Commentary

What’s the primary trait you need to be an advice columnist? According to Baltimore native R. Eric Thomas, bestselling author, noted playwright and television writer, the answer is simple. “Empathy.” On July 1, Thomas joins the big leagues of the trades with “Asking Eric,” the successor to the legendary Chicago Tribune’s “Ask Amy” column, written by the retiring Amy Dickinson.

Early this year demolition began on the Bard Building in downtown Baltimore. This looming, dark-brick building has a prominent location, fronting Lombard Street at its corner with Market Place. The five-story, 172,000-square-feet structure was built in 1976 as a satellite campus of Baltimore City Community College (BCCC).

On behalf of the dedicated people on the city of Frederick’s Charter Review Committee, I am writing to express our frustration about the delay and disjointed “management” of our report and recommendations from the time it was delivered to our elected leadership on Dec. 1, 2023, to the present. More importantly, perhaps, it is truly disheartening to have certain of our elected officials criticize us in public meetings for purportedly “doing a disservice to the process” by failing to appear and make presentations to explain our intent as to some of our recommendations.

Seven men sit across the dais — six white and one Black. They’ve been elected to wield government power on behalf of Baltimore County’s 854,000 residents, more than half of whom are women and nearly half Black, brown, Indigenous and other people of color. How could this all-male, overwhelmingly white group truly represent Baltimore County’s rich diversity?

Companies doing business in the state of Maryland are no strangers to regulation and taxes. So, when Maryland introduced a special business tax that would provide federal tax relief to Maryland businesses, there was widespread cheer. Unfortunately, government inefficiency in the state has caused a rare tax incentive to be more of a headache than it’s worth for many business owners and tax professionals.

One alarming aspect of the current crime wave is the dramatic increase of both violent and property crime in areas of Maryland that have not seen similar surges in the past. That’s exactly what is happening in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties, which are suffering from rapid increases in rates of violent crimes, carjackings and robberies.