Midday

Tom's first guest today is Baltimore Museum of Art Director Christopher Bedford. He joins us to discuss the BMA's plan to sell three of the paintings in its collection to raise money for several initiatives. The paintings, Andy Warhol's The Last Supper, Clyfford Still's 1957-G and Brice Marden's 3, might collectively command as much as $65 million dollars when they go to auction.

(You can view digital images of the three works in the slide show on the Midday webpage at wypr.org/midday.)

The BMA is one of eight museums across the country planning to sell some of the work in their collection this fall, but the BMA sale is far and away the largest, and perhaps the most controversial...


Most of the time, when museums sell art from their collections, they use the money to buy more art, and the works they choose to sell are subject to criteria established by and agreed to by museum professionals. The BMA plan does include the purchase of new art, but it also includes allocating some of the auction proceeds to fund pay raises for museum staff, including some of the employees who are currently earning about $13 an hour. While many in the art world applaud the museum’s efforts to pay employees a living wage, and its commitment to include in its collection more work by women and people of color, they think there are better ways to achieve those noble goals without selling three significant works from a world-renowned collection.

BMA Director Christopher Bedford joins us on Zoom.

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Today on Midday, we turn our attention to development projects here in Baltimore. We begin with Lexington Market. It opened in 1782. It’s the oldest continually-running market in America. It has survived the Civil War, the Great Depression, and a six-alarm fire in 1949 that devastated its main buildings.

Its storied history notwithstanding, Lexington Market is badly in need of a makeover. That makeover is underway: a $40 million dollar re-imagining of the market that is slated to be finished by 2022. The first of two rounds of vendor applications to be part of the next chapter of the market has just been completed.

Some have voiced concerns about gentrification, fearing that African American and immigrant communities will be priced out of the new space. But officials with Seawall Development, who are overseeing the project, promise affordability and diversity.

Tom's first guest today is Thibault Manekin, co-founder and CEO of Seawall Development. He joins us on Zoom from Brazil to describe his company's collaborative approach to re-imagining Lexington Market.

Later in the program, we consider some development projects that haven't fared as well as Lexington Market. After the unrest following the death of Freddie Gray in 2015, several West Baltimore communities were targeted for economic redevelopment and revitalization. One highly touted idea was Innovation Village, near Mondawmin Mall. Launched in 2016, Innovation Village was billed as a business and tech hub that would spur investment into West Baltimore, attract startup companies, and provide residents with much-needed amenities and jobs. Today, the Innovation Project is stalled. Another ambitious development project in West Baltimore is Madison Park North, on North Avenue near the entrance to I-83. The eight-acre site was cleared a few years ago to make way for a grocery store, apartments, and health care facilities, but construction has still not commenced.

Ethan McLeod, associate editor at the Baltimore Business Journal, has reported on the problems that have bedeviled these development projects, and he joins us on Zoom.

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It’s been 17 days since Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg succumbed to cancer at the age of 87. Ginsburg was a heroic figure for millions of Americans: as the Notorious RBG, she was an icon of liberal grace, resilience and reason. A week after Ginsburg’s death, President Trump announced his pick for her replacement – conservative Judge Amy Coney Barrett, whom Trump named to the 7th Circuit court three years ago.

Judge Barrett will be questioned by the Senate Judiciary Committee during four days of hearings set to begin next Monday, with a full Senate vote on her confirmation possible before the end of October, although that timetable could be upset by the Coronavirus. Two Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee, Mike Lee of Utah and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, have tested positive for the virus. Both attended the event at the White House in which Judge Barrett was introduced as Mr. Trump’s nominee. At least four other people who attended that event have also tested positive...

Today on Midday -- on this First Monday in October and the first day of the Supreme Court’s new term -- we’ll consider the political turmoil surrounding the Barrett nomination, some of the big cases that the court will decide this term, and the possible role the court might play in a contested presidential election.

Joining us for the hour on Zoom is Kim Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and a former Assistant U.S. Attorney. She is a legal expert for CBS News and the author of two excellent books, How to Read the Constitution—and Why, and What You Need to Know About Voting — and Why.

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Pastor Shannon Wright is a non-profit executive and host of the radio program and podcast called "Wright Way with Shannon & Mike in the Morning."

Pastor Wright was born in New York. She's a second-generation American of West Indian descent. She is a former Vice President of the Yonkers NAACP; she also served on the New Jersey NAACP state board of directors.

In 2016 she was the Republican nominee in the race for City Council President. She lost in the general election to now incumbent Mayor "Jack" Young.

Pastor Wright is 53 years old. She lives in Parkville.

Pastor Wright joins Tom on Zoom

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Today on Midday, it’s another in our series of Conversations with the Candidates. Tom's guest is Democratic Congressman John Sarbanes, who is seeking election to an eighth term representing Maryland's 3rd Congressional district, which includes parts of Baltimore City, as well as portions of Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel and Montgomery Counties.

Congressman Sarbanes currently serves on the House Oversight and Reform Committee as well as the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Since 2017, he’s chaired the Democracy Reform Task Force,a group of House lawmakers focused on minimizing the influence of special interests andensuring fair elections.

Congressman Sarbanes is 58 years old. He and his wife live in Towson.

