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Maryland's uneducated high school graduates - May 10, 2011
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For Motion, no Triple Crown, but no regrets - May 21, 2011
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The old saying goes that if you put a million chimpanzees into a room with a million typewriters for enough time, one of them will eventually write Shakespeare. Unfortunately, we do not have a room full of chimpanzees, but we have the next best thing — politicians — and so far the...
Sadly, while we Americans rail against big government's intrusion into our personal lives, our unwillingness to stop certain reckless behaviors often invites governmental involvement. Simply put, sometimes we need to have laws passed to protect us from ourselves. If common sense doesn't do it,...
As an adjunct instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy, I take the oath at the beginning of each academic year to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, as I did at the beginning of my naval career at the academy. Yet the Naval Academy is defying the Constitution —...
The Department of Justice's antitrust case against Microsoft was one of the largest and most carefully watched in history. The courts ruled that Microsoft illegally maintained its monopoly of personal computer operating systems (OS). After years of oversight of a "behavioral remedy," the department'...
What's in a name? Shakespeare had a point when he had Juliet telling Romeo that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." But don't tell that to the many Native Americans furious at the Pentagon for code-naming Osama bid Laden "Geronimo" in the raid that found and killed him.
For nearly a century, oysters have been pummeled from two sides: us and nature. Our appetite for oysters has spurred overharvesting; at the same time, pollution has made oysters more vulnerable to disease, and sediment has smothered oyster beds. Conservationists, lawmakers and natural resource...
We are on the 2011 Student Freedom Riders bus rolling toward Augusta, Ga., watching "The Murder of Emmett Till," a PBS documentary on the savage 1955 lynching of a black boy in the nothing town of Money, Miss. On the old newsreel footage, white person after white person spews the grotesque bigotry...
Today in Boca Raton, a South Florida woman named Ann Van Wagner pays a debt to an illegal immigrant who saved her life. Ms. Van Wagner has organized a fundraiser at a Boca bowling alley — "Bowling For Brains" — to support the Johns Hopkins Brain Tumor Stem Cell Laboratory headed by Dr....
Memorial Day is fast approaching, and for thousands of Baltimoreans, that day marks the beginning of the summer sojourns in Ocean City. The famous boardwalk will be reconstructed come fall, and the town council considered using a variety of materials, finally deciding to continue using wood.
Last week, longtime University of Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams announced his retirement, and very quickly Maryland announced that Texas A&M; Coach Mark Turgeon will replace him. No one doubts that during contract negotiations, Turgeon had lawyers advising and representing him.
Imagine being told your employer is closing its doors for good in two days, but you'll get paid for the next 60 days. Then imagine discovering that your paycheck for those 60 days is cut nearly in half.
Congress' recent efforts to balance the federal budget give new meaning to "women and children first." The $500 million cut to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) that President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans agreed to as part of last month'...
The search for Osama bin Laden lasted more than 10 years, through three U.S. presidencies. Under President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, our intelligence agencies began their relentless pursuit of bin Laden. The death of almost 3,000 innocent men, women and children on Sept. 11, 2001, intensified...
The life I experience as a 30-year resident and homeowner in Northeast Baltimore is quite different from the picture painted recently in The Sun. I've worked in community development for 16 years and know the Northeast Baltimore neighborhoods well. I have seen them evolve from quasi-suburban...
The way Maurice McClain tells it, he was driving to his ex-wife's house in the Gwynn Oak area of Baltimore County on Friday afternoon and, approaching that destination, noticed a boy who appeared to be walking home from school. The boy appeared to be about 10 years old, alone and upset. He looked...
As the wave of revolution continues to sweep through the Arab world, the Syrian regime of Bashar Assad could be its next victim. While many in the United States and Israel appear hesitant to support Syria's anti-regime forces — basing their thinking on the old maxim that the devil you know...
Whether it's the U.S. president ordering the killing of an Islamist extremist in Pakistan, a Long Island congressman scheduling hearings on the radicalization of Islam in America, or mullahs in Afghanistan exhorting mobs to violence in response to a Florida preacher burning a copy of the Quran, it's...
Osama Bin Laden's death reminds me of a middle school essay competition I participated in last fall. It was titled: If you could choose to go back in time and witness any historic event, which event would it be and why?
