I am as straight as the crease in George Will's slacks. It's not something I'm particularly proud of. To be clear, it's also not something of which I am ashamed. Truth be told, it's not something I've ever had to think much about, not something I've ever had to defend or deny. You might call that...
As members of the Executive Committee of the Board of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, we are very committed to the organization, which is why we give our dedication, our time and financial support. The BSO stands at a crossroads. After over a century of producing the finest classical music, financial...
It’s been more than a month since online hackers hijacked Baltimore city government computers, demanding ransom and crippling city services. As the city labors to restore its systems and services, blame and recriminations are flying up and down the B-W Parkway. Some blame the NSA for creating and...
As the owner of Maryland’s largest LGBT-friendly tavern and entertainment venue, The Baltimore Eagle, I can understand why gay-friendly business owners felt threatened by the warning they received from Harford County’s Liquor Board regarding the revocation of their liquor licenses should their...
It's a story that will lacerate your heart. Indeed, you'll watch "When They See Us," director Ava DuVernay's new Netflix miniseries, in appalled disbelief and open-mouthed horror. That may sound like a warning. It's actually a recommendation. Ms. DuVernay tells the story of the so-called Central...
On July 1, one of the more unusual names in higher education — University of Maryland University College (UMUC) — will change to University of Maryland Global Campus. The new name, and the history behind it, tells a story that is unique in Maryland higher education and has important ramifications...
It breaks no journalistic ground to report that Donald Trump lies. The 45th president lies a lot. He lies about important matters. He lies about unimportant matters. And he lies so consistently and so enthusiastically and with so little concern for reality that there’s even a term, “alternative...
For those who live without benefit of the internet or newspapers, television and radio or simply go to great lengths to avoid human contact, especially with beings who like to discuss sporting events, take note: The U.S. women’s national team had a pretty good day on the World Cup soccer pitch...
Another random, violent attack on multiple victims by a deeply troubled man, another set of grieving family and friends, another set of thoughts and prayers. This attack, like Parkland and Sandy Hook, was against schoolchildren. But this time, there is one big difference: In the May 28th violent...
Forget what the calendar says. It’s summer in the city. And I suggest we all approach this season like Christopher Columbus did in his global adventures: hellbent to discover, or rediscover, what has been here all along. That bears saying because I’m sensing from some quarters an insistence that...
After weeks of dancing around its constitutional authorization to impeach a president suspected of warranting it, the House of Representatives appears on the verge of initiating the formal process. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York has rebuked the Justice Department's...
Baltimore has always been identified with the row house, a major contributor to the health of the city’s strong neighborhoods, stretching back multiple generations to the days when African-Americans from the south and waves of Irish German and Polish immigrants poured into the city looking for...
For the last two years, I have sponsored legislation to create a form of single-payer health care in Maryland. My bill is somewhere between Bernie Sander’s “Medicare for All” (which federal law prevents us from doing at the state level) and Obamacare, and nowhere near the Republican version of...
The intellectual right is in the middle of a huge brouhaha, as some prominent right-wing commentators celebrate what they believe is the end of the "conservative consensus" around classical liberalism — free markets, limited government, the sovereignty of the individual and even in some cases free...
Elmo Cook knew nothing about it. He'd heard the sirens in the middle of the night alerting all of Abilene that something had happened, but when he tried to turn on the radio, he found that his power was out. And when he left for work in the morning, the paperboy had not yet made his rounds. As...
Observances of the 75th anniversary of D-Day are properly focusing on the troops and the architect of Operation Overlord, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who freed Europe from Hitler and his Nazi hordes. One person -- a woman -- has not received the credit she deserves for her efforts with the French...
On Wednesday, Eugene Genius, Darrell Ward and Derrick Matthews each entered guilty pleas to felony murder in the death of Baltimore County Police Officer Amy Caprio. The teens likely entered guilty pleas because the stakes at trial were so high. In Maryland, felony murder is treated identically...
In the 1960s and ’70s, I was a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools assigned to the Department of Radio and Television housed in an old Carnegie-endowed public library building on Smith Avenue and Greeley Road in the heart of Mt. Washington. At noon, a fellow teacher and I would eat lunch at...
It is unusual for a country to wage war on a company, which makes the ongoing United States-Huawei dispute so strange and disconcerting. The Trump administration has prohibited U.S. firms from doing business with the Chinese tech behemoth and is trying to convince other countries to ban Huawei...
Special Counsel Robert Mueller, in his hand off to Congress to pursue impeachment of Donald Trump, cited a Justice Department edict: No sitting president can be indicted or criminally prosecuted, on grounds that doing so would unduly hamper the executive branch in the immense task of running the...
Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, says it's reasonable to think the president should be protected from seeing a warship with John McCain's name on it. The USS John S. McCain, a destroyer named after three generations of McCains — two legendary admirals and the late Arizona senator...
Recently, in Box v. Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kansas, the U.S. Supreme Court avoided considering the constitutionality of an Indiana law banning abortions due to the race, gender or potential disabilities of the fetus. In a concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas asserted that Indiana...