Midday

The story of the 2009 New Jersey Sting, the corruption scandal that involved 44 people, including dozens of politicians, five Orthodox rabbis, a man from Brooklyn who sold black market kidneys and Solomon Dwek, the informant who n...ow lives in Pikesville. Dwek (right) perpetrated a $50 million Ponzi scheme -- "schnookie deals," he called them -- before copping a plea and wearing a wire as a secret FBI undercover informant, setting up friends, partners, rabbis and politicians.

The value of 1861: The Civil War Awakening is in Adam Goodheart’s solid reporting of lesser-known stories about historical figures and why they mattered," writes our reviewer and special producer for this hour, historian and poet Hollis Robbins. Goodheart, director of Washington College’s C. V. Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, has contributed posts to Disunion, the Civil War series of The New York Times online.

U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin joins us in Studio A to discuss some of the top congressional issues of the day, including: Medicare and the  Ryan budget plan, the debt ceiling, national security and the United States' relationship with Israel.

The Atlantic Ocean has inspired thousands of books, stories, plays, paintings and poems over the years. But author Simon Winchester has come up with something entirely new -- an elegantly written biography of the massive and mighty sea that became the axis of Western Civilization. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms, and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories. Originally broadcast 11-17-10

From homeless runaway to Harvard undergrad, Breaking Night author Liz Murray recounts her remarkable turnaround after growing up the neglected child of drug addicts. Originally broadcast 12-15-10

Memphis, Texas and other locations throughout the south pride themselves on their barbecue. While Maryland is a southern state, where does one go for good barbecue? We’ll embark on this gastronomic quest with Henry Hong, food writer for the Baltimore City Paper. Originally broadcast 6-24-08

Steve Phillips, president and CEO of Phillips Foods, Inc, stops by Studio A to talk about the humble beginnings of his family-owned, Baltimore-headquartered company that now is one of the world’s largest processors of blue swimming crab meat and employs thousands of people worldwide. He’ll also talk about his efforts in sustainability and recent initiatives by US importers to set a minimum size for crabs harvested in Indonesia and the Philippines to prevent the type of overfishing that led to declines in Chesapeake Bay blue crabs. Originally broadcast 4-4-11

A look at some of the most interesting local news stories with the reporters who covered them.

It's another edition of Midday on the Law with attorneys Julie Rubin and Jim Astrachan. Today, the spotlight is on lawsuits against Baltimore police for wrongful arrests and charges against a Maryland doctor for his role in hundreds of assisted suicides.

Marni Nixon has been a renowned voice-over singer for actresses Deborah Kerr, Audrey Hepburn and Natalie Wood in classic Hollywood musical, earning her the nickname “The Voice of Hollywood.”  Before she receives the 2011 George Peabody Medal at this year's Peabody Conservatory graduation she joins us in Studio A to talk about her life and career.