Midday

HBO and NBC are going national with their newest streaming services. Netflix, Amazon and others are jumping on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon; and Issa Rae and Dave Chappelle are back. New standouts like Yvonne Orji are making a splash, and the show with a lot of buzz, HBO’s I May Destroy You raises important questions about victims and victimization.

Tom's guests are Maureen Harvie, senior producer here at WYPR’s On the Record with host Shelia Kast. Screenwriter, and WYPR’s digital producer, Jamyla Kremple.

And, Bridget Armstrong, producer for Land of The Giants: The Netflix Effect, a podcast from Vox Media.

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

While the COVID-19 data for Maryland are good in comparison with many other states, more than 3,000 people have died, and the pandemic is still having a profound impact on the lives and livelihoods of Marylanders. Even as Governor Hogan’s Stage Two re-opening plan allows businesses to resume limited operations, one of the pillars of the state’s economy – child care services for working parents – is in crisis.

State-wide there are more than 8,000 child care programs licensed to care for over 213,000 children. A little under half of them have been closed since late March. The rest have been authorized by the state to care for the children of essential first-responders.

According to a survey by the non-profit Maryland Family Network, just over half of all child care programs in the state say they may be forced to permanently close if families continue keeping their children home as a result of the pandemic. Two thirds of the state’s child care service providers reported significant financial losses due to the closures and reduced attendance.

Today we're taking a look at the challenges facing child care providers and parents. Later this hour we’ll talk with the directors of two child care centers: Richard Huffman, the founder and CEO of Celebree Schools, which operates 26 locally-owned child care centers in Maryland and Delaware; and Beth Drummond Casey, the executive director of the Bolton Hill Nursery, an independent, non-profit child care center established in 1969. Tom also talks with Scott Goldman, a working Baltimore parent of three child-care-age children, and with Christina Peusch, the executive director of the Maryland State Child Care Association, a non-profit advocacy group that represents more than 4400 child care centers across the state, and which recently launched an online campaign called SaveMarylandChildCare.org. But Tom's first guest is Steve Rohde, the deputy director for Resource and Referral at Maryland Family Network, a private non-profit advocacy group that's been supporting quality child care, early education and Maryland families since 1945.



Officials with the Maryland State Department of Education's Division of Early Childhood, which regulates child care service providers, were invited to join today's discussion, but were unable to schedule a representative. However, the MSDE's Office of Communications provided this statement addressing the issues raised in today's program:

"The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) is very grateful to the service of our child care providers who continue to play a critical role in the State's overall pandemic recovery efforts. To date, MSDE has disbursed $87.2 million to child care providers as part of the Essential Personnel Child Care/ Essential Personnel School Age program. At the beginning of the pandemic, 29% of the 7,858 family and center-based child care programs were operating. Today more than 63% are reopened, with an average of 40-50 programs re-opening each day. Prior to Stage 1 of the Governor's Road to Recovery, group size was limited to 10 persons.

"Now that we are in Stage 2, group capacity is expanded to 15. Family child care programs are now back to their licensed capacity, and Center-based programs ratios remain impacted for only 3 and 4 year-olds. MSDE continues to evaluate the health and safety guidance created with the Maryland Department of Health with the safety of children and staff as the priority. As we move forward, we continue to communicate and coordinate closely with the child care community, holding weekly listening sessions directly with providers, and incorporating stakeholder input into the child care recovery plan - Maryland Together: Maryland’s Recovery Plan for Child Care." -- MSDE Office of Communications
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Additional Resources:
MFN's recent report: Caring During Covid: The Impact of Pandemic on Maryland Child Care Providers

MFN's LOCATE Child Care (Online or call: 1-866-357-3239)

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It’s the Midday Healthwatch, with Dr. Leana Wen.

29 states around the country, largely in the south and the west, are seeing a spike in the number of new cases of COVID 19. The CDC has revised its risk assessment for the disease to reflect the fact that more young people are being infected. Are the numbers headed in the wrong direction because the US is re-opening too soon?

Dr. Leana Wen is a visiting professor of health policy and management at the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University, a distinguished fellow at the Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity and a contributing columnist for The Washington Post. She is the former Health Commissioner of Baltimore City.

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The torrent of news that NPR and its affiliates around the country need to cover would be daunting in the best of times, but to cover it while the health risk is high and revenue is down presents unprecedented challenges.

About a year ago, when LaFontaine Oliver took over as president and general manager of WYPR, we talked with him on this program about his plans for our station moving forward. We promised to have him back occasionally to give listeners an update on where the station is heading. Today, we are keeping that promise.

Before taking the helm at WYPR, Mr. Oliver led the Orlando NPR station, WMFE, for six years. Before that, he was the general manager of WEAA over at Morgan State University.

He also brings a national perspective to the challenges facing public radio today. He has served on the NPR Board of Directors since 2016.

And joining us a bit later in the show is Maryland Public Television President and CEO Larry Unger.

In addition to his role leading MPT, Mr Unger is also a trustee of America's Public Television Stations, the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy organization for the public television system; and chair of the board of trustees of American Public Television, the largest syndicator of programming for U.S. public TV stations.

