Midday

And now, a conversation about the crisis of opioid addiction.

Last fall, Josh Siems suffered a fatal, fentanyl-linked overdose on his 31st birthday. Josh’s loved ones have thrown their support behind a bill in Annapolis that would require hospitals to play a new role in addressing our state’s opioid epidemic, by testing all opioid OD admissions for the presence of fentanyl, an often-lethal additive found in street-sold opiates.

Josh’s mother, Caryl Siems and Melanie Yates, Josh’s partner, join us in Studio A…

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

Today on Midday, a closer look at efforts in the Maryland legislature to rewrite state regulations governing the concealed carry of firearms in public.

The move in Annapolis comes in response to last year's controversial 6-3 ruling by the US Supreme Court striking down New York’s restrictions on concealed-carry gun permits.

Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in the majority opinion that the state requirement for individuals to show “proper cause” to get concealed-carry gun permits violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.“

"New York's proper-cause requirement violates the Fourteenth amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms,” Thomas wrote.

Maryland's then-Attorney General Brian Frosh condemned the ruling, warning that it will cause the public sphere to become more dangerous.

Tom's guest today is Maryland Delegate Luke Clippinger. He's the chairman of the House Judiiciary Committee and a longtime advocate of stronger gun regulation. He is sponsoring a bill — HB0824 — that would tighten Maryland's concealed carry law, modify the fees and conditions for issuing permits, and stiffen penalties for violators. 

Del. Luke Clippinger joins Tom on Zoom from Annapolis, with details on this and one other important piece of legislation in the works at this year's General Assembly session -- new regulations for recreational cannabis.

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

Tom's next guest today is Daniel Hatcher. He’s a law professor in the University of Baltimore’s Saul Ewing Civil Advocacy Clinic. He's a former Maryland Legal Aid and Children's Defense Fund attorney, and has long been a scholar, advocate, and teacher on poverty and justice.Hatcher is the author of new book called Injustice Inc:  How America’s Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor.  Daniel Hatcher_UBaltLaw.wb.jpg (1335x2000, AR: 0.6675)The book is a disturbing look at the hidden mechanics of America’s justice system that generate profits from the processing and incarceration of children and the poor.

He joins Tom here in Studio A…

Professor Daniel Hatcher will be speaking about his book at Red Emma’s Bookstore Tuesday (tonight) at 7:00.

For more info on the event, click here.

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

Tom's Midday Newsmaker guest today is Maryland Governor Wes Moore.

A Democrat who bested a crowded primary field in his first run at public office, Moore won the general election handily in November 2022 to become the 63rd governor of the state of Maryland. He campaigned on a pledge to fight poverty across the state and build a more secure and equitable economy for all Marylanders.

Moore is Maryland’s first Black governor in the state’s 246-year history, and is just the third African American elected governor in the history of the United States.

A combat-tested Army veteran, he is also a former educational entrepreneur, the former CEO of an end-poverty philanthropy called the Robin Hood Foundation, and a broadcaster who was the original host of the Future City series on this station. He is the author of several books, including "The Other Wes Moore," an exploration of the power of opportunity, and "Five Days" (co-authored with journalist Erica L. Green), which examines events in Baltimore following the police-involved death of Freddie Gray.

Moore was inaugurated in mid-January, and he has been in constant motion ever since.

Governor Wes Moore joins us on Zoom from Annapolis.

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

It’s another edition of the Midday Healthwatch, our monthly conversations about public health with Dr. Leana Wen.

Today, we'll discuss the continuing controversy surrounding theories about the origins of the COVID 19 virus. Plus, some new research about the problem of child obesity. And has Sen. John Fetterman’s hospitalization for clinical depression helped to remove the stigma from mental health treatment? We’ll talk to Dr. Wen about these and other public health issues.

Dr. Leana Wen is one of America’s most trusted and knowledgeable public health experts, and we are proud and grateful that she has been a regular guest on our show for many years. The former Baltimore City Health Commissioner is an emergency physician and a research professor of healthy policy and management at the George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health. She’s a columnist for the Washington Post and a medical analyst for CNN, and a non-resident senior fellow at The Brookings Institution. And she's the author of Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health

Dr. Leana Wen joins Tom on Zoom...

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

It's time again for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage.

Today Judy spotlights Dead Man's Cell Phone, a play by Sarah Ruhl that's getting a new production at Baltimore's Fells Point Corner Theatre.

