Wednesday, January 15, 2025 | Baltimore, MD
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Commentary

Analysis: Why Dennis Schrader Sailed Through His Senate Confirmation

The state senators who expressed ambivalence about the nomination of Dennis R. Schrader to be Maryland’s secretary of Health on Friday were, in many respects, mirroring the public’s mixed feelings about his agency’s most high-profile task — the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine. A Goucher College survey released in March revealed a significant, and seemingly-contradictory, split in public opinion. That survey was in the field in February, during the early weeks of the distribution campaign, when appointments were hard to come by — and when local health and political leaders, and state lawmakers, were heaping scorn on the administration.

Sen. McCray: Ensuring the Health of Our Public Transit System

As we chart the path forward, reimagining life post-COVID-19, my family – my wife and four kids – are especially excited to travel again. This past year, we remained mostly at home. Virtual school, virtual teaching and virtual Senate meetings for me. Our hope to see more of the world together has led us to do a few fun exercises where we consider potential vacation itineraries. The suggestions vary, as you would imagine – Paris, Boston, New York City, London, Tokyo, Cape Town and Washington, D.C.

A bold commitment to offshore wind would be a win-win for Maryland; Gov. Hogan, how about it?

I’ve had the privilege of visiting nearly every state in the union, in each one meeting people from all walks of life who are working to make their communities better places to live, work and raise families. Their success, or the barriers that thwart it, often come down to one simple fact: Strong executive leadership in a state matters. A strong, effective state leader nourishes productive partnerships with legislators, neighborhoods, faith communities, educators, businesses and unions. Strong executive leadership gets good things done.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Despite rise in virus cases, elected leaders again ignore health experts’ advice to tighten restrictions

In a deadly pattern we’ve seen before, coronavirus infections are rising across the region but area elected officials are ignoring health experts’ advice to tighten restrictions on public gatherings and businesses to thwart the disease’s spread. It seems our leaders are willing to tolerate scores or even hundreds of additional covid deaths in the next few months, on the assumption that rising vaccination rates will prevent a major surge before they pay a political price.

What employers should know about new COVID-related leave rules

On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided that employers may once again voluntarily extend Emergency Paid Sick Leave (EPSL) and Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion Act (EFMLEA) provisions of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) to employees and receive those tax credits. This time the extension runs through Sept. 30, 2021, and further modifies the benefits that employees may receive if employers decide to voluntarily extend the benefits effective April 1, 2021.

A compassionate response to mental health

Frederick County has taken a giant step forward to improve community policing and public safety by expanding the services of a team of counselors and other specialists to help those experiencing a mental health crisis. This should also make the job of police officers in this community simpler and safer. One of the most difficult assignments for police officers here and around the country is to respond to a 911 call for a mentally ill person having a crisis.

Obama’s herring: Removing dams on the Patapsco brings back a silvery little fish

Jim Thompson and William Harbold discovered silver in a place in the Patapsco River where it had not been seen in more than a century. The discovery occurred last Friday around 10 a.m. about 3 miles downstream of Ellicott City and just upstream of where the Bloede Dam used to be. As discoveries go, it was hardly sensational; it did not send shock waves through the stock exchange.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Working together across the aisle for a better Maryland

Last summer, the citizens of Maryland learned from The Baltimore Sun’s reporting that the former executive director of the Maryland Environmental Service (MES) spent lavishly in his tenure and ultimately negotiated a significant payout when he left to become the governor’s chief of staff that summer. This at a “not-for-profit business unit of the state of Maryland,” according to the MES website. The spending raised many questions about the organization’s oversight and whether officials were abusing its resources for personal gain rather than in alignment with the organization’s public mission to “provide operational and technical services to protect and enhance the environment for the benefit of the people of Maryland.”

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Solomon Jones: George Floyd was somebody and his death can’t be in vain

As the murder trial of Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer who is accused of killing George Floyd by mercilessly pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck, begins this week, I am convinced that Black people need healing as much as we need justice. There is a persistent heartache that comes with the knowledge that some of those who are sworn to protect Americans believe that doing so involves killing citizens who look like me. That pain is coupled with anger each time I see a still from the video of George Floyd’s death—a still in which Chauvin stares defiantly into a camera as Floyd dies beneath his knee.

Our Say: Maryland should make Juneteenth a state holiday celebrating freedom

Juneteenth is the celebration of Black American emancipation that started in Texas, marking the date in 1865 that enslaved people there were told they had been freed two years earlier. A group of Maryland lawmakers wants to make this a state holiday, giving state employees a paid day off and closing state offices, courts and other official functions. If it is approved, it is likely that local governments will follow and pressure will build for local schools still holding classes that late in the spring to join the shift.

The Morning Rundown

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