Policy

Award-winning journalist Nancy Mullane tells the story of five convicted murderers sentenced to life with the possibility of parole and how their second chance, if it comes at all, is a massive struggle for redemption. Once a murderer, always a murderer? Who do these men become during decades in prison? What does it take for a killer to be accepted back into society?

The Baltimore City Council is considering a bill that would require restaurants to post health inspection grades. It has broad support in the City Council, as well as from the Mayor’s office, and the Health Department. But, some restaurant owners oppose the measure.

In four weeks, Maryland voters will decide whether some undocumented immigrants should receive in-state tuition rates for higher education. A new report out of University of Maryland-Baltimore County examines what economic impact the so-called Dream Act would have if voters approve it.  We talk with the head researchers.

Then, Nathan talks with Baltimore Sun technology reporter and blogger Gus Sentementes about the month in tech news.

And, J. Wynn Rousuck reviews Center Stage’s production of Arthur Miller’s “An Enemy of the People.”

Medicare reform has become a central issue in the presidential campaign with both candidates vying for the senior vote. The Romney team accuses President Obama of gutting Medicare to pay for Obamacare while the President says he’s strengthening the program. The future of Medicare, and the facts about how the Affordable Health Care Act will change it, with Jonathan Weiner and Brad Herring, professors in health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

In 2008, 100 college and university presidents signed a petition to have the national drinking age lowered to 18 in an attempt to better control the underage drinking on their campuses. Met with resistance from groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the idea has gained little traction since then. Meanwhile, in the first two weeks of the new semester, 28 University of Maryland students were hospitalized due to alcohol poisoning. A look at binge drinking on college campuses, how drinking habits of young people in the U.S.

With the end to the American surge in Afghanistan, the 33,000 additional troops sent to the war-torn country two years ago by President Obama have returned home. This still leaves 68,000 troops there, with no foreseeable resolution in sight, and little attention paid by American politicians and the public to that area of the world.  This hour, NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman on the end and the effect of the surge, the recent increase in insider (the so-called “green on blue”) attacks, what’s next and why the topic is rarely discussed by candidates.

Here's an essay from Maryland Morning producer Lawrence Lanahan about why he wanted WYPR to make a platform for a sustained conversation about inequality in the Baltimore region:

Garrett Epps, a journalist and legal scholar based at the University of Baltimore, tackles what he calls the most prevalent myths about the U.S. Constitution advanced by Fox News, radio hosts, conservative think tanks and so-called tea party patriots and the politicians who pander to them. Epps, a frequent contributor to The Atlantic, describes how this misinformation is playing out on the campaign trail and suggests ways of countering right-wing myth-making about the law of the land.

Midday092412_Hr_1_ConstitutionalMyths.mp3

On November 6, some Maryland voters, once they get through picking a presidential candidate, and a Senator, and a Congressperson, and, uh, something about orphans court judges, and referenda about redistricting and gambling and same-sex marriage and and and…

How voters can inform themselves about bond issues

Roy Meyers on whether voters should have more input via ballot on borrowing

Roy Meyers on what can lead to a bond's demise