Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and U.S. Representative for Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District, Dutch Ruppersberger, spoke to a full auditorium in Van Bokkelen Hall on Thursday afternoon. Rhetoric and Communication professor Richard Vatz invited the politicians to speak to and take questions from students. Pelosi had strong opinions regarding […]
A Maryland summer is defined by one thing: crabs. Summer after summer, foreign seasonal workers arrive at Maryland’s Eastern Shore. They gather around large steel tables at various crab-picking houses and extract the crab meat from its shell, so it can be sold to seafood shops, restaurants and hotels. Not this summer, though. This summer, […]
Lee Connor, a freight forwarder and customs broker at the Port of Baltimore, says it’s too early to gauge the whole impact President Donald Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and other products could have on trade through the booming shipping hub. But already, he says, he’s seen some effects. Connor, president of the century-old John […]
The Voting Rights Act (VRA) is one of the most important civil rights laws in the history of our nation. It broke down barriers at the ballot box. It ensured that states with a history of discrimination couldn’t block people from exercising their right to vote. The right to vote is fundamental to our democracy […]
When the next national security crisis happens, I want our president and his security team to tap the wisdom and experience of people who have been there — people like former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden, former CIA director John Brennan, former director of national intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. and former national security adviser […]
Last month, before the Trump administration stopped forcibly separating immigrant families, I visited a detention center in Glen Burnie, Maryland. What I found there was beyond disturbing. I met two men who’d been separated from their children. One was fleeing gang violence in his native country with his 7-year-old son. They were arrested at the […]
This week we witnessed the most shameful performance by an American president I’ve ever seen. President Trump stood next to Vladimir Putin and said he did not believe Russia interfered in our elections…because Putin told him so. The CIA, FBI, NSA, among others, have shown ironclad evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election. 12 […]
You may have heard that embattled EPA administrator Scott Pruitt finally decided to step down. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that he was allowed to serve for so long and resign. After the abuses of his position in terms of spending, trading in favors, and trading our environmental security to big polluters, he should have been fired […]
Yesterday I visited two detainees at an ICE detention facility in Maryland. They were both fathers who had been separated from their children and neither knew where their children were or how they were doing. Heartbreaking doesn’t even begin to describe the pain I felt during our hour-long conversation. Under absolutely no circumstance should children […]
This week the House Intelligence Committee abruptly shut down its investigation of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. They came to the conclusion that Russia did not try and help the Trump campaign. Case closed. Except, there’s a glaring problem. The House Intelligence Committee’s findings contradict the U.S. intelligence community’s and Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s […]