Today’s conversation begins with Rep. Sarbanes’ reaction to the news that broke in a tweet just before 1:00 this morning: President Trump announced that he and his wife, Melania, have tested positive for COVID-19. The President is 74 years old and, like more than 60% of Americans, he is overweight, which is considered an underlying condition that could complicate his disease. Mrs. Trump is 50 years old, younger than the age the CDC considers at high risk of fatal disease. The President and Mrs. Trump will quarantine at the White House. A White House official told NPR’s Tamara Keith that the President intends to keep working. White House Chief of Staff told reporters this morning the President is experiencing “minor symptoms” of a COVID-19 infection.

Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee has also tested positive. The White House announced that this morning Vice President Mike Pence and his wife, Karen, tested negative for Coronavirus.

The implications of the President’s diagnosis are not yet clear. This morning, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that the Senate can proceed with the confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, which are scheduled to begin a week from Monday. There have been several interactions in recent days between people at the White House, Senators, and Judge Barrett. The White House announced that Judge Barrett tested negative for the virus this morning.

Rep. Sarbanes and Tom also discuss the Heroes Act, the latest effort by the House to provide COVID-19 financial relief to struggling families and businesses across the country, and steps the House is taking to protect the Affordable Care Act from a new legal challenge in the Supreme Court.

We also take listener calls and emails for Congressman Sarbanes.

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

Reaction to the chaotic Presidential debate on Tuesday night has fallen along party lines to some extent, but as NPR’s Mara Liasson noted when she was with me on Midday yesterday, some leading Republicans have criticized the President for not condemning white supremacy and for his impolite and crass behavior.

Chris Wallace, the debate moderator, came under criticism for his inability to enforce the rules of the debate that had been agreed to by both campaigns. Wallace, the host of Fox News Sunday, is a highly respected journalist. But as CNN’s Brian Stelter reports in his latest book, Wallace’s affiliation with Fox News has caused him more than a little discomfort because his network also carries opinion shows with Fox stars Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Jeanine Pirro and Laura Ingraham, all of whom have made their reputation, and a lot of money, as cheerleaders for Donald Trump.


The connection between the President and Fox News is hidden in plain sight. Any time the network fails to program content that pleases Mr. Trump, he is quick to criticize it, and even quicker to reward the hosts who remain loyal with Twitter praise and exclusive interviews.


Brian Stelter is the chief media correspondent for CNN and the host of its Sunday morning program about the media, Reliable Sources. His new book explores the relationship between Trump and Fox, and its implications for democracy. It is fascinating and disturbing. It’s called Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth.

Brian Stelter joins us on Zoom…

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NPR National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson joins Tom to analyze last night's confrontation and what we might expect when the two candidates meet again.

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My guest is the Republican candidate for Baltimore City Council President, Jovani Patterson. He is a cybersecurity engineer and first-time candidate for elected office.

Mr. Patterson was born in the Park Heights neighborhood of Baltimore and raised in South Carolina. He later returned to Maryland and attended Capitol College in Laurel.

Jovani Patterson has worked in IT and Cybersecurity for more than 20 years. He is also a musician who spent two years playing the drums with the Morgan State University Choir.

He is 34 years old. He and his wife live with their two children in Mt. Holly. Mr. Patterson was unopposed in the Republican primary.

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Tom’s guest is Wyatt Oroke, an English teacher at City Springs Elementary and Middle School in East Baltimore, and City School's 2020 Teacher of the Year.

In addition to teaching English at City Springs, Mr. Oroke coaches boys basketball and girls volleyball, and is active as a faculty leader.

Oroke is the recipient of several state and national awards for his teaching including awards from Johns Hopkins University and the Maryland State Senate

As the Baltimore City Teacher of the Year, Mr. Oroke will now advance to the 2020 Maryland State Teacher of the Year competition. He is one of 7 finalists in that competition. The Maryland State Department of Education will name the winner next week.

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

Tom's guest is journalist John Judis, an editor-at-large at Talking Points Memo and the author of many books. He’s just out with the third in a trilogy of books he's written for Columbia University's Columbia Global Reports that examines three potent political movements that have shaped, and continue to shape, the world we live in: populism, nationalism and socialism. Judis' first book in the trilogy, The Populist Explosion, was published in 2016. He followed it with The Nationalist Revival in 2018. And coinciding with another election cycle, the third book, published today, is called The Socialist Awakening: What’s Different Now About the Left.

In 1912, the Socialist Democratic Party boasted 118,000 members, and 1,200 elected officials in offices around the US. Does the wide popular support for Bernie Sanders -- along with the failure of laissez-faire globalized capitalism to manage the health and economic repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic -- indicate a newly reinvigorated public interest in socialism? Will Donald Trump’s behavior in office and this week’s revelations about his manipulation and apparent abuse of the tax code further advance the appeal of socialism as a political movement?

John Judis describes himself as “a longtime leftist who labored unsuccessfully 50 years ago trying to create a socialist movement in the United States.” But he writes that now may be the perfect moment for a resurgence of FDR-style, New Deal-type programs that favor labor at the expense of capital and that address not just the challenges of COVID 19, but those of climate change and income inequality as well.

John Judis joins Tom on Zoom to discuss The Socialist Awakening: What’s Different Now About the Left. Listener calls, emails and tweets are welcomed.

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