Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday to review the region's current theater productions.

This week, a look at “The Mystery of Irma Vep” at Everyman Theatre through June 22.

Mayor Brandon Scott and a few city council members have proposed a package of bills that would change zoning and parking regulations to allow for the development of multi-family housing.

Councilman Ryan Dorsey, a proponent of the measures, says despite a decline in Baltimore’s population, there is a demand for housing, and that making it more plentiful would “increase Baltimore’s population by a minimum of 5,000 households every year.

Jody Landers disagrees. The former member of the Baltimore City Council joins Midday to discuss why he and others oppose the bills that the council is considering.

Landers is a former Executive Director of Harbel, a community organization based in Northeast Baltimore, and a former executive vice-president of the Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors.

In Baltimore, a few words are most recognized with baseball: Orioles, Camden Yards and Cal Ripken.

But, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University, Bob Babb’s name is synonymous with baseball. In the 2025 season, he finished a winning trip to the Centennial Conference baseball finals with the Blue Jays and a trip to the Division III championship. The results reflect a successful season and a great way to end Babb's 46-year coaching career with the university.

Coach Bob Babb joins Midday now to reflect on his career in baseball at Hopkins.

Maryland’s economy is facing unprecedented challenges. The state faces a budget deficit of over $3 billion, compounded by significant cuts and widespread layoffs from the federal government.

Meanwhile, two of the country’s major credit reporting organizations differ on Maryland’s economic health. Moody’s downgraded the state’s bond rating.

And as we head into hurricane and storm season, is the state accounting for the financial impact of climate change, such as infrastructure damage, threats to human health, and workforce disruption?

State Comptroller Brooke Lierman joins Midday to discuss these topics and more.

A years-long effort to improve accountability and transparency with the BPD began in 2017, when a consent decree with the Baltimore Police Department and the Department of Justice mandated the BPD significant improvements in transparency and procedure.

8 years later, a federal judge recently released Baltimore police from two sections of the consent decree, a sign changes were introduced. But some community organizers and police reformers caution that work still needs to be done.

Meanwhile, in a significant development for advocates of police reform, Baltimore City voters enshrined new control over its police department to the city council.

To discuss local control, the consent decree and what it means for Baltimore City Police, Midday is joined by Ray Kelly, Executive director of the Citizens Policing Project. Kelly also sits on the Maryland Police Training and Standards Commission and the Baltimore City Administrative Charging Committee.

Bill Henry is the comptroller for Baltimore city. Last month, the Comptroller broke precedent and took the unusual step of abstaining when the Board of Estimates voted to send the budget to the City Council for its consideration.

Midday asks him about that move, and ongoing discussions about PILOT, payment-in-lieu-of-taxes, agreements with some of Baltimore's most powerful educational and medical institutions.

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore joins Midday to discuss changes at the Department of Juvenile Services. Vincent Schiraldi is out as DJS Secretary. Schiraldi says he has resigned because of negative media attention impacting the mission of his agency. Betsy Fox Tolentino, Managing Director of Young Adult Justice Initiatives at Roca, takes his place.

Will new leadership mean a new way of doing things for the department? And with a severe budget deficit, does DJS have the resources it needs to help young people?

The Chesapeake Bay's aquatic life are the fabric that make up the ecologic web of large estuary. Those animals, like fish, oyster and crab, are chief drivers of the region's economy, and are harvested to feed people in Maryland and beyond.

For oysters and blue crab, population fluctuation has caused alarm among environmentalists and harvesters alike.

This year, the bay's blue crab population decline to its second-lowest level since record-keeping began in 1990.

Ashley Sterner hosts a conversation on Midday with Dr. Allison Colden about this decline. Colden is the Maryland Executive Director for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Then, we turn to the bay's oysters.. We speak with Olivia Caretti, Coastal Restoration Program Manager at the Oyster Recovery Partnership.

Later in the show, a long-time fishing technique developed in Japan could change how Maryland harvests the bay's fish. Andrew Tsui, the Executive Director of the Ike Jime Federation, joins us to talk about ike jime, a method for killing and handling fish that preserves its taste. Could the method of preparation soon become more widespread within Maryland’s fishing industry?