Category: Commentary
Profits Before People: The Real Reason Maryland Power Bills Keep Rising
As Marylanders endure another hot summer, skyrocketing power bills have sparked understandable frustration. Maryland Energy Administration Director Paul Pinsky and BG&E Vice President Mark Case have both weighed in on what’s driving these costs. Both point to the same culprit, the competitive energy market, but the data tells a different story.
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The Crooked Lines of Political Chutzpah
Chutzpah is a Yiddish term meaning audacity, nerve, or bold confidence, often with a connotation of brazenness or cheekiness. It can describe someone acting with shameless boldness, sometimes admirable for its courage, other times criticized for crossing ethical lines.
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Lab Space Glut, Leadership Void: Montgomery County’s Economic Malaise
Recently, the state lost a $50 billion opportunity to woo a major drug manufacturer to our shores. Wes Moore was asleep at the switch. In 2025, HHS grants to the state for health-related programs are estimated to be $11.6B — not bad, but Virginia scored $50 billion just by out-hustling the Moore administration. Now enter Montgomery County with its lackluster Executive and Council is whining about an ever-increasing issue … excess biolab space to the tune of over .5 million square feet and going up. Montgomery County and the state of Maryland continue to lose to surrounding jurisdictions when it comes to attracting new business to the state and the county.
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Maryland Gerrymandering Again
As the first to challenge Maryland’s congressional district apportionment for the 2010 decade, I was heartened two days later (July 22) when House of Delegates Majority Leader, Del. David H. Moon (D-Montgomery Co.), announced his plan to draft legislation that would automatically redistrict Maryland if other states engage in out-of-cycle redrawing of congressional districts.
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If Montgomery County Really Wanted Affordable Housing, It Would Open Up the Agricultural Reserve
If the Council were serious—dead serious—about making housing in Montgomery County more affordable, they wouldn’t be rearranging duplexes in Silver Spring. The Council would instead be ready to touch Montgomery County’s holiest of sacred cows, the Agricultural Reserve. There’s something weirdly poetic about the fact that you can’t afford to live in Montgomery County because know-it-all progressives decided horse farms were more important than people.
Read MoreAs Virgina Lands AstraZeneca Facility, Moore Administration Whistles Past The Graveyard
While Maryland remains a critical R&D hub for AstraZeneca, Virginia’s selection as the manufacturing cornerstone also highlights the state’s rising prominence in advanced pharmaceutical production, potentially shifting the regional balance in the U.S. biopharma landscape. It’s a shift that Maryland cannot afford.
Read MoreA Right Worth Defending: What Enshrining Citizenship in Maryland Could Mean
As federal agencies roll back protections for immigrants and the Supreme Court threatens access to birthright citizenship, Maryland lawmakers face growing pressure to assert the state’s commitment to inclusion. One proposed response is a constitutional provision that would affirm that all persons born in Maryland are Marylanders, entitled to full protection under state law.
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Maryland Doubles Down on Electric School Bus Boondoggle
Despite the warnings from previous failed experiments — and a damning Montgomery County Inspector...
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A Crisis in Plain Sight: Withheld Federal Education Funds Threaten Maryland’s Blueprint for Reform
More than $6.2 billion in federal education funds — approved under the FY2025 budget and scheduled for release on July 1 — remains frozen. The Trump Administration insists this is part of an “ongoing review,” but to the parents, teachers, and students staring down the first day of school without the support they were promised, it looks more like sabotage. The longer these funds remain impounded, the deeper the damage — not just to school budgets, but to the futures of children across the country. And while the crisis is national, the impact in Maryland is particularly acute.
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The Voting Rights Act Turns 60 — Maryland Puts It to the Test
Voting rights in Maryland are under siege — and for Latino, Black, naturalized citizen, and working-class voters, the danger isn’t abstract. It’s happening right now, in courtrooms and committee hearings, in bureaucratic rule changes and so-called “integrity” lawsuits designed to do one thing: make it harder for people to vote. And as we approach the 60th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, we’re forced to ask ourselves—have we learned anything from the past?
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Pride Month should not be uncritically celebrated by Black people
Now that LGBTQ Pride Month is at an end, Baltimore residents must analyze our observance of Pride Month. It’s a time set aside to honor the resilience, culture, and political victories of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer Americans. For many, it’s seen as a celebration of progress and inclusion. But for Black in Baltimore and America, this month raises urgent questions that too few of us are asking — and even fewer are willing to answer honestly.
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Baltimore City’s Consent Decree: A Lifeline in Jeopardy as Justice Department Retreats from Reform
Baltimore City stands at a crossroads—between fragile progress and a perilous retreat. As the U.S. Department of Justice continues scaling back its civil rights oversight, the city’s landmark police reform agreement—the consent decree born after the death of Freddie Gray—is under growing threat.
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