Midday

The worst of the COVID-19 pandemic might be behind us, but the pandemic's economic impact remains significant. With more than 8 million people still out of work across the country, the most recent jobs report showed considerably fewer jobs added than had been expected. Even before the pandemic, the Federal Reserve reported that 40% of Americans do not have enough savings to cover an unexpected expense of $400.

But economists are hopeful that a recovery is on the way, due in part to congressional stimulus packages, and a loosening of COVID related restrictions.

For the super rich, the pandemic has meant profits. The Institute for Policy Studies estimates that 651 American billionaires added $106 trillion dollars of wealth to their portfolios in the first nine months of the Coronavirus crisis.

That wealth has largely been animated by a stock market that came roaring back after dropping precipitously in the early months of the pandemic last year. The S&P Index grew an astonishing 68% from March of 2020 to March of 2021.

What does that mean for individual investors who are saving for retirement, education expenses, a new house, or other big ticket items? Does COVID present savings and investment opportunities for small investors as it has for wealthy investors? What changes in the tax code are important to keep in mind this year?

Today on Midday, it’s Midday on Personal Finance. Tom's guests are a married couple who each head their own company specializing in investing and tax preparation.

Nicolas Abrams is a Certified Financial Planner and the founder of AJW Financial Partners. Leah Abrams is a Certified Public Accountant who heads L. Abrams and Company.

They join us today on Zoom for the hour to answer your questions about investing and taxes.

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

Four times each year, a grassroots organization called Baltimore Ceasefire 365 holds sacred space rituals and a variety of other events to call attention to the efforts that so many in our community are making to stop the violence that so often plagues some of our neighborhoods. After each Ceasefire Weekend, we invite one of the co-organizers of the movement to Midday to talk about this important work.

Today, Letrice Gant joins us on Zoom and bears witness with us during our weekly reading of the Names of the Fallen.

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

Today on Midday: What will it take for cities like Baltimore to bounce back, not only from the ravages of the Coronavirus pandemic, but from the problems that have plagued many mid-sized American urban centers for years prior to COVID 19?

We begin today with a conversation about a new book that looks at the challenges facing six cites: Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and St Louis. How do the challenges these urban centers have to deal with differ from those of larger cities like New York or Los Angeles? The US population has increased only slightly in recent years, but over the last 50 years, the overall US population grew more than 50%, The citizenry of these six cites 4, however, shrunk more than 38%? Are these cities poised for a comeback, and if so, what will the drivers of that comeback be?

Tom's first guest is Mac McComas, senior program manager with the Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative. Along with 21CC director Matthew Kahn, McComas is co-author of Unlocking the Potential of Post-Industrial Cities. And full disclosure: he is also a member of the WYPR Board of Directors.

Mac McComas joins us on our digital line.

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

Today on Midday: We're looking at how cities like Baltimore can recover, not only from the ravages of the Coronavirus pandemic, but from the problems that have plagued many mid-sized American urban centers for years prior to COVID-19.

Now, we turn to two keen observers of the local business environment and Baltimore's rapidly changing cityscape: Ethan McLeod is associate editor at Baltimore Business Journals; Melody Simmons is the BBJ's business and real estate reporter. They join Tom to discuss some of the development projects now underway in Baltimore that promise to revitalize some long-neglected city neighborhoods.

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

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom today with her review of Berta, Berta, the latest virtual (.i.e, filmed) production from Baltimore's Everyman Theatre.

Playwright Angelica Cheri's moving drama, about a romance rocked by a man's shocking crime, world-premiered three years ago at the Contemporary American Theater Festival in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Cheri's play gets a new rendition from Everyman director Reginald L. Douglas, and cast members Gabriel D. Lawrence as Leroy, and Myxolydia Tyler as Berta.

Everyman Theatre's Berta, Berta is streaming for ticket holders now through June 13th. For more info, click here.

We apologize for the Internet problems that occurred during the live broadcast.

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

It’s the Maryland Film Festival edition of Midday at the Movies. The annual film festival runs from May 19-27. Once again, it will be an all-virtual affair, although people holding an all-access pass will be invited to a few in-person screenings. The Parkway Theater does remain closed at the moment.

Some local theaters are beginning to re-emerge from the pandemic hiatus. The Regal Theaters in Hunt Valley and Columbia announced that they are re-opening today. The Charles Theater is open for a limited number of screenings. The Senator Theater on York Road will re-open later this month. The Landmark Theater in downtown Baltimore is undergoing a renovation before re-opening as Harbor East Cinemas, with reduced capacity and plans for live performances as well as movie presentations.And we’re joined once again on Zoom today by our good friend Ann Hornaday – she’s a film critic for the Washington Post and the author of the bestselling movie-goers’ guide, “Talking Pictures: How To Watch Movies…”

Also with us on Zoom is our friend Jed Dietz, the founding director of the Maryland Film Festival...

