Midday

Israel has continued bombing targets in Gaza as the Israeli Defense Forces gather hundreds of thousands of troops and reservists near its southern border. Many assume an impending ground attack into Gaza is likely.

To share the latest with Midday on this conflict is Ishaan Tharoor, a foreign affairs columnist for the Washington Post. He joins us on Zoom from Washington.

(Photo by Adel Hana, AP)

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Israel is assembling troops near Gaza, from which it has cut-off food, water fuel, and electricity. Israel state officials believed that Hamas is holding about 150 hostages in Gaza. Yesterday, Hamas threatened to execute Israeli hostages if Israel bombs civilian homes in Gaza without warning.

There is concern that the war will expand to fronts other than Gaza and southern Israel. Hezbollah fired some missiles into northern Israel from Lebanon. The Israeli military says it bombed three military positions in Lebanon after it found that armed militants had made it across the border into Israel.

Today on Midday, perspectives on the conflict: what’s happened and what’s next as a bloody war continues in the Middle East.

Our guests are Dr. Steven A. Cook, the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and Elisheva Goldberg, a former aide to former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and a contributing writer for Jewish Currents magazine. She’s also the media and policy director at the New Israel Fund.

(Photo by Hatem Ali, Associated Press)

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today on Midday: a conversation about local schools, in particular, how the physical condition of some Baltimore City Public Schools impacts educational equity.

The state of Maryland has an Interagency Commission on School Construction. The Capital Improvement Program averages about $280 million dollars each year for major new, renewal, or replacement projects as well as for addition projects or capital maintenance.

CBS News reported recently that in Baltimore and across the country school construction money allocation varies markedly between jurisdictions that are poor, affluent, majority Black and majority white.

For today's show, Tom speaks with researchers and education leaders about school conditions and plans to address funding presently and for the future.

Guests include Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement for Johns Hopkins University; Dr. Richard Lofton, Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education; Alison Perkins-Cohen, Chief of Staff for Baltimore City Public Schools and Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of the Maryland, DC and Virginia regional stage.

We review “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill,” which continues at Baltimore Center Stage through October 15.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

It's the Midday Newswrap with the biggest stories this week which include a mass shooting at a local Black college and a leadership change in Congress.

On Tuesday night, the Morgan State University Community was shaken by a shooting that occurred after a joyous start to their annual Homecoming festivities. Five people were wounded with non-life-threatening injuries.

To discuss this incident Tom speaks with Charles Robinson, a correspondent for MPT and the host of Future City here on WYPR along with Teria Rogers, Supervising Producer of Midday. She has also worked at WEAA, our public radio sister station at Morgan.

Then, Tom talks with Luke Broadwater from the New York Times to make sense of Congressman Kevin McCarthy's ouster and the members lining up to succeed him as the Speaker of the House.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

The Baltimore Orioles are the top seed in the American League playoffs. Their week of rest comes to an end Saturday when they’ll take on the Texas Rangers in the ALDS, the Division series. It’s the first time the team has made the playoffs since 2014.

The excitement that the Orioles have generated this season is peppered with no shortage of anxiety as negotiations continue to finalize a lease agreement between the team and the MD Stadium Authority.

Today we talk baseball with Danielle Allentuck, the Orioles beat writer for our news partner, the Baltimore Banner.

Melody Simmons also joins us. She is a senior reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal who covers real estate and economic development.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Tommy Orange is a Native American author whose debut novel burst onto the literary scene in 2018.

The book garnered a Pulitzer Prize nomination, and praise from literary giants such as Colm Toibin and Margaret Attwood. It’s called There There, and it chronicles the Native American experience far from the reservation, in the cities that were the final stop in a centuries-long campaign of assimilation and erasure. The story takes place in Oakland, CA, and it’s told through the eyes of a large and fascinating bunch of characters.

There There has been chosen as the 2023 One Maryland One Book selection, and Orange joins us to discuss it.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

J. Wynn Rousuck joins Midday to discuss her new book "Please Write." Written entirely in letters exchanged between two Baltimore dogs and a Cleveland artist, the story delivers a distinctive account of coping with heartbreak and loss through the power of imagination and love.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

The Baltimore Banner will hold iMPACT Maryland on October 10 to gather leaders in varying industries to discuss the ideas and innovation necessary to shape the future of Baltimore and Maryland.

Tom starts with a conversation on the importance of violence intervention and data collection. Our guests are Beth Blauer, the Associate Vice Provost for Public Sector Innovation at Johns Hopkins University and Adam Rosenberg, the Executive Director of the Center for Hope, and Vice President for Violence Intervention and Prevention at LifeBridge Health.

We follow this with a discussion on the region's bustling entertainment industry with Thea Washington, CEO of Thea Washington Casting.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Today, The Baltimore Banner in conjunction with Goucher College, released a new poll that took the temperature of the local electorate on a number of issues including beliefs about Baltimore's future and approval rates of elected city leadership. Joining Tom to discuss the poll results is Dr. Mileah Kromer, director of the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.