Ruhl's imaginative digital-age comedy, which explores the way today's digital technologies can both bring us together and isolate us, won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding New Play when it premiered at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C. in 2007.

The new production at Fells Point Corner Theatre is directed by Kimberley Lynne, working with a cast that includes Laura Malkus, Morgan Stanton, Marianne Gazolla Angelella, Penelope Chan, J Purnell Hargrove, and Kay-Megan Washington.

Dead Man's Cell Phone continues at Fells Point Corner Theatre through March 12. Click the theater link for more information.

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

Welcome to Midday at the Movies, our monthly look at films and filmmaking.

Today, it's our annual Oscars edition, when we invite our guests — and you, our listeners — to tell us which films and film artists will (or should) bring home Oscar statuettes when they're awarded in Hollwood on Sunday, March 12.

For a convenient one-page Oscars Ballot, click here.

Joining Tom in Studio A today are Jed Dietz, founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, and a regular here on Midday at the Movies.

Also back with us in studio is Max Weiss, pop culture and film critic and Editor-in-Chief of Baltimore Magazine.

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

Baltimore City's three top elected officials are clashing publicly over a deal that the Mayor Scott Administration negotiated with Baltimore Gas and Electric last month to manage the city’s elaborate underground conduit system, which houses electric and fiber optic cables for BGE and other companies. The City's Comptroller and City Council president are vehemently opposed to the deal.

The draft agreement was first reported in January by the Baltimore Brew.

On Wednesday, March 1, the Board of Estimates was scheduled to vote for the second time on the deal, but that vote has been delayed until April 5th.

The Board of Estimates voted to approve the deal on February 15. Baltimore City Comptroller Bill Henry and City Council President Nick Mosby skipped that meeting, believing their absence would leave the board without a quorum. But the remaining three members of the board, the Mayor and his two appointees, voted without the two opposing members. Henry and Mosby assert that, that vote is not valid because they did not participate. City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, one of the people voting for the measure, declared in a legal opinion that the vote was, in fact, valid.

The Mayor, the Council President and the Comptroller disagree about several aspects of this deal. Tom Hall spoke earlier this hour with the Mayor. Now, in separate conversations, he speaks first with City Comptroller Bill Henry, and then Council President Nick Mosby, both of whom oppose the Mayor's conduit agreement.

Both men join us on Zoom.

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

It’s Midday with the Mayor.  As he does each month*, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott joins Tom Hall for an unrehearsed conversation about key issues on the city's agenda.

Top officials in the city are at loggerheads about a deal that the Scott Administration negotiated with BGE to manage the city’s elaborate, 741-mile underground conduit system, which houses electric and fiber optic cables for BGE and other companies. The draft agreement was first reported in January by the Baltimore Brew.

After we hear from the Mayor today, we’ll hear from the other two city-wide elected officials in Baltimore: Comptroller Bill Henry and Council President Nick Mosby, both of whom oppose the deal.

On Wednesday, March 1, the Board of Estimates was scheduled to vote for the second time on the deal, but that vote has been delayed until April 5th.

The Board of Estimates voted to approve the deal on February 15. The Comptroller and Council President skipped that meeting, thinking their absence would leave the board without a quorum. But the remaining three members of the board, the Mayor and his two appointees, voted without the two opposing members. Henry and Mosby assert that that vote is not valid because they did not participate. City Solicitor Ebony Thompson, one of the people voting for the measure, declared in a legal opinion that the vote was, in fact, valid.

The Mayor, the Council President and the Comptroller disagree about several aspects of this deal. We talk with each of them today. (Tom's interviews with the City Comptroller and City Council president are combined in a separate Web post/podcast).

And we start with Mayor Brandon Scott, who joins us on Zoom during a break in his visit to Northwood Elementary School, the Baltimore City public school on Loch Raven Boulevard.

*Scheduling conflicts prevented the Mayor from joining Midday in February.

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

Midday on Foreign Affairs continues now as Tom welcomes Eric Hontz to the program. He is the director of the Center for Accountable Investment at the Center for International Private Enterprise, a Washington based affiliate of the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Endowment for Democracy.

Mr. Hontz has worked in Ukraine for years, beginning as a Peace Corps volunteer, and continuing as a business advisor and consultant. He was a guest here on Midday about a year ago, when Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, and we’ve invited him back to offer his reflections on the continuing conflict.

Eric Hontz joins us on Zoom from his office in Washington, DC.

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