Midday

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Scott Shane talks about Amazon’s growing imprint on the life of many Americans, and its impact on our local economy.

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

President Trump has survived impeachment. Will it help or hurt his re-election chances? I’m Tom Hall. On the next Midday: Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker of the Washington Post discuss their best-selling new book, A Very Stable Genius: Donald J. Trump's Testing of America.

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

It's the February edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly feature about films and filmmaking!

Joining Tom to consider which great films and actors have the best chance of winning an Oscar this Sunday, (and which contenders should win) are two of our favorite film fans: Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday, who is also the author of Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies; and Maryland Film Festival founder Jed Dietz.

This edition of Midday at the Movies is Web-only, since Midday was preempted today by NPR’s live coverage of President Trump’s speech from the White House.

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

It's Thursday, and time to welcome theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck back with another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage.

Because Midday was preempted today by special NPR programming, she joins Tom in this Web-only edition with her take on Safe Space, by award-winning playwright R. Eric Thomas. The production, by Single Carrot Theatre, is now on stage at Baltimore's Clifton Mansion.

Safe Space is a Clue!-inspired farce that suggests that unlocking the past can be a dangerous thing. When white non-profit executive Helen discovers a locked door in the property she has inherited, black locksmith Courtney comes to her rescue, and that’s where the trouble begins.

Add to the mix Charlotte, the ghost of a formerly enslaved person, and Ryan, Helen’s MAGA-loving brother, and contention in the house is about to boil over.

Safe Space is directed by Ben Kleymeyer, with performances by Tina Canady as Charlotte/Hazzie, Dominic Gladden as Courtney, Alix Fenhagen as Helen, Aaron Hancock as Bill, Daniela Hernandez-Fujigaki as Nadeen and Matthew Shea as Ryan.

The Single Carrot Theatre production of Safe Space continues at Baltimore's Clifton Mansion through Sunday, February 23. More info here.

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

When Kweisi Mfume resigned from Congress in 1996, a four-term Maryland Delegate named Elijah Cummings won a crowded special primary and special election to complete Mfume’s term. Cummings, who went on to become one of the most respected leaders in the Democratic Party, died in October.

Last night, Mfume won a crowded special primary to succeed Cummings in MD’s 7th District. He will face-off in a special general election against first-time Republican candidate Kimberly Klacik, an occasional commentator on Fox News from Middle River. She has promised to move to the district if she is elected.

Joining Tom with analysis of the election is WBAL-TV’s lead investigative reporter, Jayne Miller.

In other election news: The Open Society Institute is holding a Mayoral Forum tonight at 7pm at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture. It is sponsored by the Open Society Institute, and 24 of the 32 candidates running for Mayor of Baltimore are set to attend.

Tom Hall will serve as moderator of that event with Lisa Snowden McCray of the Baltimore Beat and the Real News Network. Click here for more information.

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

Last night, in Washington, on the eve of a likely acquittal vote in his Senate impeachment trial, President Donald Trump delivered his annual State of the Union address.

E.J. Dionne joins us now to discuss the speech.

He’s a columnist for The Washington Post, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the author of several best-selling books. His latest book, just out yesterday, is called Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country.

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

Tom is joined in the studio by Erricka Bridgeford, co-organizer of Baltimore Ceasefire 365. Since August 2017, the grass-roots group has organized hundreds of events to bring people together to reduce lethal violence in Baltimore. It is calling for another Ceasefire this coming weekend, from Friday, February 7 through Sunday, February 9, during which it encourages community actions aimed at “promoting peacefulness and celebrating life.”

A big part of Bridgeford's work is standing in witness and comforting both victims and perpetrators of violence, as well as their families and friends.

Every week here on Midday we also make it a point to remember those who were killed, and their families and friends in their hour of grief.

We get their names from Ellen Worthing, who compiles a list of Baltimore homicide victims. We also consult the Baltimore Sun’s list of homicides, and victim identifications posted on the Baltimore Police Department’s Facebook page.

So far this year, 28 people in Baltimore have lost their lives to violence.

Four people were killed last week. They are:

Malik Samuels, age 42.
Everette Williams, age 34.
Jerrod Crim, age 32, and
Richard Walker, age 58.


This conversation was livestreamed on WYPR's Facebook page. You can watch the video here.

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

By midday Tuesday, the Iowa Democratic Party had still not released any results from Monday evening's statewide Democratic presidential caucuses, citing problems with the new mobile software it had deployed to precinct managers to speed their reporting of caucus data. I.D.P. officials said they hope to release at least some of the results by 5 pm Eastern time Tuesday.

Despite the disastrous delay and lingering questions about the technical glitches that made the 2020 Iowa Caucus process so dissatisfying, voters in the mostly white, largely rural Midwestern state did cast the first votes of the 2020 Presidential primary season last night. Voters in New Hampshire will have their say next Tuesday.

To help explain what happened in Iowa and what it might mean for the Democratic presidential candidates going forward, Tom is joined by two astute - and very busy - political reporters on the scene in Iowa.

Holly Bailey is a national political reporter covering the 2020 presidential campaign for the Washington Post, who’s been crisscrossing the state over the past month filing daily “Iowa Diary” reports. She joins us literally from the road near Anamosa, in Eastern Iowa, a little later this hour.

We begin with Kate Payne. She covers Eastern Iowa for Iowa Public Radio and she is the co-host, with Clay Masters, of the Caucus Land podcast, which since last July has been illuminating the unique political dynamics that drove this first formal contest of the 2020 presidential race. Kate joins us from the studios of Iowa Public Radio in Iowa City.

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

Classical guitar virtuoso Irina Kulikova, 37, grew up in an artistic Russian family: her mother is a cellist and a now-retired music teacher; her father is a photographer. Irina got her first guitar at age five. By the time she was eight, she’d had her first public performance. At 12, she was a child star playing all across Russia and at festivals in Europe. When she was 14, her name appeared in Maurice Summerfield’s esteemed reference book, The Classical Guitar: Its Evolution, Players and Personalities Since 1800.

Today, Irina Kulikova tours internationally at leading festivals in Europe, North America, and Asia, and at many of the world’s great concert hall. She has received over 30 awards for her artistry, and has recorded four solo CDs, three of them distributed worldwide on the Naxos label.

The Russian guitar virtuoso will be performing Saturday, February 1 at 8pm at the Earl and Darielle Linehan Concert Hall at UMBC, one of a series of concerts sponsored by the Baltimore Classical Guitar Society.

Today, Irina Kulikova joins us Live in Studio A with a preview of Saturday's performance.
On her playlist: Frederic Chopin’s Vals No.7; Francisco Tarrega’s gavotte Maria; and Federico Moreno-Torroba’s Allegretto from his Sonatina in A-major.

We live-streamed this segment on WYPR’s Facebook page. Watch the video here.

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

Britain gets to Brexit. NPR’s London Correspondent Frank Langfitt has the latest from across the pond. And the Baltimore Sun’s Pamela Wood checks in with an update on the MD General Assembly.

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