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Commentary

Town Hall on gun violence among Baltimore youths.

It was billed as a town hall meeting on youth violence. But more than that, it was a transformative moment for two of Baltimore’s leading media organizations. Like the eclectic group of people — victims, parents, educators, community activists, cops and politicians — who were invited as panelists and audience members, The Baltimore Banner and WJZ-TV were drawn to the University of Baltimore’s mid-Belvedere campus by these chilling statistics: Seventy-three people 19 years old or younger had been shot in Baltimore by the first week of May — 19 of them fatally.

Reflections on a Melo Day in Baltimore

Both softened and matured by age and experience, the young men I knew while in middle school in Baltimore — during the start of Carmelo Anthony’s NBA career — appeared to be emotional (at least on Instagram) on the day “Melo,” as most of us affectionately call the former power forward, announced his retirement Monday. It was a warm late-May day, nearing 80 degrees in Baltimore.

Dan Rodricks: Andy Harris plays doctor to justify food stamp cuts

Andy Harris, the anesthesiologist and Maryland congressman who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and who decried masking and vaccination mandates during the pandemic, now wants to save children in low-income households from sugary soft drinks. Harris, the seven-term Republican who chairs a House agriculture subcommittee, thinks people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should not be allowed to use food stamps to buy sugar-sweetened beverages.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Tall buildings in baltimore city
What’s wrong with the Baltimore City Department of Public Works?

There’s a general rule of thumb at every level of government that when things are well-managed, you don’t hear much about them. It’s only when things are going badly that a particular agency, department or similar public sector entity is suddenly thrust into the limelight. Last week’s announcement out of the Baltimore City Department of Public Works that it intends to comply with the recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency order to complete two major drinking water projects at Druid Lake and Lake Ashburton before year’s end would be reassuring if this had been the first time DPW had come under scrutiny.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Why Montgomery County needs the Office of the People’s Counsel

The County Council’s Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committee recently declined to fund the Office of the People’s Counsel, which operated between 1999 and 2008 but has remained unfunded since then. County Executive Elrich’s FY23 and FY24 budgets proposed refunding the agency, which represents the public interest (but not parties) in land use proceedings and provides technical assistance to residents.

Read More: MOCO360
The border comes to Baltimore

The Biden administration is experimenting with new border policies, and asylum-seeking families headed to Baltimore are about to serve as its test subjects. This month, the administration began implementing a range of sweeping new policies at the Southern border. The centerpiece of the new approach is an asylum ban that blocks most migrants from accessing asylum if they traveled through a third country without seeking protection there.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
FCPS made right call in respecting graduate’s heritage

There was doubt leading up to Frederick High School’s graduation on Monday about whether Frederick High School senior T.J. Weaver would be allowed to walk across the stage with a Native American stole. For commencement, Weaver requested to wear the stole — which represents his Native American heritage and his Otoe-Missouria tribe — over his robe.

 

white and blue van on road during daytime
Dan Rodricks: Attention, bad guys — leave our postal carriers alone

One day soon, I should receive from the U.S. Postal Service the annual count of dog attacks inflicted on the nation’s hardworking, all-weather letter carriers. The number for the previous year comes out every spring, along with the perennial request that Americans be “responsible dog owners” by keeping their pets away from the men and women who deliver 162 million pieces of first-class mail each day.

Read More: Baltimore Sun
Tom Perez: We Cannot Allow Wall Street to Undermine Regulatory Bodies Like the FCC

In recent years, across America, we have witnessed substantial consolidation of broadcast and print media. Time after time, hedge funds and other firms have bought up and decimated local news outlets and local newspapers. The result has been layoffs, shuttered newspapers, scaled back operations, diminution of program content, and increased costs for cable subscribers.

Meet someone who made it on ‘The Voice,’ and someone who didn’t get close. (Me.)

Every once in a while, I’ll wistfully watch NBC’s “The Voice” and imagine what might have happened if my two auditions for the talent competition had been successful and I’d become one of those people whose life is changed with the spin of a red chair. And then I stand a few feet away from recent contestant Talia Smith, hear the impossibly gorgeous sounds coming out of her mouth, and understand.

The Morning Rundown

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