The first obligation of government is to keep people safe where they live, work, and play. I’ve said that many times over the years. Today I extended that obligation to include “the school that their children attend.” I spoke at a press conference about legislation that will be introduced in Annapolis next month in response …more >
“The death penalty seems to be for Negroes alone,” Thurgood Marshall wrote to Roy Wilkins in the national office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), in a letter dated June 7, 1935. As a young attorney in Baltimore, Marshall was defense counsel in several capital cases. There were 16 executions …more >
Looking forward and looking back. That doesn’t officially happen until Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transitions, appears on New Year’s Day. But you don’t have to wait until then. The results are now official for the 2012 election. The Obama-Biden ticket carried the 41st District, 87,829-10,155. The Dream Act and marriage equality won …more >
The Republican nominee is being thrown under the bus for saying that he lost the election because, in part, free contraceptives were among the gifts President Obama gave to Democratic constituencies. However, Mr. Romney is not outside the mainstream of today’s Republican party, as the following examples demonstrate. When the Maryland General Assembly adopted the …more >
“In a society that respects differences, that welcomes the minority, we all benefit.” During the debate on marriage equality, I said that on the House floor. Outside Cross Country Elementary School yesterday, I distributed Question 6 literature but had very few conversations that went beyond “I hope you’ll support marriage fairness.” At lunch …more >
The first voting booth I entered was at the Cross Country Apartments. I accompanied my father. I guess I was in third or fourth grade. I’m pretty sure my father voted the Democratic ticket. This past Sunday, I went to the early voting center at what was my junior high school. The lines were very …more >
I don’t write someone else’s testimony, except when I do. I attended the Baltimore Educational Equity Summit of Teach for America last Saturday. At the concluding session, I got into a conversation with a kindergarten teacher and told her that I was working on a bill to expand early childhood education (pre-K). “The benefits of …more >
Perhaps the President forgot the facts of the Supreme Court’s decision in Frontiero v. Richardson. The Air Force had denied certain medical and dental benefits to the spouse of Lieutenant Sharron Frontiero. Her husband sued and won. “Classifications based upon sex, like classifications based upon race, alienage, or national origin,” wrote Justice Brennan, “are inherently …more >
I have been rightly accused of introducing legislation after reading an article in the New York Times. Not this time. Tuesday morning, I wrote the Jewish Times, responding to a letter contending that Roe v. Wade would survive a Romney-Ryan administration. After I emailed my letter, I read the views fit …more >
The work doesn’t end when the bill is signed. No question about that with the slots bill because it’s on referendum. Regardless of the outcome in November, many provisions of the bill took effect on October 1. Money will now be provided for economic and community development in the Park Heights neighborhoods north and south …more >
