For nearly a decade now, The Daily Record has been fortunate enough to feature a weekly column from C. Fraser Smith on our opinion pages. Those columns were always thoughtful, often prescient and invariably infused with a passion for democracy, ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith Editorial

Ring the Bells that still can ring                Forget your perfect offering                There is a crack in everything                That’s how the light gets in     — Leonard Cohen Newspapers find the cracks. That’s how the light of democracy ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

Programs come and go. Our desperate city welcomes anything with a promising track record. Anything that might slow the surge in murder and mayhem would be cause for celebration. Murder passes the 300-mark without slowing down, leading to  conversations about ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith Gov. Larry Hogan Mayor Catherine Pugh

As a professional observer of public affairs, I should avoid commenting on issues that affect me personally. Full disclosure in such situations seems prudent. Herewith some thoughts on the General Assembly’s anti-drug price gouging bill. I am, of course, affected ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith drug price gouging

  For some reason, various expert observers, coaches and physicians wonder why football causes so many gruesome injuries — the torn ACL and concussions in particular. The variety of grass, artificial turf, the wrong shoes, less-than-serious pre-season conditioning, head-to-head tackling ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith football injuries

There’s been just a bit of a buzz recently about new hope for Democrats taking back the governorship in 2018. That very conversation, the buzz, would make some Democrats (and Republicans) wonder if they had fallen into a time warp. ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith democrats maryland

Wow, big headline, big scandal? Do we need to be thinking about a recall? Did you know the new information technology guy pulls down more than the mayor, more than the police commissioner, more than the state’s attorney? Maybe you ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith

She hears her son calling. “Mom, I’m coming. I’m coming, mom.” He is not, and she knows it. Cynthia Bruce speaks of her son, Marcus, 23, shot to death July 26, 2016. Shot to death on the block where his ...

Tagged with: Baltimore Baltimore violence C. Fraser Smith

Thanks to his fourth-grade teacher, Thelma Jones, Walter Black knew that Frederick Douglass was born in Talbot County. Tuckahoe to be specific. You must be proud of that, she instructed. Born a slave, Douglass became an international leader of the ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith Frederick Douglass

Tuesday morning. For Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, a day like any other: 5 a.m. Runs. (Pretty early someone says, shaking his head. When else? she asks.) 7:30 a.m. Meets with university and college presidents on safety issues. 8:45 a.m. Hears ...

Tagged with: C. Fraser Smith Mayor Catherine Pugh