Midday

Tom speaks with infectious disease specialist Dr. Wilbur Chen of University of Maryland Medical Systems about the status of testing, and the prospects for a coronavirus vaccine.

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

Tom's guest for today's Newsmaker interview is the senior U.S. Senator from Maryland, Ben Cardin. First elected to the Senate in 2006, he’s the Ranking Member of the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee. He is a longtime member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Environment & Public Works committees. He also serves on the Senate Finance Committee.

Senator Cardin joins us to discuss some of the urgent topics facing Marylanders and the nation, starting with the widening outbreak of CoVID19, the new coronavirus disease that's now infected people in more than 20 US states, including three new cases just reported Thursday in Montgomery County, Maryland...

Governor Larry Hogan has declared a state of emergency in Maryland and requested emergency funding to confront the new coronavirus. World-wide, nearly 100,000 people have been infected. More than 3,200 have died from the disease. 12 Americans have perished, most from a nursing home in Washington State.

Yesterday, President Trump signed an $8.3 billion dollar package to fight the virus, including research to develop a vaccine.

The economic impact of the virus is severe. The US stock market continued its rocky week, plunging more than 700 points at the open this morning, as investors flee equities in favor of bonds, which caused the 10 year Treasury yield to plummet to near record lows. As of its close last night, stocks had lost $3.67 trillion dollars in value since their mid-February high.

Senator Cardin also addresses listener comments and questions. The conversation was livestreamed on the WYPR Facebook page, and you can watch the video here.

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

It's Thursday, and time for theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck to join us with another of her weekly reviews of the region's thespian offerings. Today, she tells us about the musical play The Moment Was Now, a production of the Cultural Worker Ensemble that debuted in Baltimore last September and that is getting a reprise production at the Emmanual Episcopal Church through Sunday, March 8.

A political fantasy set in post-Civil War Baltimore during a fateful turn in American history, The Moment Was Now imagines an 1869 meeting between civil rights champion Frederick Douglass and a high-powered group of Baltimore-based leaders of progressive social movements of the day -- all of whom actually knew one another. At this fictional meeting are women's voting rights evangelist Susan B. Anthony, black union organizer Isaac Myers, African American teacher and abolitionist Frances Harper, and white labor organizer William Sylvis.

The Moment Was Now was conceived and produced by Maryland-based labor leader and playwright Gene Bruskin, in collaboration with director Darryl! LC Moch (who also plays Isaac Myers); musical director Glenn Pearson; and assistant musical director Chester Burke, Jr. The cast of The Cultural Worker Ensemble includes LeCount R. Holmes, Jr. (Frederick Douglass), Jenna Rose Stein (Susan B. Anthony), Ari Jacobson (William Sylvis), and Julia Nixon (Frances Harper).

The Moment Was Now continues at Emmanuel Episcopal Church through Sunday March 8. For more information click here.

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

Today, another edition of Midday on Business. In the city of Baltimore, the overall unemployment rate has been steadily declining over the past decade. It’s currently at 4.2 percent, down from a high of 11.8 percent in 2010 at the height of the financial crisis. By that measure, the city lags only slightly behind the Maryland and national average of 3.5%, but when viewed through the prism of racial equity, the city’s employment picture is less encouraging.

According to a recent report by Associated Black Charities, African American workers in Baltimore City are largely employed in lower-wage industries and occupations, they tend to earn less than their white counterparts, and they experience higher job turnover. African Americans own nearly half of all businesses in Baltimore, but they employ only 2% of the city’s paid employees and account for only 1.4% of all sales.

Joining Tom in the studio are two men whose innovative private companies are working to change those workforce dynamics, here in Baltimore and around the country.

Jacob Hsu is the CEO of Catalyte, a firm that finds people with a hidden talent for technology.

Jason Green is co-founder, senior vice-president and general counsel of SkillSmart US, a national enterprise that helps companies connect with local talent to create diverse and productive workforces.

We livestreamed this conversation on WYPR's Facebook page. Watch the video here, starting at 08:45 and continuing to the end of the feed.

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

We begin today with a look at the results of a new poll released this morning by WYPR, the Baltimore Sun and the University of Baltimore on the race for Baltimore City Council President. This new voter survey comes on the heels of another WYPR/Sun/UB poll released yesterday that is giving us one of our first insights into the status of the race for Baltimore mayor. Tom is joined in the studio by WYPR's city hall reporter Emily Sullivan for a review of key findings in both polls.

