Midday

Time now for another edition of Midday’s Back to the Garden, our seasonal foray into the essential pleasures and healthful rewards of planting and tending our own fruits, vegetables and flowers.

On Today’s Summer Edition, Tom is joined on the line by two of our favorite gardening gurus:

Carrie Engel is the greenhouse manager at Valley View Farms, a family owned nursery in Cockeysville, where she’s worked for most of the past half century.


And Denzel Mitchell is the Deputy Director of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore, a non-profit consortium of urban farming operations in the city. Denzel is also a farm manager at the Strength to Love 2 Farm, operated by Intersection of Change.

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

Maryland held its first statewide mail-in election yesterday (Tuesday, June 2, 2020). Late last night, the MD State Board of Elections announced the first batch of returns in the primaries, and then, at about 2:00 this morning, they took their totals for Baltimore City off of the website, without explanation.

At about 10:00 Wednesday morning, the Board issued a statement saying that there was a “proofing error” in the ballot title for the Democratic primary in the 1st Councilmanic District, and that mail-in ballots in that district could not be counted properly. They are looking into whether or not ballots in the other districts in the city were affected.

The Board had hoped that most voters would mail-in their ballots, but more than 6,200 people did vote in person yesterday at one of six in-person centers around the city. Lines were long at many of those centers. The polls closed to those who were not in line at 8:00, but the last vote wasn’t cast until just after 11:00 last night.

The bottom line is this: we don’t know who the Democratic nominees for Mayor, City Council president, Comptroller and members of the City Council will be, and we may not have those results certified for a while.

Tom's first guest today knows a lot about the electoral scene in our city, and throughout our state. Luke Broadwater is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the Baltimore Sun. Yesterday, the New York Times announced that Luke will be joining their Washington Bureau, covering Congress.

Then, Tom is joined by Jayne Miller, veteran investigative reporter for Baltimore's WBALT-TV, for her analysis of what might have gone wrong with Maryland's primary ballot printing and distribution operations for key races, and what the problems portend for future mail-in balloting efforts.

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

Brandt Williams of Minnesota Public Radio joins Tom from Minneapolis with an update from the epicenter of the international protests.

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

What’s the best way to manage your money in a recession that is unlike any other economic downturn in modern times? How will the pandemic upend plans like saving for college, buying a home or planning for retirement?

Financial planners Lazetta Rainey Braxton and Nicolas Abrams talk about staying financially healthy during these uncertain times.

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

Legal scholar Michael Higginbotham discusses the prospects for further charges in the case that has been at the center of international attention. Plus, Baltimore Police Commissioner Michael Harrison talks about what happened in the city, and what he expects as protests around the country enter their second week.

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

Dr. Wilbur Chen, an infectious disease specialist from the University of MD on the public health impacts of these large gatherings, where social distancing is impossible for demonstrators who are demanding social justice.

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

A third night of protests in Minneapolis in the wake of the killing of 46-year-oldGeorge Floyd on Monday by a Minneapolis police officer erupted in violence and looting. On Wednesday, the Mayor of Minneapolis called for the involved officers to be arrested.

Earlier today one of the officers, Derek Chauvin was arrested and charged with third-degree murder and second degree manslaughter in Mr. Floyd's death.

Tom is joined by Washington Post reporter Robert Klemko in Minneapolis, and former LA Times journalist Ron Harris.

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

Now, an update on how the American theater world is creatively adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to keep its theaters and community stages dark. Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck has been watching a steady stream of innovative online "virtual" productions by local and national companies, and she joins Tom on the line to share a few recommendations.

Those include The Howard Ashman Celebration, an online documentary by the local Rainbow Sun Productions. The YouTube video pays tribute to the late American playwright and lyricist, whose work with songwriter Alan Menken on Disney animated feature films such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and posthumously, Aladdin, won Ashman a bevy of honors before his death from HIV/AIDS in 1991.

From The Public Theater in New York City, What Do We Need to Talk About?, a new, hour-long installment of playwright Richard Nelson's popular series of The Apple Family Plays, in which the characters commune -- about art in the pandemic and other things -- not at a dinner table set, but in an online Zoom chat.

Also, a heads up that on July 3, a stage-captured video production of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's mega-hit Broadway musical, begins streaming exclusively on the Disney-Plus channel.

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

Now, an update on how the American theater world is creatively adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues to keep its theaters and community stages dark. Theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck has been watching a steady stream of innovative online "virtual" productions by local and national companies, and she joins Tom on the line to share a few recommendations.

Those include The Howard Ashman Celebration, an online documentary by the local Rainbow Sun Productions. The YouTube video pays tribute to the late American playwright and lyricist, whose work with songwriter Alan Menken on Disney animated feature films such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and posthumously, Aladdin, won Ashman a bevy of honors before his death from HIV/AIDS in 1991.

From The Public Theater in New York City, What Do We Need to Talk About?, a new, hour-long installment of playwright Richard Nelson's popular series of The Apple Family Plays, in which the characters commune -- about art in the pandemic and other things -- not at a dinner table set, but in an online Zoom chat.

Also, a heads up that on July 3, a stage-captured video production of Hamilton, Lin-Manuel Miranda's mega-hit Broadway musical, begins streaming exclusively on the Disney-Plus channel.

Tuesday is the deadline to mail your ballot in the statewide primary election for President and Congressional offices and, here in Baltimore, for all three citywide offices and City Council.

Maryland election officials quickly organized mail-in balloting in the special election for the Congressional seat in the 7th District, and now, just weeks later, they are conducting the statewide primary by mail. Nikki Charlson joins us on the line from Annapolis with an update. She is Deputy Administrator of the Maryland State Board of Elections.

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