What should we make of the recent survey finding by the Maryland State Education Association (MSEA) that 41% of the state’s teacher’s work a second job to make ends meet?
Commentary
Commentary: A bipartisan solution for state retirees on drug costs
On prescription drug costs, I believe we struck a fair balance between what we are providing to state retirees and what we are asking the rest of our citizens to pay for in the future.
Commentary
Opinion: Baseless attacks on the restaurant industry
The Restaurant Association of Maryland responds to Progressive Maryland’s commentary attacking its polling and credibility. When Larry Stafford of Progressive Maryland implies that the Restaurant Association of Maryland (RAM) is deceptive with regard to the arguments we make to policymakers, writes Melvin Thompson, I have to draw the line. His attack is baseless, unwarranted and shows he has little understanding of business economics.
Commentary
Opinion: Maryland needs strong steps to protect online privacy
State legislatures across the country are questioning how to respond to our national epidemic of privacy violations. Maryland’s Cybersecurity Council is suggesting answers in hearings this week on a new Online Consumer Protection Act.
Commentary
Opinion: $15 minimum wage will have big impact on small Md. businesses and employees
If Maryland raises its minimum wage to a $15 an hour, a woman-owned company providing traffic control services in Glen Burnie will have to figure out how to cover the half of a million dollars needed to cover the increase.
Commentary
Opinion: It’s time to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board
Across Maryland, people struggle to pay for the prescription drugs they need to lead healthy lives or even stay alive. Prices keep going up, while drug companies spend more on marketing and reap enormous profits. That’s why we are sponsoring legislation to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board that will have the authority to review and set fair and affordable maximum drug costs in the state.
Commentary
In West Baltimore for MLK Day: Too cold to march, but still honoring the dead
It was deemed too frigid Monday afternoon for the peace march from St. Bernadine’s parish in West Baltimore to walk the few blocks around the church where eight people, including a 7-year-old girl, were shot and killed just in the past year. Instead, in honor of Martin Luther King, we sang and prayed and listened to Archbishop William Lori. He condemned racism and acknowledged the complicity of the church in supporting it, including several of his 19th century predecessors who owned slaves themselves.
Commentary
Opinion: Kirwan Commission disregards achievements of charter schools
As we begin national School Choice Week, here’s an open letter to Brit Kirwan, chair of the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, which completed its preliminary report on Friday with no mention of charter schools.
Commentary
How can we understand a Chesapeake Bay we’ve never seen?
Author Victor Kennedy has examined the Bay’s past abundances of seafood, from terrapins and sturgeon to oysters and shad and waterfowl, sifting through anecdotal evidence and early surveys to arrive at a sense of just how full of life the Chesapeake was as Europeans began to settle it. His book also pulls together an accounting of how thoroughly we squandered the “immense protein factory” praised by Baltimore journalist H. L. Mencken. Kennedy says “generational amnesia” relating to historical abundances risks setting the bar too low for restoration goals.
General Assembly
Opinion: Live streaming of legislative sessions would honor journalists
I spent three hours off-and-on last Thursday watching the live gavel-to-gavel coverage on C-Span of the new U.S. House of Representatives being sworn in, including the return to power of that Baltimore girl turned San Francisco maven, Speaker Nancy D’Allesandro Pelosi. Wednesday the new Maryland General Assembly is being sworn in and we can watch the live gavel-to-gavel of the proceedings NOWHERE.
Commentary
Commentary: Opioid epidemic started with the Civil War
Most of us don’t realize the first American opioid epidemic started in the Civil-war era with the invention of the hypodermic needle to administer morphine to injured soldiers. By the end of the conflict, the term “soldier’s disease” came into existence to describe post-war addicts.