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

As we went to air today, the House Judiciary Committee convened an investigative hearing into “political interference and threats to prosecutorial independence” at the U.S. Justice Department. The hearing opened on the heels of last weekend’s firing of Geoffrey Berman, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York. President Trump’s plan to install in his place a political ally with no prosecutorial experience drew pushback from even Trump loyalists like Lindsey Graham. The Committee chairman, Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler of New York, is expected to subpoena US Attorney General William Barr in early July, although whether Mr. Barr will comply is an open question...

The imbroglio over the Berman firing and the opening of a new round of oversight investigations into alleged corruption in the Trump Administration is the latest headache for a President already under fire for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, his response to the nationwide calls for police reform and racial justice, and for his decision to stage large indoor campaign rallies in Oklahoma and Arizona, two states currently experiencing sharp spikes in new COVID-19 infections.

Darlene Superville is a White House reporter for the Associated Press. She joins us via Skype from Washington.

Then, Tom looks at how several recent opinions by The US Supreme Court -- blocking a White House order to terminate President Obama's DACA (Delayed Action on Childhood Arrivals) program, asserting workplace rights for LGBTQ employees, and refusing to hear a DOJ challenge to California's immigration sanctuary laws -- have gone sharply against the Trump Administration's conservative agenda. More controversial SCOTUS opinions are due in the days and weeks ahead.

Joining Tom with her unique perspectives on the High Court is Amy Howe, an attorney and Supreme Court reporter, a former editor at SCOTUSBlog, and the founder of the independent blog, Howe on the Court. She has also taught Supreme Court litigation at Stanford and Harvard Law Schools. Amy Howe joins us via Zoom from Wilson, Wyoming.

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

The region's theaters remain dark as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to prevent traditional indoor public stagings. But as we've reported previously here on Midday, the shows must - and do - go on, through a rich variety of live-streamed and pre-recorded streaming productions.

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom today to tell us about some upcoming and continuing virtual theater events. Notable among them is the first-ever live streaming this Sunday (June 28) at 7pm of the recorded 2013 production of The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, by Obie Award-winning actor and playwright David Drake, with The Provincetown Theater. The show, directed by Tony nominee Robert La Fosse, weaves threads of the LGBTQ coming-out experience with the story of veteran AIDS activist and playwright Larry Kramer (who passed away just three weeks ago). It features an all-star cast, including Mr. Drake, Tony Award-winners BD Wong (M. Butterfly) and Andre de Shields (Hadestown, Ain’t Misbehavin’), plus 3-time Tony nominee Robin de Jesus (In the Heights, Boys in the Band), and Tony-nominated star Rory O’Malley (Book of Mormon).

Here are links to the virtual theater events Judy mentioned today, and others to check out:

The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me, 7 pm Sunday, June 28:
or go to this YouTube channel.

New York Times "Offstage"
Paula Vogel's Bard at the Gate
Hamilton on Disney+ beginning July 3
Freestyle Love Supreme on Hulu July 17
and
Lincoln Center at Home

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Theaters, concert halls and live performance venues were the first to close when the pandemic arrived, and many will be among the last to re-open. Tom talks with jazz impresario Todd Barkan Co-owner of Baltimore jazz club Keystone Korner and Audrey Fix Schaefer communications director of the National Independent Venue Association on what’s needed to keep independent music venues alive.

Then Ken Skrzesz, executive director of the Maryland State Arts Council, joins Tom to discuss how Maryland artists and arts organizations are coping with COVID 19.

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

We begin today with a check on the state of Maryland’s efforts to mitigate the coronavirus and continue Gov. Larry Hogan’s Roadmap to Recovery.

Tom’s first guest is Fran Phillips. She is Maryland’s deputy health secretary for public health services and a member of Gov. Larry Hogan’s Coronavirus Response Team.

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

Joining Tom for the hour today is the senior Democratic senator from Maryland, Ben Cardin. First elected to the Senate in 2006, he is currently the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee.

Some of the topics Tom questions Sen. Cardin about:

President Trump held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday. The arena wasn't as full as his campaign predicted it would be, but Mr. Trump did attract more than 6,000 people, despite numerous warnings from health officials that the rally posed a major health risk.

A federal judge denied the Trump Administration's request that Simon and Schuster be blocked from releasing former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s tell-all memoir, citing the fact that so many copies of the book were already circulating. Bolton is making the rounds of national news shows, verifying previous reports in numerous other books that Mr. Trump is not fit to serve in the highest office in the land....

The Supreme Court handed the Trump Administration two legal losses last week, blocking its order to end DACA protections for so-called Dreamers, and disallowing workplace discrimination against LGBTQ employees.

And as more businesses open in Maryland, the metrics around the COVID-19 pandemic in our state continue to improve. Our positivity rate is now within the guidelines set by the World Health Organization for easing restrictions. Other states, like Arizona and Florida, are seeing a spike in cases and an uptick in positivity rates.

Sen. Cardin joins us on the line from his home in Pikesville. We take your calls for the senator a little later in the program.

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

From granting Juneteenth as a paid holiday to marketing campaigns designed to align their businesses with protesters, companies are suddenly falling over themselves to express solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Are these claims credible, or are they simply part of a nimble marketing strategy aimed at exploiting a unique moment?

Tom’s guests are Dr. Pamela Newkirk, professor of journalism at New York University, and author of Diversity, Inc.: The Failed Promise of a Billion-Dollar Industry;

and Dr. Andre Perry, a Fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and author of Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in America’s Black Cities.

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