Commentary

I love the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I know that is a controversial statement for legions of people who commute over it every day or spend hours crossing it for vacations or are trapped in their neighborhoods by the miles-long anaconda of slowly moving cars. I know some people fear driving across it. But I love the bridge.No other engineering marvel shapes Maryland like the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial (Bay) Bridge.

With the news last week that the FBI headquarters is moving to Maryland, the state has a major reason to celebrate. It also has a major reason to make new plans. The new headquarters, which will be built on a currently empty site adjacent to the Greenbelt Metro Station — the terminus of the Green Line — is expected to house 11,000 workers. They are moving from the J. Edgar Hoover building in central DC.

When you consider the monsoon of violent images that flood young brains — on television, in video games, movies and social media — it’s difficult to see how one 60-second, anti-violence video could effectively counter all that gun-infested conditioning. It’s even harder to imagine a short video causing a young man in Baltimore, a felon on probation, to throw away his handgun and break from the perilous life that caused him to carry it.

Only 3 in 10 leaders at mid-size businesses nationally are upbeat about the national economy. But they feel good about their own industries and companies, according to the JPMorgan Chase Midyear Business Leaders Outlook survey. I hear all the time about Charm City becoming a great place for business, and based on recent local events and milestones, the future is looking bright.

Delusions, paranoia, poor judgment, grandiose thinking — all are symptoms of what behavioral experts define as thought disorders. It does not take a psychiatrist to make a diagnosis on Capitol Hill, where, fresh from their extended reckless behavior over leadership, the House GOP finds itself scrambling to find some way to keep the federal government open past the end of this week.

Last month, a man shot a Maryland judge callously and coldly in the judge’s driveway before apparently shooting himself, according to law enforcement; the man’s body was found a week later. The Washington County circuit judge, Andrew Wilkinson, had presided over divorce proceedings involving the suspect, Pedro Argote, mere hours before the shooting, and awarded custody of Argote’s children to his ex-wife.