October, 2007

Last month MICA and the Maryland ACLU teamed up to put together a rather unusual celebration for Constitution Day, a holiday that not many people bother to celebrate in the first place.  They put together an event devoted to the First Amendment, and the right of free speech.  Who better to speak on this topic than the trio of John Waters, Ralph Nader, and Helen Thomas?  That's what someone thought, at least, and they were all brought together for a couple hours.  It turned out great; the auditorium at MICA couldn't even fit everyone who tried to get in.  So, for those of you that missed it the first time, we'll be playing it as a two hour special, from noon-2, on The Marc Steiner Show today.  To hear the complete version, because we had to cut a little bit for time and edit a few words here and there, ironically enough, just go to www.wypr.org and download the podcast anytime in the next month.

-Justin

Michael Sarbanes was kind enough to sit down in the next studio over with WYPR senior news producer, Mary Rose Madden, right after the Marc Steiner Show today.  Click here for the audio of their conversation, which includes additional ideas from him on the land bank plan, including any loose ends that he felt were left at the end of the show.

-Justin

Assuming each of these Democrat nominees wins the general election next month, there will be four newly elected City Council members in Baltimore.  Today at 1pm you'll have a chance to find out more about three of them, and the ideas they will be bringing to the City Council.  Sharon Middleton is already serving on the Council, having been appointed to fill a seat left vacant last January.  She'll be here along with newbies Bill Cole and Bill Henry.

As for the fourth, Warren Branch, he'll remain a bit of a mystery to our listeners, but not for lack of an invitation.  You can read an article here in The Sun about the city public works inspector's primary victory over incumbent Vernon Crider by a mere 51 votes.  If you're googling him, don't confuse him with bodybuilder Branch Warren.

-Justin

 Some interesting stats on vacant houses and property in Baltimore:

• 13% of the total property in the city is abandoned

• there are about 30,ooo abandoned buildings and lots in Baltimore

• the city owns about 1/3 of the abandoned property

• the city owns about 4,000 abandoned buildings and 6,000 abandoned lots

• the city owns about 25% of vacant buildings

All of these figures are taken from here, the Housing Authority's "A Plan to Create The Baltimore City Land Bank."  Basically, the city is planning to sell many of its vacant properties cheaply as soon as next July.  The city is also planning to acquire more vacant properties, with the intention of selling them, as well.

If you're wondering if and how you'll be able to buy a cheap house to fix up, tune in at noon today, when the author of the Land Bank Plan and the head of Baltimore Housing, as well as housing activist Michael Sarbanes, will be here to help us figure out how this is all going to work.

And for a look at a land bank program that has already been implemented in Flint, Michigan, another town full of abandoned properties, take a listen to this story from Morning Edition today.

-Justin

A special legislative session begins in Annapolis today, and while that might not be the most exciting news to everyone, it may end up having an impact on your daily life in more ways than one.  The goal of the session is to work toward balancing the state budget, which means finding more revenue than the state is currently taking in.  So, by the time it's over, we could see things like an increase in different kinds of taxes, whether it be sales tax, personal income tax, or business taxes.  Once again, for the millionth time, bringing slots to Maryland will be considered and debated, with the possibility of a statewide voter referendum.

This hour we'll be focusing on the business side of the equation.  Are businesses taxed fairly?  What that means depends who you ask, of course, so at noon we'll be seeking some varied opinions.  Call in or write us here to let us know what you think.

An article in the Wall Street Journal last week about Wal Mart's agressive strategies to cut their state income tax bills got us talking about some of the ideas we'll be exploring today.  Wall Street Journal doesn't have free online archives, but thanks to walmartwatch.com the article is reprinted here in its entirety, along with other related articles.

-Justin

Sister Helen Prejean is our guest today.  She's the nun whose work with death row inmates was profiled in the Academy Award winning movie Dead Man Walking.  She joined Marc to talk about the death penalty, and why she believes it is not only morally wrong but replete with racial, economic, and geographic disparity as a result of a broken judicial system. 

-Jessica

Sunday, October 28 at 8:30 pm at the Charles Theater and Tapas Teatro, the Maryland Film Festival will hold its first fundraising event. One of the highlights will be a panel discussion entitled The Rothman's: An Insider's Look at the Movie Business. The talk will feature Donald Rothman, founding partner of the law firm Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, and one of the founding members of CENTERSTAGE. Also taking part are his sons John Rothman an actor.writer and producer and Tom Rothman, Co-Chair of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Entertainment.

In preparation for Sunday's program, Marc spoke with the Rothmans and Jed Deitz, director of the Maryland Film Festival.

                                                                                                                              -Marcus

You heard Marc's short interview with the Rothmans today--now hear the full version online!  Just click here.

