Donald the Red: The Modern Viking by Jim Bruce
Donald Trump is a 21st-century throwback to Erik the Red, the Viking chieftain and explorer who first claimed Greenland and established settlements there one thousand years ago. When President Trump was asked recently if he saw any checks on his power on the world stage, he replied, “Yeah, there’s one thing: my own morality, my […]
Horn Point Cuts Put Chesapeake Oyster Recovery at Risk by Sarah Gavian
Everybody on the Eastern Shore knows oysters matter. They clean the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, support watermen and oyster farmers, and sustain working waterfronts. After decades of effort, oyster populations in Maryland waters have roughly tripled since 2005, and Bay states recently met long-term goals for restoring reefs in key tributaries. That progress did […]
Character Is Policy by Johnny O’Brien
Perhaps you—like me and most of my friends—have a grave difficulty discussing politics in our hyper-partisan nation. We often report that civil debates with right-leaning friends are off-limits for fear of destroying valued relationships. When we try, too often the opening response sounds something like, “I agree that Trump is an ogre…but I like his […]
Trump Policies Disrupt the Eastern Shore Soybean Market by Wilson Dean
Last November, voters expressed a strong preference for President Trump’s ability to manage the economy over that of his opponent. However, the first 10 months of the new Administration have prompted strong concerns from both sides of the political aisle. Farmers have been adversely affected more than most by Trump’s decisions. A good example of […]
As the Supreme Court Term Begins… Some Reflections by Margaret Andersen
As the U.S. Supreme Court begins its new term and at a time when public confidence in all national institutions, including the Supreme Court, is at an all-time low, I am heartened by remembering how one letter, sent long ago to Associate Justice Harry Blackmun, can remind us of the heart beneath a justice’s robe, […]
Character Rot: Sounding the Alarm by Johnny O’Brien
Most of us are aware of the damage Donald Trump is doing to government service, freedom of expression, our universities, and democracy. And the moral decay our “national role model” is inflicting upon America with his daily lying, greed, spite, and vindictiveness. But most of us are less aware of the grave threat Trump and […]
The Political is Personal: Reflections on DEI by Margaret Andersen
As the women’s movement was unfolding in the late 1960s, all across the country women gathered in small, informal groups called consciousness raising (CR) groups—conversations that helped us identify the societal origins of problems we were facing in our individual lives. Domestic violence, rape, job discrimination, illegal abortion, the lack of birth control—you name it: […]
New report reveals value of resource conservation for Shore businesses by John Horner
I consider it a privilege to live and work in a place so many Marylanders associate with vacations, retirement, recreation, and quiet retreats. But as good as our parks, rivers, beaches, and charming towns are for those very activities—the Eastern Shore is equally a place of everyday living and hard honest work, schools and small […]
Moore’s Misguided Tax Proposal: Punishing success, ignoring reform by Clayton Mitchell
Governor Wes Moore’s declaration that raising taxes would require a “high bar” seems to have been more rhetoric than reality. For many Maryland taxpayers, this supposed bar appears distressingly low. The governor’s plan to impose higher taxes on households earning over $1 million and individuals earning over $500,000 annually is a stark departure from his […]
Maryland’s fiscal apocalypse by Clayton A. Mitchell, Sr.
Maryland’s State Budget is teetering on the brink of an unprecedented financial collapse. The refusal to address formula-driven mandatory and entitlement spending threatens to thrust the state into a cycle of automatic “runaway” deficits, culminating in a financial “Extinction Level Event” in the near future. Despite the gravity of this crisis, political leaders have shied […]