Commentary

The Frederick County Board of Elections has adopted plans for the upcoming primary election in May that reflect the changing nature of the voting process here and around the country. It is a good plan, using fewer Election Day polling places and more ballot drop-box locations, as compared to the 2022 gubernatorial election, reflecting the way an increasing number of voters are participating in elections.

The cynical among us can be forgiven if they scoffed at the latest plan to revive Baltimore’s dilapidated Pimlico Race Course, home to the Preakness Stakes, the second leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. But the new (or perhaps more accurately, revised) blueprint for the track may be the most sensible, most practical one yet. As detailed in a 16-page report from the Maryland Thoroughbred Racetrack Operating Authority, created last year by the General Assembly to recommend a path forward for Maryland racing, Pimlico would be closed shortly after the next running of the Preakness in four months to undergo a $400 million renovation and the big race diverted to Laurel Park for two years.

If you were to walk around downtown Baltimore today, you may feel a little uncomfortable. With foot traffic noticeably sparse and storefronts empty, many streets feel somewhat abandoned and unsafe. The environment is missing the level of activity you would expect in a dense urban setting, all of which is the inevitable result of decades of economic decline.

The state budget is likely to be foremost in the minds of Maryland lawmakers, as they head back to Annapolis for their annual 90-day legislative session Wednesday. Not simply because state lawmakers, unlike their counterparts in Congress, are required by law to approve a balanced budget, and increased spending is expected to outpace tax revenue growth, but because so many other popular initiatives are linked to the state’s fiscal health, including Blueprint for Maryland’s Future K-12 education spending and the state’s transportation budget (which faces a potential $3.3 billion imbalance all by itself).

An article from the Baltimore Banner in Maryland Reporter’s State Roundup Monday was headlined: Prison and probation: A look at the Marylanders involved in the Jan. 6 insurrection. There is that word again – insurrection. I know this is the favorite tool of the Democrats to try and convince the rest of us that an insurrection took place on Jan. 6, 2021.

Two writers could not be more different than Bruce Fleming and David Poyer. Fleming is a professional rebel, a Naval Academy professor and nonfiction author who tells anyone who will listen how his institution is broken and desperately needs change. Poyer, who graduated from Annapolis in 1971, is best known for a long-running series of naval fiction thrillers about the derring-do career of his Navy hero, Dan Lenson.