Midday

State Senator Mary Washington discusses why she decided to suspend her campaign for Mayor of Baltimore. Plus, WYPR’s Rachel Baye recaps the truncated General Assembly session

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The new normal of living with the threat of COVID 19. Tom is joined by Dr. Clifford Mitchell of the MD Department of Health, infectious disease specialist Dr. Faheem Younus of the University of MD Medical Center, and Dr. Sonja Santelises, CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools

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Joining Tom now with an update on the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak in Baltimore and the region is Donald C. Fry. He’s the President and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee.

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Yesterday afternoon, Gov. Larry Hogan issued a series of sweeping executive orders in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, updates from Annapolis – first with Luke Broadwater, who covers the State House for The Baltimore Sun, and then with Bryan Sears, who covers Maryland politics and government for The Daily Record.

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It's Thursday, and theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom for another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, she tells us about the new production of Constellations by Baltimore's Vagabond Players.

First produced on Broadway in 2014, Constellations is a mind-bending multi-dimensional romance by British playwright Nick Payne. Starring Ryan Gunning and Christian Smith, the play is directed at the Vagabond Theater by Michael Byrne Zemarel.

Constellations is provisionally scheduled to continue at Vagabond Theater until March 22, but in light of possible theater closings due to the COVID-19 outbreak, those interested in the production should check the Vagabond Players website for updates.

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On today's edition of Midday at the Movies, two of our favorite film aficionados -- Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday and Maryland Film Festival founder Jed Dietz -- join Tom for a discussion of the widening impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the entertainment industry. Late Wednesday, we learned that actor Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson, have tested positive for the virus.

Amid a steady stream of public health advisories warning people -- especially folks over 60 -- to avoid large, dense crowds and confined spaces to reduce their risk of infection -- a new survey shows many Americans have serious concerns about whether it's safe to attend public art performances or go to movie theaters. Growing numbers of public art & film events across the country -- including all Broadway plays in New York City and the huge South By Southwest Festival (SXSW) in Austin -- have been canceled or postponed in the face of the spreading virus.

But life goes on...and today the movie mavens also discuss a couple of interesting new films, including: The Burnt Orange Heresy, which stars the veteran Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, a rock icon who was kind enough to speak with Ann about his role for her Post feature; and the latest rendition of Jane Austen's classic novel Emma.

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We begin today with an update on the status of efforts to contain the new coronavirus that's causing COVID-19, a highly contagious - and potentially lethal -respiratory infection. As of Thursday noon, there are 12 reported cases in Maryland. At least one patient is being treated for COVID-19 at a Baltimore hospital. There have been several cases reported in Montgomery County and Prince Georges County, and last night, officials announced the first case in Baltimore County.

Yesterday afternoon, the World Health Organization declared that the COVID-19 outbreak is now officially a pandemic, citing the “alarming levels of severity, spread and infection,” and bemoaning the lack of response to the disease in some countries.

Last night, President Trump made confusing pronouncements about restricting travel into the United States from Europe. Tweets after his Oval office speech clarified who and what will be restricted, and from where. His intention to calm financial markets had the opposite effect. Soon after it opened this morning, the Dow fell 2,000 points, triggering a halt to trading for 15 minutes, the second such “circuit breaker” event this week.

And the NCAA announced yesterday that the Division 1 Mens and Women’s college basketball tournaments, known as March Madness, will be played without spectators. But the NBA, citing a positive diagnosis of one of its star players, canceled all of their games indefinitely. The NHL followed suit and canceled its season Thursday afternoon, although no league player is yet known to have tested positive for the virus.

So, what’s going on here in Baltimore in response to the COVID-19 outbreak? Tom welcomes Dr. Letitia Dzirasa back to the program. Dr. Dzirasa, a Hopkins-trained pediatrician, has been Commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department since March, 2019.

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Tom's guest is writer and musician James McBride. Last week, McBride published his new novel set in a Brooklyn housing project in the 1960s. It is an expansive, insightful masterpiece filled with fascinating characters and trenchant observations. The book is called Deacon King Kong.

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Today, a conversation about US immigration policy and its human and economic impacts.

President Donald Trump’s consistently anti-immigrant rhetoric and his efforts to fund and build a massive wall on the southern US border have raised the temperature in the national debate over immigration.

The president has imposed steep reductions in the numbers of immigrants admitted to apply for citizenship, and sharply curtailed US approval of refugee asylum requests — even as the number of people seeking entry to the US has risen. Families have been forced to wait for months, sometimes years, for their cases to be heard in immigration court, and since last year, many have been sent to wait for their hearings in dangerous Mexican border towns. Tens of thousands of refugees fleeing war, violence and poverty have been turned away. The agencies charged with carrying out immigration policy — Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security, report stepped-up border apprehensions, undocumented immigrant arrests and deportations.

To help us understand the impact of these changes in US immigration policy, Tom talks today with four people who’ve been on the front lines of America’s immigration conflict...

Ruben Chandrasekar is the director of the Baltimore office of the International Rescue Committee, which provides support and relief for refugees.

Gabriela Roque (ROH-keh) is the lead Baltimore organizer for the migrant-rights advocacy group, CASA of Maryland. They join me here in Studio A…

And Sonia Nazario is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Enrique’s Journey, a contributing opiniojn writer to the New York Times, and a board member of Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). She joins us on the line from NPR West in Culver City, California.

And later in the hour, we’re joined on the phone by Aubrey Vincent. She’s the manager of Lindy’s Seafood in Woolford, Maryland, on the Eastern Shore. Her company annually hires seasonal workers to help them process and package Maryland blue crabs.

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As the fortunes of black quarterbacks in the NFL continue to rise, minority head coaches in the league are seeing their numbers decline. 70 percent of NFL players are minorities, but only three teams will be led by Black coaches at the start of next season.

Mike Fletcher of ESPN’s The Undefeated, and sports journalist Patrick Hruby join Tom Hall for a conversation about football’s diversity problem.

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