Midday

We begin today with a look at mail-in elections, including Maryland's primary, which is now scheduled for June 2.

Several states have decided to hold their delayed primaries and other elections by mail because of the Covid-19 pandemic. For some states, this is nothing new. But for others, like Maryland, it is largely uncharted territory.

Tom’s first guest is Kim Wyman. She is the Secretary of State for Washington State, where elections have been conducted by mail since 2011.

Then, Baltimore City Election Director Armstead Jones joins the conversation.

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Midday’s movie mavens, Ann Hornaday, Washington Post film critic and author of Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies, and Jed Dietz, founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, join Tom with their streaming suggestions.

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Licensed nutritionist Monica Reinagel, talks about the relationship between healthy eating and our immune system.

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Marc Morial, the president and CEO of The National Urban League, joins Tom for a discussion about the importance of the census for minority communities, and how the process will be impacted by the Coronavirus outbreak.

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Congressman John Sarbanes joins to Tom to discuss the details of the package. What’s in it? Who will benefit?  And whether further government subsidies will be needed to keep the economy propped-up for as long as it takes to conquer the coronavirus.

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Tom’s guest today is Martin O’Malley, who served as the mayor of Baltimore from 1999 to 2007, and as the 61st Governor of Maryland, from 2007 to 2015. In 2016, he sought the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

For decades, an argument about the fundamental role of government has raged between those on the political right who often think of government as invasive and overbearing, and those on the left who see social programs and other functions of government as a fundament of American society. As political leaders confront the COVID-19 pandemic at the local, state and federal levels, the need for governmental intervention in times of crisis is acknowledged by those of every political stripe.

Drawing on his own experience as a Maryland chief executive, Martin O’Malley has written a book about leadership, and how executives at all levels of government can employ best practices to improve outcomes in violence reduction, education, the environment, and a host of other issues. The book is called Smarter Government: How to Govern for Results in the Information Age. You can explore its central themes at smartergovernment.com. Martin O’Malley joins Tom on the phone from his home in Baltimore.

In today's conversation, Gov. O'Malley mentioned his interest in the urgent appeal, sent out by the directors of Emergency Management and Healthcare Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, for donations of Powered Air Purifying Respirators (PAPRs), a critically important type of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers treating coronavirus patients. If you can help provide this or other PPE resources, please contact George Lavdas, Hopkins' Senior Director for Supply Chain Transformation, by email at [email protected], or by cell at: (443) 766-0758.

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While the United States remains the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, European nations continue to struggle to mitigate the serious outbreaks within their borders. Italy has reported more than 11,500 deaths. More than 8,100 people have died in Spain.

And in Britain, as officials intensify efforts to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced last Friday that he himself had tested positive for COVID19. He is self-isolating at number 10 Downing Street.

A few days later, the prime minister's Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, who has been coordinating Britain’s medical response to the pandemic, also went into self-isolation after he displayed symptoms of COVID19.

There have been 22,465 reported cases of COVID 19 in the United Kingdom as of today. 1,408 people have died.

NPR London correspondent Frank Langfitt joins Tom with the latest on how the British are coping with COVID-19.

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Our series of Conversations with the Candidates continues today with Carl Stokes, one of seven Democratic candidates vying to be the next Baltimore City Council President. The current Council President, Brandon Scott is running for Mayor, so there is no incumbent in the race. Carl Stokes is a familiar figure to folks who have been around a while. He served on the Baltimore City Council in the mid 1980s, and again from 2010-2016.

This is not Mr. Stokes’ first try at city-wide office. In 1999, he ran for mayor, losing that primary to Martin O’Malley. He ran for mayor again in 2016. He has had professional experience in the retail clothing business, the health care industry, and as an education administrator. He is a founder of two public charter schools in Baltimore: the Bluford Drew Jemison STEM Academy, and the Banneker-Blake Academy for Arts and Science. The Banneker-Blake School was closed by the Baltimore City School Board last year.

Carl Stokes is a graduate of Loyola High School. He attended Loyola University for two years. He is 69 years old, and the father of two grown children. He joins Tom on the line from his home in Greater Greenmount.

Listener comments and questions were welcomed.

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We begin today with Dr. Leigh Vinocur, a board certified emergency physician who has worked and taught for more than two decades at some of our area’s leading medical institutions, including the University of Maryland, Medstar Health, and Sinai Hospital. She is a national spokesperson for the American College of Emergency Physicians, a 40,000 member organization that has been sounding the alarm on the worsening crisis in many of the nation's emergency rooms and intensive care units. An unprecedented deluge of patients sickened by COVID-19 is overwhelming many of these medical facilities, where a shortage of ventilators and personal protection equipment such as gowns, gloves and anti-viral masks are putting both patients and medical staff at ever-greater risk. Dr. Vinocur joins Tom on the phone from her home in Baltimore.

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Yesterday, federal authorities announced that 3.3 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. 42,000 of those claims were from Marylanders. As we went on the air today, the House of Representatives was preparing to vote on the $2.2 trillion dollar economic aid package. (The measure passed on an overwhelming voice vote in the early afternoon, and the President signed it into law a few hours later.)

A word about Day Care. The Governor has ordered day care centers to close, but there is a service to provide day care to children of ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL who are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a free referral hotline. The number is 877-261-0060.

For more analysis of how Maryland families and businesses stand to benefit from the new federal aid package, and from a wide variety of state relief programs, Comptroller Peter Franchot joins Tom until the top of the hour. Maryland's chief fiscal officer and tax collector, Mr. Franchot was elected Comptroller for the first time in 2006. He is also, at the moment, the only person to have declared his candidacy for Governor in 2022.

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