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A brief note about a concert of note for Mother’s Day. The famed Morgan State University Choir will present a virtual show Sunday afternoon at 4:00. Through the magic of Zoom and skilled editing, Dr. Eric Conway has been able to put together a wonderful show featuring singers who have been working under the weirdest and worst conditions any musician can imagine. I’ve heard some of their tracks, and somehow, they manage to sound great. For more info on this free event, click here.

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

Now, Tom welcome back to the show Dr. Julie Schablitsky, Chief Archaeologist with the Cultural Resources Division of the Maryland Department of Transportation's State Highway Administration. Dr. Schablitsky led the MDOT/SHA team that recently discovered important new information about a once-enslaved Black man named Ben Ross, the father of famed abolitionist and Underground Railroad conductor Harriet Tubman.

Five years after his enslaver died, Ben was freed, and left a small parcel of wooded land in what is now the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge, in Dorchester County on the Eastern Shore. Dr. Schablitsky’s team has found where Ben Ross built a cabin on this land. It's the home where the young Harriet Tubman also lived for a time, as a child and in her teenage years, and where she probably learned how to navigate the region's wild forests and wetlands — skills that would be of great value years later in her efforts to move enslaved people to freedom.

Dr. Julie Schablitsky joins Tom on Zoom to talk about this historic discovery.(This conversation was pre-recorded, so we couldn't take any calls or comments.)

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

It’s Midday with the Mayor, as Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott joins us live. The city’s seemingly intractable epidemic of homicides continues. Gov. Larry Hogan has been critical of the Mayor and other city leaders on their crime-fighting efforts. Can the city count on the state’s assistant to turn the tide?

Will the Mayor sign a controversial bill giving renters alternatives to security deposits? How will the city spend the $670 million federal dollars that are headed our way under the American Rescue Plan? What further changes to the rules around tax sales can we expect in the future?

Mayor Brandon Scott joins Tom live on Zoom from his office in City Hall, and addresses listener comments and questions.

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

Today on Midday, two conversations about policing and police reform...

It was a familiar scene: the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York on Monday delivered an impassioned eulogy of a Black man killed by police. Andrew Brown, killed during a traffic stop in which police were trying to serve a warrant, was laid to rest in North Carolina on Monday. Last week, a judge ordered that video tape of the incident not be released for several weeks. Brown’s family has only been shown redacted excerpts of the available tape.

That decision has led to speculation that the tape will be incriminating to the deputies who killed Mr. Brown, and that the shooting was racially motivated. Distrust of police in communities of color continues unabated from Elizabeth City, North Carolina, to Brooklyn Center, Minnesota; from cities large and small, including Baltimore.

Some raw data perhaps tells a different story when it comes to people’s understanding of racial bias in policing. As of mid-April, according to a data base maintained by the Washington Post, 30 more unarmed white people have been shot and killed by police in the last six years than unarmed Black people.

But as the steady stream of viral videos shows, there is no shortage of documentation of white police officers brandishing their weapons in encounters with Black suspects, which has led to the conclusion among activists and public officials that systemic racism pervades law enforcement agencies across the land. And, many of us wonder, why do so many interactions with police turn violent?

The Department of Justice chronicled a “pattern and practice” of unconstitutional policing in Baltimore in a scathing report issued in 2016. Baltimore continues to operate under a consent decree with the DOJ. The DOJ has implemented new consent decrees with other police departments in recent weeks, and promises that more will follow.

The 2021 Maryland General Assembly repealed the Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights and replaced it with measures that involve more citizen oversight of police. And negotiations on Capitol Hill continue over the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Yesterday, lawyers for George Floyd's convicted murderer, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, filed a motion for a new trial. Efforts to reform policing, re-energized by worldwide protests that took place after George Floyd's killing, continue at the local, state and federal level across the country.

Meanwhile, the streets in certain Baltimore neighborhoods remain dangerous and deadly. Baltimore has recorded more homicides and non-fatal shootings this year than last year. The Mayor and the State’s Attorney have positioned themselves at the vanguard of efforts to reimagine public safety.

Today on Midday, two conversations about police reform: first, Tom speaks with Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison about the BPD's response to the recent spike in fatal shootings on the city's streets, and what progress is being made in the city's reform-oriented consent decree.

Then, Tom is joined by Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad. He is a Professor of History, Race, and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Suzanne Young Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies. He's also the author of The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America.

BPD Commissioner Harrison and Professor Muhammad join us today on Zoom.

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

Today's edition of Midday at the Museum continues with the new executive director of The Jewish Museum of Maryland, Dr. Sol Davis. He comes to Charm City from Tucson, Arizona, where he was director of The Jewish History Museum and Holocaust History Center. He joins us today on Zoom…

The Jewish Museum will host a virtual program next Tuesday night. Dr. Ilana Kaufman, the Executive Director of the Jews of Color Initiative will talk about her latest project, Count Us In, which explores the experiences of Jews of Color in America. Dr Kaufman will be in conversation with psychologist Dr. Harriette Wimms. The program is on Zoom, next Tuesday night at 7:00. For registration information, click here.

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