taxpayers 30 years ago hobbled government with a revenue cap and still echoes politically and culturally. This year in the General Assembly, local lawmakers are focused on two major themes for county taxpayers: Tax cuts that would give the county power to help businesses hurt by the pandemic, and tax rate flexibility that would give the county the power to shift more of the tax burden to those at the top of the economy. There are, to be sure, wider tax measures coming out of the assembly that will impact county consumers and businesses.

Unlike most taxes, you don’t often hear fiscal conservatives raise concerns about the levy on hotel rooms. Those who actually pay the taxes tend, in the main, not to be residents of the taxing jurisdiction and are voiceless in expressing a feeling about the fairness of this particular taxation. Hotels and other hospitality businesses that pay Anne Arundel County’s room tax pass them on to customers, spelling them out in the bill. Those businesses might argue that hotel taxes make a destination less competitive compared to other places with lower hotel taxes, but that’s about the amount of discussion on the subject.

Right now, contrasting views exist on how discipline should be handled in the future. Democratic House Speaker Adrienne A. Jones proposes keeping a trial board system where cases are reviewed, but adding civilians to it, rather than having it stacked with all police officers, as is the case now. A bill by Democratic Sen. Jill Carter would get rid of trial boards and put the firing power in the hands of police chiefs.

When I taught English to middle schoolers last year, I saw the lives of almost 100 students change on March 12 as schools closed because of COVID-19 — a deadly virus that students couldn’t see but has kept them away from their friends and classmates for the rest of the school year and beyond. Now, my students struggle to stay connected during virtual instruction. For one student, her audio fails because of spotty Wi-Fi, making it frustrating for her to engage in class and come off mute. For another student, his broadband connection is unreliable in supporting his Zoom classroom, much less the individual breakout rooms that are so critical for peer-to-peer collaboration and socioemotional development.

Despite taking all the precautions as a health care provider, I knew I would eventually add to the statistics of COVID positive cases, and I did. I have an elderly mother at home, so I isolated myself in the basement and hoped for the best. Still, my wife and daughter soon also tested positive. I did not have a fever, but I felt unusually cold. There was not much fatigue, but a kind if inertia set in; I did not want to read or even check my phone for my messages. There was loss of appetite and the senses of taste and smell, as well as a heightened sensitivity to sugar. But the frightening revelation was shortness of breath just climbing a flight of steps at home.

The world is entering an exciting new Space Age. Where once the superpowers competed in a space race to the moon, today commercial companies like SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin are finding new business models to finally realize the economic value of space. As private companies dominate the economic market for low-earth orbit, the government is rightfully looking to the Moon and beyond. New ambitious missions are being planned today to send larger probes beyond the confine of our solar system, all the way to interstellar regions — all of which will provide us with unprecedented knowledge about our universe and worlds to explore.

Under Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the federal government not only blocked efforts to address the climate crisis but aggressively expanded the fossil fuel economy. But one bright spot that mitigates the damage from Washington has been the deeper commitment to clean energy initiatives at the state and local levels. These efforts must continue now that President Trump is out of office, and there’s no better place to ramp up action than right here in Maryland.