A growing coalition of environmentalists, public health advocates and sustainable businesses including renewable energy companies and composters are urging Gov. Martin O'Malley to veto legislation that would qualify trash incineration as a "Tier 1" renewable energy source on par with solar and...
I live about three-quarters of a mile from the Inner Harbor and have for close to seven years now, but I would not say it's one of my favorite places to frequent on a Friday night — or any other night. Sure, the harbor offers great waterfront views and a number of upscale restaurants, but most...
Fourteen thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven.
Thor, the Marvel Comics superhero, hammered his way into movie theaters over the weekend, saving the world, winning Natalie Portman and grossing about $66 million. Kenneth Branagh's "Thor" is based on Stan Lee's Thor, which is based on the Thor of Norse mythology — god of thunder and protector...
Maryland now has a hard-fought "Dream Act" that offers undocumented-immigrant young people in-state tuition for post-high school education — but with many limitations, including that these "dreamers" must enroll first in Maryland community colleges.
Like many Americans, I stayed up most of Sunday night watching the story of the longed-for end of Osama bin Laden unfold on television and on the Internet.
Osama bin Laden once argued that the U.S., in its "Global War on Terror," was "like the one who plows and sows the sea: he harvests nothing but failure." Bin Laden made this assertion in his video titled "The Solution," which was released Sept. 7, 2007, in advance of the sixth anniversary of Sept....
Having won a windfall of federal education dollars as a result of its successful Race to the Top application, Maryland is now faced with putting into practice the sweeping changes it promised to make in the way its teachers are evaluated. But the state has already fallen significantly behind its...
Handicapping a horse race like Saturday's Preakness is an iffy proposition for amateurs like me. Over the years, horse players of my acquaintance have picked favorites based on the names of the colts; any horse with a name resembling that of a relative was an automatic choice. The color of the...
The most surprising aspect of President Barack Obama's speech Thursday on U.S. policy in the Middle East may have been his strongly worded call for a two-state solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on Israel's boundaries before 1967. Observers had been speculating for weeks about...
Last week, the Frederick County Board of Elections threw out a petition calling for a special election to decide who should write the county charter. The problem was a familiar one to any who have followed voter referendum campaigns in Maryland: Hundreds of signatures were judged invalid.
The guilty plea by former Prince George's County executive Jack Johnson revives an all-too-familiar story in Maryland: the corrupt county executive shaking developers down for kickbacks. In a plea deal with federal prosecutors, Mr. Johnson on Tuesday admitted to receiving more than $400,000 in...
On Thursday, Gov. Martin O'Malley plans to sign into law a 3 percent sales tax on alcohol, Maryland's first increase in alcohol-specific taxes since 1972 (and the first on hard liquor since the Eisenhower administration). The alcohol industry has warned the state's drinkers of this impending...
Baltimore school officials were wise to suspend the rule stating that only Western High School students accepted at four-year colleges could participate in this year's graduation ceremonies. Given that some Western students' college application efforts were botched by the school's failure to send...
The attack on a transgender woman in a Rosedale McDonald's has led to widespread condemnation of her assailants and bewilderment at the inaction of bystanders — including a (now former) McDonald's employee who videotaped the whole incident. But the question of whether the attack should result...
Few historical figures are deserving of greater public recognition and tribute than Maryland's own Harriet Tubman. Although typically mentioned in history books as a conductor of the Underground Railroad, the many accomplishments over her long life — and her connection to her native state &#...
Maryland law allows small political contributions to be bundled together and reported as "lump sums" in disclosure reports, and to hear defenders of the practice talk about it, the tactic is merely the campaign finance loophole for the little guy. The fat cats have their limited liability...
Anybody who has ever tried to figure out a Baltimore water bill likely had a simple reaction to news last week that the city's Department of Public Works was going to improve billing procedures and upgrade its water meters: It's about time.
If you thought last month's battle over a budget deal was scary, just wait for what could be coming this summer as the nation creeps closer to reaching its self-imposed limit on government-issued debt.
When the Chesapeake Bay Bridge (now properly known as the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bridge) opened in 1952, motorists paid $2.80 for a round-trip. Had that Opening Day toll been tied to inflation, the same commute would cost $23.61 today.
Baltimore City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot unveiled an ambitious initiative this week aimed at improving the overall health of Baltimore citizens by 2015. It sets practical goals for reducing the most serious health risks and acknowledges that achieving them will take the combined efforts of...