Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Thirteen Baltimore City high schools don’t have a single student who has achieved grade-level proficiency in math. High school students took the Maryland state math exam in spring 2023. Of the 32 high schools that issued the exam, 13 produced no students who proved proficient in math, Fox45 News’ Project Baltimore reported this week. In … Read more
I recently wrote about how public schools and boards are making the case for school choice advocates with failing scores and rising controversies. The latest shocking statistic was released this week that 23 schools in Baltimore City had zero students who tested proficient in math. Those schools include 10 high schools, eight elementary schools, three … Read more
My general rule is that if an activity is dangerous enough to require wearing a mask then it is dangerous enough to avoid altogether. I wouldn’t go to a Broadway show, for example, because they’re telling me that it isn’t safe (masks are required as well as vaccine paper checks) and nothing stops me from … Read more
Baltimore City Public Schools CEO Sonja Santelises has made more than $1 million to watch her city’s schools fail. Last year, 41% of all Baltimore public high school students earned a GPA below 1.0. That’s one of many systemic school failures in Charm City. Despite this, Santelises received a salary hike to $375,688. She is … Read more
In Baltimore, crime-tolerant state’s attorney Marilyn Mosby seems willing to break the law herself. When sworn in as Baltimore’s state’s attorney seven years ago, Marilyn Mosby was the first of a new wave of progressive prosecutors. She might now be the first to take an early retirement—perhaps to a federal penitentiary. Last week, the Justice … Read more
A federal court so holds, applying Maryland’s Riot Act, and quoting the Mayor’s famous line that the City “gave those who wished to destroy space to do that.” From Chae Bros. Limited Ltd. Co. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, decided yesterday by Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher (D. Md.): Plaintiffs, consisting primarily of small … Read more
As students return to school, pay attention to Baltimore City Public Schools and their 20,500 students. It was recently discovered 41% of Baltimore high school students earned a grade point average below 1.0. Even as the students in her system fail so badly, Dr. Sonja Santelises, the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, has a … Read more
The District of Columbia weathered the pandemic with stable tax collections, down less than 1 percent in FY 2020 while recovering above pre-pandemic levels in FY 2021. Yet, even as lawmakers in eleven states have cut income taxes this year, the D.C. Council has responded to surpluses and growth by voting to include substantial income … Read more
When I lived in Baltimore I used to joke that Charm City, as the city called itself, should be honest and drop that first “c.” Harm in the form of violent crime was terrible and it was everywhere. There were open-air drug markets and the mid-sized city with so much history and such great potential … Read more
Residents of Baltimore are getting used to the feds swooping down on the city in pursuit of official malfeasance. Federal prosecutors are investigating Marilyn Mosby, the state’s attorney for Baltimore, and Nick Mosby, her husband and the president of the city council, for alleged tax evasion and abuse of office. The mayoralty of Catherine Pugh … Read more
Before President Trump and Republicans focused their energy on Baltimore City, showing how decades of liberal-run leadership transformed the once-thriving metro area into a “hell-hole,” readers may recall our reporting (see: here & here & here) showed a side of Baltimore that many hardly knew, except if they watched the crime series “The Wire.” From … Read more
The 2020 Fall Foliage Map is the ultimate visual planning guide to the annual progressive changing of the leaves. While no tool can be 100% accurate, this tool is meant to help travelers better time their trips to have the best opportunity of catching peak color each year. Fall Foliage Map – SmokyMountains.com
Across the nation, politicians and bureaucrats have invoked the COVID pandemic to seize dictatorial power to ban activities they disapprove. One of the most brazen examples recently occurred in super-lefty Montgomery County (MoCo), Maryland, where local health czar Travis Gayles announced last Friday that he would impose a $5,000 fine and up to a year … Read more
Cities are cramped, sprawling suburbs are a dead end. That leaves two places well equipped for uncertain times. he Covid-19 corona virus has suddenly accelerated two momentous historical trends long lurking in the background of everyday life, but generally taken for granted until the crisis forced these issues: the end of globalism as we knew … Read more
Larry Harding left his 12-gauge shotgun propped by the door that September night. He feared that otherwise he might shoot the thieves if he stumbled on them in the dark. Instead, he grabbed his camera and went out across the road where they’d raided his ginseng patch the week before. He suspected the bandits would … Read more
America’s Basilica By happenstance, the morning of this New Year’s Eve I awoke in a very nice hotel in Baltimore. The night before, walking back from a bite at a bar on Charles Street, I walked past the Baltimore Basilica, just a block from my lodgings. Curious, I Wiki’d it. As someone who … Read more