Roughly Speaking

The current flu season is the worst in a decade, overwhelming emergency rooms and causing one in 10 American deaths in recent weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today on the show, Dr. John Cmar, an infectious diseases specialist, talks about the flu in Maryland and across the U.S., and he explains why some people die from it.Also on the show:* The CDC is facing fiscal problems and plans to pull back on its interventions overseas, including in some countries that have been hotspots for infectious diseases.* Plus, a study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals a 40 percent drop in government-funded clinical trials in recent years. Dr. Cmar comments on both developments. He is based at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore and comments about medical news from time to time.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-flu-season-20180126-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-child-flu-death-20180206-story.htmlhttps://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2018/02/cdc-funding-pandemics/552224/http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-nih-clinical-trials-20180213-story.html

The Baltimore region's subway system had to be closed completely for repairs while the city's old municipal water and waste-water system continues to spring leaks and pollute local waters, prompting years of costly repairs and higher and higher water bills that fewer and fewer Baltimoreans can afford.1:38: Colin Campbell, who covers public transportation for The Sun, talks about the Metro closure and its effect on the thousands of commuters who use it each day.8:53: As Baltimore faces costly repairs to its water and waste-water system, residents are looking at higher bills that many of them are unable to pay. Dan speaks with Roger Colton, an economist whose 109-page report for Food ---- Water Watch concludes that Baltimore could find itself in a “downward spiral,” forced to impose larger and larger price increases to pay for court-ordered infrastructure upgrades.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-metro-subway-shutdown-20180212-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-water-cost-study-20171215-story.htmlhttps://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/baltimore_water_study-final_report-2017.pdf

Aging infrastructure is pushing governments and residents to their limits

The Baltimore Sun reporters who were at the courthouse,\u160\uJustin Fenton and Jean Marbella, share their insights into the guilty verdicts in the Baltimore Police Gun Trace Task Force trial,\u160\uone of the biggest police corruption scandals in recent memory.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-gttf-verdict-20180208-story.html

Pitchers and catchers report to the Orioles' camp in Sarasota next week, with big questions looming about the starting rotation and at least one preseason analysis predicting no more than 70 wins for Buck Showalter's 2018 team. Today on the show: The Sunshine Boys, Sun sports columnist Peter Schmuck and sportswriters Eduardo Encina and Jon Meoli, size up the team and its pitching needs ahead of spring training.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-rotation-comparison-20180207-story.htmlhttp://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/blog/bs-sp-orioles-pecota-2018-20180207-story.htmlhttps://twitter.com/eddieintheyardhttps://twitter.com/schmuckstophttps://twitter.com/jonmeoli

We have no photographs of Larry Hogan and Brian Frosh standing side by side, and that's no accident: Maryland's Republican governor and Democratic attorney general have a chilly history going back 15 years, says Erin Cox, the Sun's State House bureau chief. And that, in part, explains the tension between the two as Frosh sues the Trump administration on 18 fronts and the governor withholds support of the attorney general's challenges to White House policy. The Hogan administration left out of the state budget the $1 million and additional staff the General Assembly promised Frosh to sue the Trump administration.Erin Cox joins Dan to talk about the chill between Hogan and Frosh, the current session of the General Assembly and election-year politics.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-hogan-consumer-protection-trump-lawsuits-20180122-story.html

Almost wiped out centuries ago by fur trappers, beavers have made a comeback in North America, including the Mid-Atlantic and the Chesapeake Region. While many see them as a nuisance -- slayers of trees, builders of dams that flood roads and farm land -- biologists and natural resource managers see good in the beaver comeback. Their dams create rich habitat for other mammals and fish while filtering sediment and damaging nutrients from waters that flow to the Chesapeake Bay.On the show:- Frances Backhouse, a Canadian writer and author of, ----Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver.----- Mike Callahan, founder of the Beaver Institute who has resolved more than 1400 conflicts between beavers and humans.- Scott McGill, founder and CEO of Ecotone, a Maryland-based ecological restoration company that is bullish on the beaver as a benefit to the environment. (Photo courtesy of NPS / Neal Herbert) Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aberdeen-havre-de-grace/ph-ag-beaver-dam-0406-20160407-story.htmlhttps://www.bayjournal.com/article/leaving_it_to_beavers_communities_make_room_for_natural_engineershttps://potomac.org/blog/2016/1/19/beaver-dam-nitrogen-waterhttp://www.backhouse.ca/books/https://www.beaverinstitute.org/https://www.ecotoneinc.com/

The trial of two Baltimore police detectives who were once part of the corrupt Gun Trace Task Force is gaining national, even international attention. More than two dozen witnesses have testified in the federal racketeering\u160\utrial of detectives Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor. Here to bring us up to date on the proceedings and their impact is reporter Justin Fenton.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-gun-trace-task-force-gttf-testimony-highlights-20180126-story.html

Two decades ago, says psychologist Brad Sachs, parents worried about Bart Simpson's ----malevolent influence on developing children.---- Now it's technology — and, specifically, smartphones — that has parents concerned. Sachs, based in Columbia, counsels families, and not surprisingly, the frequent, if not obsessive, use of smartphones is now a common source of tension between parents and their kids. But, if it's a problem, Sachs says, it's a manageable one.Brad Sachs specializes in clinical work with children, adolescents, couples and families. He is the founder and director of The Father Center, a program designed to meet the needs of new fathers. You can find Sachs and a list of the books he’s written on his website.Links: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bs-ed-teens-phones-20161026-story.htmlhttp://www.drbradsachs.com

What's your favorite comfort food for a winter weekend? A lot of people would quickly mention mac-and-cheese. Others might favor a stew, soup or savory pasta dish. On this weekend episode: John Shields, of Gertrude's restaurant in Baltimore, offers a comforting potato dish from his ancestral home in Ireland, while Henry Hong, the Food Nerd, suggests a chicken casserole passed down from his wife's grandmother. Dan offers polenta and minestrone.Links:http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/dan-rodricks-blog/bs-md-rodricks-0126-story.html