Midday

In the summer of 2011, a story appeared in the Capital Gazette newspaper in Annapolis about a man who was charged with criminally harassing a classmate. This person later sued the newspaper for defamation, but his case was thrown out by a judge.

On June 28, 2018, seven years after the story about the disgruntled reader appeared in the paper, the man shot his way into the paper’s newsroom and murdered five members of the staff: Rob Hiassen, Wendy Winters, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith, and Gerald Fischman.

Tom Marquardt, the former editor of the Capital Gazette newspapers, joins Midday to discuss his new book on this tragic incident, Pressed to Kill: Inside Newspapers' Worst Mass Murder.

Today, we spotlight Midday on Higher Education with the 15th president of Towson University, Dr. Mark Ginsberg.

This university is one of Baltimore County’s largest anchor institutions, where more than 19,000 students receive undergraduate and graduate degrees, as well as certificates in more than 30 fields and professions.

Many high-profile schools across the country, including Towson University, are caught in the crosshairs of the Trump administration. The school is one of 45 universities currently under investigation for “engaging in race-exclusionary practices in their graduate programs,” for working with The PhD Project, a non-profit seeking to diversify American businesses.

Dr. Ginsberg joins the show to discuss the impact of state budget cuts, federal oversight, artificial intelligence, and the job market for recent graduates.

Yesterday, the Baltimore Police Department released body camera video of the police-involved shooting that occurred in West Baltimore on June 17. A 36-year-old named Bilal "B.J." Abdullah was killed during a gunfire exchange with police. One of the officers involved in the shooting, Devin Yancy, was shot in the foot and has been released from the hospital.

Abdullah was a well-known arabber, which is a produce vendors who sell goods from horse-drawn wagons in Baltimore.

Baltimore City Councilman John Bullock, who represents the Upton area where the shooting took place, joins Midday to share his response to the incident.

Olympic Athlete John Carlos made history at the 1968 Olympic Games. During the medal ceremony, he, along with Tommie Smith, raised a Black fist to symbolize support for Black Americans and civil rights.

Carlos joins Midday to discuss his journey in sports and activism. He also reflects on the Lifetime Grand Visionary Award he will receive from the American Visionary Art Museum.

Turnaround Tuesdays began 10 years ago to connect formerly incarcerated people and others with skills and employers who hire them and help change the direction of their lives.

The program was started by BUILD, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development and operates out of four locations around the city.

A couple of months ago, Turn Around Tuesdays opened its newest location, in Park Heights. Melvin Wilson, the Executive Director of the program, joins Midday to discuss their approach.

On July 1, Maryland is set to take the first step in a sweeping $50 million plan to rehabilitate larges swathes of vacant homes in Baltimore.

The state will soon distribute the first funds to organizations vying to rehabilitate homes with the goal of completing 5000 homes in five years.

Today, Midday speaks to two members of Baltimore’s Vacants Reinvestment Council, State Sen. Cory McCray and Rev. George Hopkins, the Co-Chair of Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development, or BUILD. The pair are helping to execute the plan and address roadblocks along the way.

Are the funds offered enough to make change on the ground? And, which community partners are most critical for success?

(This Program originally aired on June 19, 2024)

For Juneteenth's celebration of liberation and Black history, we revisit a conversation with author and historian Kellie Carter Jackson.

Her recent book, We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance, examines the resistance that Black women had on white oppression in the history of the United States, and the impact it had in today living.

Jackson is an Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Wellesley College and co-host of This Day in Esoteric Political History. Her 2019 book Force and Freedom was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Museum of African American History Stone Book Award.

Michael Cannell has written many books delving into the sordid history of American crime, and his latest book is no different.

The setting for Blood and the Badge: The Mafia, Two Killer Cops, and a Scandal That Shocked the Nation is Brooklyn, New York, in the 1980s, and the central figures are mobsters, cops and double agents.

The case of two decorated detectives, Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa made headlines when they were finally brought to justice in 2009, almost 30 years after a crime spree that included serving as informants, and assassins, for the mafia outfit La Cosa Nostra.

Others have written about these two corrupt cops, but Cannell’s book sheds new light on this infamous story. Cannell joins Midday to discuss the book and his extensive interviews and reporting that went into his research.

Claire McCardell, a Frederick native, was one of the 20th century’s most influential fashion designers. But few know her story.

Now, McCardell is the subject of an exhibition at the Maryland Center for History and Culture, and a new book by Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, McCardell: The Designer Who Set Women Free.

Dickinson joins Midday to discuss her book, which is out today. She is an award-winning author whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Washington Post Magazine, and many other publications.