Midday

An appreciation of Bernard Hermann, the acclaimed American composer noted for his Academy Award-winning work in motion pictures, particularly those of Alfred Hitchcock (Psycho, North by Northwest, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo). Hermann also composed the music for Citizen Kane, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Cape Fear, and Taxi Driver.

The origins of the civil rights movement can be traced back to the “red summer” of 1919, when race riots erupted across the country, according to our guest, Wall Street Journal staff reporter Cameron McWhirter. McWhirter is the author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America.

Fern Shen, editor of Baltimore Brew, and Doug Donovan, regional editor of Patch.com, join WYPR listeners in discussing:

• BGE's performance in restoring electrical power to hundreds of thousands of customers in the wake of Irene
• The campaign for Baltimore mayor

Veteran racing writer Sandra McKee of the Baltimore Sun sizes up the drivers and their teams for the first Baltimore Grand Prix, and we provide almost everything you need to know about attending (or avoiding) the IndyCar races this weekend.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry says he doesn't fully believe in the theory of evolution and he considers global warming a hoax. With Perry and another global warming denier, Rep. Michele Bachmann, gaining ground as they seek the Republican presidential nomination -- and with Mitt Romney changing his tune on climate change -- we wonder what happens if an anti-science conservative were to win the White House in 2012. Another moratorium on stem cell research? Drastic cuts in research funding? More delays in addressing climate change?

WYPR brings you a rebroadcast of last night's 2011 Baltimore Mayoral Forum, which took place at the Enoch Pratt Free Library, and was moderated by Dan Rodricks.

Brought to you by the League of Women Voters, WYPR and the Baltimore Sun.

John Tirman talks about what few Americans care to talk about – civilian deaths in war. He wonders why that is too – why we respond with concern and charity when civilians are harmed by hurricanes and earthquakes, but why we seem wholly indifferent to civilians who are the casualties of wars in which the United States provides the main military force. Do you know how many civilians died between the Persian Gulf War and the post-9/11 war in Iraq? Why isn’t the issue of collateral damage to civilian populations part of public debate?

Elected at large, the presiding officer of the City Council makes more than $100,000 a year, has a seat on the fiscally-powerful Board of Estimates and is by charter next in line should a vacancy occur in the the city’s highest office. The last two people elected City Council president -- Sheila Dixon and Stephanie Rawlings-Blake -- became mayor. In this hour, we meet five of the eight candidates: Lorenzo Gaztanaga (L), Armand Girard (R), Charles U. Smith (D), Renold B. Smith (D) and David Anthony Wiggins (R). The present City Council president, Bernard C.

An account from medical historian Howard Markel about the years-long cocaine use of neurologist Sigmund Freud and of William Halstead, the ambitious surgeon and one of the "Big Four" founding professors of Johns Hopkins Hospital. A look at the physical and emotional damage caused by the then-heralded wonder drug, and how each man ultimately changed the world in spite of it — or because of it. Markel is author of the book An Anatomy of Addiction: Sigmund Freud, William Halstead, and the Miracle Drug Cocaine.

Midday brings you a Tropical Storm Irene follow-up with the latest on power outages with Rob Gould from BGE, best practices when driving through intersections in areas without power with Greg Shipley from the Department of Maryland State Police, an update on Ocean City with OC Mayor Richard Meehan, and a hurricane consumer warning from the Maryland State Attorney General's office, with Karen Straughn, director of the Consumer Protection Division Mediation Unit.