As is often the case, this year’s Maryland General Assembly session, which closed its annual 90-day session on April 11, had a number of highs and lows. Among the disappointments, in my view, was the failure of the Senate to ...

Tagged with: constitutional amendment Donald C. Fry Elections lieutenant governor

A bill before the Baltimore City Council that aims to increase the number of new housing units built specifically for low-income residents, known as inclusionary housing, could end up having the opposite effect and even has the potential to stifle ...

Tagged with: Baltimore Donald C. Fry housing

It’s no secret that the digital revolution is rapidly changing our lives and purchasing power, but perhaps few with such alarming potential public safety consequences as the sale of gun parts, individually and in kits, over the Internet so that ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry ghost guns

Last December, Mackenzie Scott, the philanthropist and former wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donated $85 million to three of Maryland’s four Historically Black Colleges and Universities, or HBCUs. The recipients of the generosity were Bowie State University, Morgan State ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry

Much has been made of Baltimore’s violent crime crisis, especially homicides, which have been above 300 annually since 2015. Unless there is a dramatic shift, the city seems on track to see more than 300 murders again in 2021. The ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry

In 2016, after candidate Donald Trump won the presidency, President Barrack Obama said, “Elections matter.” Those words are worth considering again as the 2020 General Election nears on Nov. 3. The words of advice are not just relevant for the ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry

While the way we communicate, work and live has evolved in recent years, the rate of change has accelerated dramatically in the last few months. The novel coronavirus has forced us to stay home and revealed just how much we ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry

While COVID-19 dominates the attention of many these days, there is a pivotal and transformative primary election coming up in Baltimore City on June 2. Seats up for election include those for mayor, city council president, comptroller and city council. ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry

Talk about trial by fire. The presiding officers of the Maryland General Assembly, Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones, had their plates full during this year’s legislative session even before the outbreak of COVID-19. There was a ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry

During the 2019 legislative session, the Maryland House and Senate voted to enact the Criminal Record Screening Practices Act (Ban the Box). The governor, however, vetoed the act. At the start of the 2020 session, the legislature overrode the governor’s ...

Tagged with: Donald C. Fry