Midday

The property tax rate in the city of Baltimore is twice what it is in Baltimore County and other surrounding jurisdictions.

The amount of tax that a homeowner or a business pays starts with an assessment of a property’s value, and in Baltimore, that assessment is not made by city officials. Maryland is the only state in the country where the assessment process is centralized at the State level.

Valuation can jumpstart development, make certain neighborhoods attractive to potential home buyers, and inform decisions about land and infrastructure.

A recently formed coalition of community groups called the Fair Assessments Coalition asserts that the state is drastically undervaluing many vacant properties in the city.

Today on Midday, an examination of that claim.

Bob Yeager, the director of the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation, joins the program to talk about how his agency is changing the way assessments are made in the city. Yeager was appointed to the position in July by Gov. Wes Moore.

Later Greg Miller, Executive Director of the Center for Land Economics, joins the program.

In Baltimore City, the residential vacancy rate hovered between 7 and 8 percent in recent years. Now the city’s billion-dollar plan to get a handle on a vacant housing crisis might be sidetracked by a “housing hustle.”

A trio of reporters at our news partner, the Baltimore Banner, have been investigating how out-of-state buyers are using a new type of mortgage loan that is fueling an uptick in foreclosures in the city’s most underinvested neighborhoods.

Hallie Miller, a housing reporter, Giacomo Bologna, a reporter covering business and development, and data reporter Sahana Jayaraman join Midday to discuss their investigation.

Tom's guest for the hour today is Dr. Keisha N. Blain, a historian and Africana Studies professor at Brown University. She also serves as editor-in-chief of Global Black Thought, a journal of ideas about the Black experience in the US and across the African diaspora.

With her deep scholarship in African American history, Dr. Blain has written extensively on the pivotal role Black women have played in the struggle for civil and human rights here at home and around the world.

Dr. Blain's latest book, published last month, is called Without Fear: Black Women and the Making of Human Rights. It's a sweeping history that illuminates the heroic but often unsung human rights activism of Black women in the United States, from the early 19th century to the present.

Dr. Blain will be speaking about the book tonight at 7pm at the Enoch Pratt Library. She’ll be in conversation with the acclaimed historian Dr. Martha Jones of Johns Hopkins University.

Jonathon Heyward began his tenure as the Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2023, in a five-year contract that established him as one of the youngest Music Directors of a major symphony in the country and the only Black leader of a major orchestra.

Last week, the BSO announced that he has extended that original contract to run through 2031.

Heyward is set to conduct in three concerts this weekend in Rockville, College Park and Baltimore. One of the performances, of Mark Simpson's moody, mysterious Israfel, is an homage to one of Baltimore's most famous residents: Edgar Allan Poe.

He joined Tom Hall in Studio A yesterday to discuss the future of the BSO, and his future with Baltimore's beloved orchestra.

The podcast version of this conversation will not have classical music heard during the broadcast because of licensing issues.

We begin today with a conversation about stress. It’s part and parcel of all of our lives. And while the downside effects of stress are readily apparent: worry, anxiety, insomnia. Is there an upside to stress?

Dr. Leigh Vinocur thinks that by reframing what stress is and managing it correctly, we can turn stress into a force for good.

Dr. Leigh knows a thing or two about stress. She’s an Emergency Room physician and a TV commentator who has worked as an advisor in the corporate and healthcare sectors as well.

In her new book, she offers tips on how to respond to stress, and how to make stress a catalyst for positive change. It’s called Never Let Them See You Sweat: How Science Can Help Us Harness Stress for Success.

Dara Horn is a writer and Jewish scholar who is slated to give the Jerome S. Cardin Memorial Lecture at Loyola University of Maryland this week.

Veteran health reporter Julie Rovner, Washington correspondent for KFF Health News, joins Midday to bust the myths of healthcare and immigration.

Last Monday, President Donald Trump flew to the Middle East to address Israeli lawmakers at the Knesset. He then flew to Sharm Al-Sheikh in Egypt for a signing ceremony of a ceasefire agreement, which included Egypt, Qatar, and Turkiye, countries which helped mediate the deal.

The ceasefire has held for the most part, although there is much uncertainty about the deal. A condition of the agreement requires Hamas to eventually disarm, which some analysts have called unlikely.

Today on Midday, perspective from Ramsey Hanhan, a Palestinian-American poet who lives in Maryland, and Earl El-Amin, the Resident Imam at the Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore.

The Muslim Community Cultural Center of Baltimore is hosting an open house this weekend, with exhibits and events focusing on Islam and the African-American experience.

Ramsey Hanhan is a former physics professor and author of Fugitive Dreams, a personal memoir illustrating life and conflict in Palestine. His forthcoming book, Palestine Bleeds For You, is a collection of essays and poetry about history, culture, religion and the hope for a better future.

Time now for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom in studio every week with her reviews of the Baltimore regional stage. This week, she spotlights the new Chesapeake Shakespeare Company production of Jane Austen's Persuasion.

In Sarah Rose Kearns' new adaptation of Austen's classic 1817 novel, directed for CSC by Megan Behm, audiences follow Anne Elliot through a world of social intrigue, family drama, and romantic love. The period play is set against the backdrop of elegant, Regency-era England in the early 1800s, and buoyed by Austen's renowned wit.

Tom's next guest is Jeff Kinney. The Maryland native and University of Maryland grad is the author and illustrator of the best-selling children’s book series, Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Expanding on his original online comic strip, Kinney launched the award-winning book series in 2007. He’s published a new installment nearly every year since, and the books, written for pre-teen readers, have now sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.

The 20th installment in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, Partypooper, hits bookstands on Tuesday, October 21. Kinney is coming to Baltimore’s Dumbarton Middle School the night before — on Monday, October 20 — as part of his international Partypooper Book Tour. Monday's Partypooper Show is a ticketed event that gets under way at 7pm.