Roughly Speaking

Call it beginner’s luck, but rookie Lamar Jackson’s record-breaking 2018 season left the Ravens management wanting more. So much more, in fact, that they traded veteran quarterback Joe Flacco for a fourth-round NFL draft pick and did not play him after he recovered from his week 9 hip injury — a decision that many criticized during the infamous Wild Card Round playoff game against the Los Angeles Chargers, which ended in a 23-17 defeat. With Flacco’s departure, the team has vowed to head in a “new direction,” with Jackson at the helm. Outside of the Ravens’ administration, not everyone is as confident in this rebranding effort or Jackson’s ability to carry an offense — much less get through a game without fumbling. However, the team’s management, now headed by new general manager Eric DeCosta, is sticking by its decision.Ravens beat reporter Jonas Shaffer joins Roughly Speaking host Pamela Wood to discuss the Ravens’ big gamble on Lamar Jackson and other important decisions that the team has made as it enters the 2019 season.

How will history remember Pugh? Baltimore Sun reporters Luke Broadwater and Ian Duncan join Pamela Wood to discuss the many shades of Pugh’s legacy. Then, editorial page editor Andy Green joins to comment on the kind of leader the city seeks to move it forward.

Many woke up Thursday to the news that federal law enforcement agents had raided multiple locations in Baltimore with ties to Mayor Catherine Pugh, who has been on a leave of absence as mayor for the past four weeks. The raids confirmed that federal as well as state officials were investigating Pugh’s activities. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, all members of the Baltimore City Council and several other state officials have called for Pugh’s resignation. Her attorney, Steve Silverman said she was not “lucid” enough to make a decision about stepping down. But that could change by next week, he said.On this episode: Baltimore Sun politics reporters Pamela Wood and Luke Broadwater break down this week’s dramatic crescendo and what pieces of information have yet to come to light.

Two prominent Maryland figures entered the spotlight this week, albeit for very different reasons. Days after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan's return from New Hampshire, an early-caucus state considered a ----must---- stop for potential presidential candidates, federal law enforcement agents spread out across Baltimore, raiding City Hall and other several other locations with connections to Mayor Catherine Pugh. It was the first confirmation that federal authorities, as well as state officials, were investigating the mayor's activities, who has been on a leave of absence as she recovers from pneumonia for four weeks.On this episode, Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks discusses the high-profile moments-in-parallel with McDaniel College political science professor Herb Smith, Sun editorial page editor Andy Green and Sun State House bureau reporter Luke Broadwater.

On April 27, 2015, the day of Freddie Gray’s funeral in Baltimore, police and youth clashed near the Mondawmin metro stop in a skirmish that would thrust the city into the international spotlight. For four years, police, youth and others there that day has shared their version of events, leaving unanswered questions. Who, in reality, initiated the confrontation? And who was responsible for shutting down the transit service that day, a decision that left many high school students stranded in the center of the clashes?Baltimore Sun reporter Kevin Rector has sought to review surveillance footage from that day to paint a clearer picture. The Maryland Transit Administration continues to deny that request. But for the first time, the MTA has released records related to the April 2015 unrest that provide new insights, and revive old questions, about one of the most controversial and consequential moments in Baltimore’s history. Rector sits down with Roughly Speaking host Pamela Wood to discuss the findings and provide insight into a four-year-long hunt for surveillance video that he and many others believe they are entitled to view.

For the first time, the MTA has released records related to the April 2015 unrest.

In the final episode of ----Roughly Speaking: Government Edition,---- Baltimore Sun State House reporters Luke Broadwater and Pamela Wood talk with Goucher College pollster Mileah Kromer about the legacy of House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch. He presided over a progressive agenda as speaker that included ending the death penalty, decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana, legalizing same-sex marriage and in this session raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.----Roughly Speaking: Government Edition---- is a partnership between the Baltimore Sun and Goucher College that will run during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session.

Overriding Gov. Hogan's vetoes, the failure of medically assisted suicide and the ----joint chiefs---- in Annapolis: In the penultimate (13th) episode of ----Roughly Speaking: Government Edition,---- Baltimore Sun State House reporter Luke Broadwater and Goucher College pollster Mileah Kromer talk about the Democratic-controlled legislature's override of Gov. Larry Hogan's vetoes, including the $15 minimum wage, and the failure of medically assisted suicide. Sun politics reporter Pamela Wood joins to discuss several gun control measures and the debate over whether school should start after Labor Day. The show's guests are two of the most influential, but little-known people in Annapolis: Alexandra M. Hughes, the chief of staff for House of Delegates Speaker Michael Busch, and Jake Weissmann, the chief of staff for Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller. Among other topics, they discuss the evolving scandal rocking the University of Maryland Medical System over allegations of ----self-dealing---- and no-bid contracting among board members, including Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh.----Roughly Speaking: Government Edition---- is a partnership between the Baltimore Sun and Goucher College that will run during the 90-day Maryland General Assembly session.

Overriding Gov. Hogan's vetoes, the failure of medically assisted suicide and the "joint chiefs

The uber-musical “Hamilton” comes to Baltimore’s Hippodrome Theater in June, and in this episode of the show: Some Maryland history related to Alexander Hamilton, founder of the nation’s financial system and its first Secretary of the Treasury. In McCulloch v. Maryland, a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court in the winter of 1819, statesman Daniel Webster defended the legitimacy of a national bank that had opened a branch in Baltimore. The Maryland General Assembly, sympathetic to struggling state bankers, had tried to tax the federal bank out of existence. Webster invoked Hamilton’s belief in the ----implied powers---- of the Constitution to broadly define the national government’s supremacy over the states. As a result, McCulloch is considered one of the most important Supreme Court decisions in history.Our guest, Kathleen Day, covers the decision in her new book of American financial history.A long-time journalist, Day is now on the faculty of the Johns Carey Business School, where she lectures on the history of the country’s banking system and why financial crises keep happening. Her book, ----Broken Bargain -- Bankers, Bailouts and the Struggle to Tame Wall Street,---- was published earlier this year by Yale University Press.