Commentary

Meet Skinny Jeans. He’s a 1-year-old mixwith short brown fur, an old scar thin like a strand of hair across his snout. There’s probably some pit bull and terrier in there, maybe another combination on top of that. But whatever the amalgam of breeds, Skinny Jeans is a purebred goofball who enjoys walks. His hazel eyes plead for love and when he shakes his tail, his whole body shakes, too.

Ronald Reagan famously said that if you want more of something, subsidize it, but “if you want less of something, tax it.” Political conservatives have hung on those words ever since — and there’s a degree of truth to the notion that incentives matter. It’s a major reason why federal, state and local governments routinely tax health menaces like tobacco and liquor at a higher rate than other goods. And it’s unquestionably helpful.

I travel quite a bit for work, and while I don’t talk much on my flights, I make a point of chatting with my Uber driver once I land. It’s often not the city I’m visiting that I learn about, however, rather it is the country the driver has emigrated from. Many Uber drivers are immigrants. In their home countries, they might have held very different occupations, including as lawyers or physicians.

Sam rents an apartment in Salisbury with his young son. In September 2023, he received a notice that his property manager was not renewing his lease. He was given just 60 days to remove all personal belongings and turn in his keys with no explanation for this decision or any way to appeal it. Sam tried to reason with the landlord about how this abrupt move would impact his job and the challenges it posed for his son, who has a disability and would have to switch schools midyear.

It is time — well past time — to create a Black Watermen’s Memorial in Maryland. I met with Vincent O. Leggett recently to discuss this idea and brainstorm over the concept. As noted on his organization’s website, Vince is the founder and president of the Blacks of the Chesapeake Foundation, which documents, promotes, and educates on the significant contributions of African Americans to the Bay’s maritime industries and culture.

Marylanders beware. When members of Congress returned to work earlier this month, they had the chance to avoid a partial government shutdown on Saturday. And instead of doing the hard work needed to pass a long-term bipartisan deal, Congress, once again, resorted to a temporary extension. Our state is home to roughly 140,000 federal workers. That number does not include federal contractor workers (there are no available estimates for how many of these workers live in Maryland).

My very first job, as a fresh-faced 14-year-old, was for The Baltimore Sun. Notice that I said “for” and not “at.” In my several months of employment, I never made it inside the then-Calvert Street newsroom. My task was not the delivery of stories as a writer but the literal delivery of the newspaper in which those stories appeared. Every morning, I got up before the sun to distribute The Sun as a papergirl, lugging heavy bundles of papers into my mom’s car so she could drive my sister and me around Northwood in the dark.