The conversation was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page. Watch the video here, from the beginning until 08:45 into the feed.

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

Joan M. Pratt has served as Baltimore's comptroller since 1995. Bill Henry has represented District 4, in North Baltimore, on the Baltimore City Council since 2007. They are running for city comptroller -- one of only three positions elected citywide.

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

One of the big "X factors" in the Super Tuesday primaries -- which are underway today from coast to coast, and even among Democrats living abroad -- is former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

He’s been a familiar name for decades, first as a highly successful businessman who created the Bloomberg Media empire, then as a billionaire philanthropist whose largess has been felt across a wide swath of society, from the arts and education to public health and the environment.

In 2001, on the heels of the 9/11 attacks, Bloomberg, who'd been a lifelong Democrat, was elected as a Republican to succeed Rudolph Giuliani as New York City's mayor. He self-financed two more successful mayoral elections in New York. He changed his party affliation to Independent in 2007. In 2012, Bloomberg endorsed President Barack Obama's re-election, and he supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign against Republican Donald Trump. Since last November 24th, when he announced his intention to run for president, he has spent an unprecedented half-billion dollars of his own money on a campaign to win the Democratic nomination for the highest office in the land.

So what can we surmise from looking at his career thus far about what a Bloomberg presidency would look like, if his long-shot bid for the nomination and an election match-up against Donald Trump succeed?

Eleanor Randolph is a veteran journalist who was a member of the New York Times editorial board for nearly 20 years, from 1998 until 2016, where she concentrated her attention on city and state politics, among other beats. She covered Mike Bloomberg before and throughout his tenure as mayor, and now she has written a comprehensive new biography, called The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg.

Eleanor Randolph joins us live on the line from NPR studios in New York City. Listeners with questions or comments are welcome to join us as well.

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

Sandra Magsamen is an artist and a best-selling author. She has sold more than 5 million books for both children and adults, and her greeting cards, clothing and gifts are available on line and in major stores all over the world. The Baltimore native is the keynote speaker at the Harford County Public Library's Third Annual Women's Summit. The theme this year is "Living Artfully: Creating the Life You Imagine."

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

Joining Tom in the studio is a wonderful classical guitarist named Gabriel Rodriguez. He’s performed in his native Puerto Rico, Spain, and the United States. He lives here in Baltimore now, where he teaches in the Guitars for Change program, an initiative of the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society. To remind us what a beautiful instrument the classical guitar is, Gabriel plays a piece by Spanish composer Iván Ríjos, called Lágrimas de Jesús (Tears of Jesus). Launched in the fall of 2018 in collaboration with “Centro de Ayuda” (Center of Help) in Annapolis, Guitars for Change identifies immigrant youth in the community who are at risk and provides them with free guitars and lessons in an after-school program. The Guitar Society’s president and CEO, Asgerdur Sigurdardottir, also joins Tom to announce that the after-school program will be expanding to a new, second location at Baltimore's Clay Hill Public Charter School in the Bayview area. You can hear the students from the Guitars for Change program, as well as several other guitar ensembles from around the area, in concert a week from Saturday, March 8th in the Linehan Concert Hall on the campus of UMBC in Catonsville. Click here for details. <--break-> This conversation was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page. You can watch the video here, from 43:00 to 53:30 in the feed.

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

Lisa Fischer (heard in our segment open performing one of her iconic Gimme Shelter duets with Mick Jagger in a live Rolling Stones show in 1995) is one of the musicians featured in the Academy Award-winning movie 20 Feet from Stardom, for which Ms. Fischer won her second Grammy Award. In addition to her celebrated career as a backup singer for the Stones - touring with the band from 1989 to 2015 --she's collaborated with Luther Vandross, Sting, Tina Turner, and many more huge pop and rock music stars, as well as classical music giants like Yo Yo Ma and Lang Lang. And she has enjoyed success, too, as a solo vocalist, earning her first Grammy in 1991 for her Number 1 R&B hit, How Can I Ease the Pain? and in recent years, touring with the band, Grand Baton.

Lisa Fischer is in Baltimore tonight and Saturday, playing with Grand Baton at the Keystone Korner music and dinner club in Harbor East. For ticket info and location, click here.

This program was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page. Watch the video here, from 20:45 - 42:45 of the feed.

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