Sunday, October 28 at 8:30pm at the Charles Theater and Tappas Teatro the Maryland Film Festival will hold its first fundraising event. One of the events will be a panel discussion entitled The Rothman’s An Insiders Look at the Movie Business.  The discussion will feature Donald Rothman, founding partner of Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger and Hollander. Also taking part are his sons John Rothman an actor/writer and producer and Tom Rothman, Co-Chair of Twentieth Century-Fox Film Entertainment.

Enjoy!

You may have heard Marc interview Roger Kamenetz in the past.  He's best known for two of his books, The Jew in The Lotus and Stalking Elijah.  His newest book is all about interpreting dreams in the context of spirituality.  It's called The History of Last Night's Dream.

It's crazy to think that we all spend about a third of our lives asleep, and who knows how much of that time dreaming, but most of us give it so little thought during the other two thirds of our lives, when we're awake.  I rarely remember my dreams past the moment I wake up, but if anyone has had any interesting experiences with dreams lately, we'd love to hear about it.

-Justin

Today we're discussing what is probably one of the uglier topics to be discussed.  Rape.

Some interesting things in the news lately:

• Students at University of Maryland are protesting because they feel they should be able to name their alleged assailants on a public forum.  The University of Maryland disagrees. Learn more.
• The Court of Appeals is currently considering a case, Baby v. State (pdf)that came to them from the Court of Special Appeals that says that post-penetration rape basically doesn't exist.  Maryland currently says that if a woman gives or indicates initial consent, she cannot withdraw it after she is penetrated.  Why?  According to the Court of Special Appeals, which based their unwillingness to call this rape based on the outcome of a 198o case Battle v. State:

“The concept, undergirding the Battle holding, rooted in ancient laws  by English common law, views the initial ‘deflowering’ of  as the real harm or insult which must be redressed by compensating, in legal contemplation, the injured party – the father or husband. … [I]t was the act of penetration that was the essence of the crime of rape; after this initial infringement upon the responsible male’s interest in a woman’s sexual and reproductive functions, any further injury was considered to be less consequential."

                      -from Court of Special Appeals, Opinion by J. Davis, filed February 9, 2007

I mean WOW, just WOW.  Right? 

Join us today.  We're going to be talking about rape in the modern world--how we deal with it socially and legally.  How does our culture treat people who allege they were victimized?  How do we treat alleged assailants? 

Here is a link to the op-edwritten in The Baltimore Sun by Glenn Sacks, one of our guests, in which he supports the University of Maryland's decision to deny protesters a forum to publicly name alleged rapists.

Bring your comments and questions....

-Jessica

Of all the people in the world who love to spout off about politics, few make a living doing it.  Even fewer get paid to do it in The New York Times twice a week.  This Paul Krugman must be a pretty smart guy.

He certainly has a lot to say.  Click here to see his work for The NY Times, and also a link to Krugman on The Colbert Report!  Click here for his own page with an extremely extensive archive of his writing.  There is even an official Krugman site with tons of archives, other people's writing about Krugman, and much more.  Click here for that.

Lastly, for a review of his new book, The Conscience of a Liberal, on salon.com, click here.

And, of course, tune in at noon today to here Paul Krugman on The Marc Steiner Show, then share your thoughts right here.

-Justin

Today we are talking with one of the finest photographers working in journalism today.
Her name is Diana Walker and she is a contract photographer for Time Magazine. She's spent over two decades covering the White House, and has photographed Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton. Today she is joining us because of her new book The Bigger Picture: 30 years of Portraits. It's an amazing book, and she is full of amazing stories of behind the scenes on the campaign trail and behind the public face of public officials.

National Geographic, which published the book, was kind enough to share with us some of the photographs in the book. Just click here to check them out!

Want to meet Diana? She'll be doing a talk and book signing at Politics & Prose in Washington D.C. on November 11th. Call 202.364.1919 for more information.

-Jessica

The recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to former Vice-President Al Gore and climatologists, conitinues to strengthen the need for worldwide awareness of global warming.

Global warming has been most noticeable in the Antarctic. Significant changes in the environment have resulted in the melting of the polar ice caps, increased water levels and the threat of extinction to animal life. Marc's guest this hour is award-wining photographer, lecturer and environmental activist Sebastian Copeland. In his new book Antarctica: the Global Warning Copeland documents in photos and text, his personal insights about the increasingly rapid pace at which the arctic regions are melting.

