Herb Smith

Occupy Baltimore has been evicted. A look at what's next for the movement. And, the Maryland General Assembly returns to Annapolis on January 11. With same-sex marriage proponents pushing to get a marriage equality bill passed this year (and with Governor O'Malley's announcement that he would sponsor such a bill), same-sex marriage could end up alongside the Dream Act for voter referendum on the 2012 ballot. Could this help or hurt either cause?

The weekly Midday news review sticks to one big subject -- the financial crisis and its economic and political ramifications, in Maryland, across the country and abroad. We're joined again by Baltimore Sun business columnist and blogger Jay Hancock, and by Herb Smith, longtime political observer, professor of political science at McDaniel College and co-author of the forthcoming "Maryland Politics and Government: Democratic Dominance".