- Marcus

Related Links

Sebastian Copeland interview on You Tube

Sebastian Copeland Photography

Antarctica: The Global Warning

In the 1930's Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers personified the elegance and sophistication of ballroom dancing. Over time, partnered social dancing gave way to people dancing apart. However, the popularity of movies like Strictly Ballroom, Dance With Me and Shall We Dance, as well the television show Dancing With the Stars has lead to a resurgence in the popularity of ballroom dancing. Join Marc and his guests this hour as they trip the light fantastic and discuss ballroom dancing.                                                                                                                            

                                                                                                                            -Marcus

Related links

Arthur Murray Dance Studios

The Promenade Dancesport Facility

Main Entry: im·passe

Pronunciation:

\ˈim-ˌpas, im-ˈ\

Function:

noun

Etymology:

French, from in- + passer to pass

Date:

1851

1 a: a predicament affording no obvious escape b: deadlock2: an impassable road or way : cul-de-sac

Thanks to Webster's for the above definition.  Impasse is the word of choice for the contract dispute between the Baltimore Teachers Union and the Baltimore City Public School System.  If you are not a teacher or school administrator, you might be wondering what is such a big deal about some planning time that it is stalling the entire contract negotiation process, leaving teachers working without contracts.

I'm sure that our two guests today, BCPSS CEO Andres Alonso, and BTU President Marietta English can shed some light on the issue for you.  We'd love to hear thoughts from parents, students, teachers, and school administrators about how they view this dispute, and how the impasse is effecting them.  Call 410-662-8780 during the show at noon today, or leave your thoughts here on the blog!

Poll: Who should have their way in this situation?

-Justin

When this book came in, I was immediately transfixed.  We get a lot of books coming through everyday, and when a pretty one comes in, it's a nice break from the policy tomes we see all the time.  But this book goes so far beyond that.  It is way more than pretty pictures.  It's a poetic argument in favor of reinvigorating architecture with a sense of purpose and spirit.  It's a passionate plea from an architect who is seeing our world become increasingly devoid of metaphor and grace.

This book is so visually stunning, and the conversation is bound to focus on a lot of the images of the buildings that Travis Price has designed and built.  He was kind enough to let us use some of his images to create a little visual exploration for our blog readers.  Just click here and enjoy!

Join us on air or here in the blog to talk about your favorite buildings, what you think about American design today, and whether or not you think our world has lost it's way in terms of design.

And don't forget to become or renew your membership!

-Jessica

Something interesting to check out this weekend..

October 19-21 at MICA: Baltimore Bioneers '07: Cultivating Change.  Inspiring Solutions.

Over the course of three days, the 2007 Baltimore Bioneers program will feature an unforgettable array of some of the most insightful, inspiring innovators working to change the region and the world. We will witness how the power of collaboration across all disciplines can solve problems that some think are unchangeable. We will realize that we are the leaders we are looking for and we will make our vision for restoring the Earth a reality. register here >>

This conference features a live satellite downlink of the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael, CA. Visit the Bioneers website at www.bioneers.org for more information about the conference and our partnership.

If this picture triggers horrible flashbacks to your school cafeteria lunch days, I'm sorry.  If this picture looks like your lunch today, I'm also sorry.  If this picture is making you hungry and you're offended by the first two sentences, I'm sorry, as well.

I never had cafeterias in my elementary schools, so I always had to bring lunch to school.  So, I don't have memories of frozen peas, carrots, corn, processed meat, cheese, white bread, boxes of milk, and whatever the hell is in the top right corner of that tray.  Jello?  Probably...

The contradiction between people's desires to raise healthy kids and the food we feed kids, whether in school or at home, is one of those things you might not ever think about, but once you do, it's hard not to wonder what on earth we're doing.  If we want kids to be healthy, why are school lunches notoriously unhealthy?  Why are kids menus full of fried, greasy, fatty foods like pizza, french fries, and chicken nuggets?  Why do we assume these are the types of foods that kids naturally like?

At 1pm today, we'll talk about some different approaches to feeding kids, again, both in and out of school.  For some interesting ideas, check out The Food Studies Institute, started by one of our guests today, Antonia Demas.

If you're a parent, what have your experiences been when it comes to feeding your kids?  Are you happy with the food that they're given in school?

-Justin

Marc's guest this hour is Jayne Miller, Chief Investigative Reporter for WBAL-TV. City Paper has named her one of Baltimore's best reporters. Jayne Miller's work as a general assignment reporter, consumer advocate and investigative reporter has earned numerous awards and resulted in changes in legislation and public policy.

                                                                                                                                     -Marcus

Today at noon we are talking with 1/2 of Maryland's representation in the House.  We'll hear from Chris Van Hollen, Elijah Cummings, Wayne Gilchrist, and John Sarbanes.  Topics?  Iraq, SCHIP, Iran, veterans issues, and whatever you choose to bring to the table!

-Jessica