Dan Rodricks

Russo February 27th was a sad anniversary in Baltimore — the night in 1981 when “the five-dollar doc” of Harford Road, Dr. Sebastian Russo, was shot to death in his office. I covered the story way back when, attended and wrote about Dr. Russo’s funeral at St. Dominic’s. The story gave me a real sense … Continue reading The unsolved murder of the five-dollar doc

The woman featured in my Sunday column, Tammy Finci, said something that stopped me: She hoped people would not think less of her because her father, the late David Gibbs, turned out to be a criminal -- in fact, a serial holdup man and convicted murderer who was one of Maryland's longest-serving inmates. (He's the … Continue reading The only shame is the shame we bring on ourselves

The great fraud that is Fox “News” — a cable propaganda machine posing as a news channel supposedly practicing professional journalism — has been exposed in a legal filing by Dominion Voting Systems in its defamation suit against the Murdoch media machine. Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Rupert Murdoch — they all thought claims … Continue reading Never rooted for a plaintiff in a media defamation case — until Dominion v. Fox “News”

My latest column in The Sun went online before the Harford County Council met on Tuesday evening to consider, among other things, the nomination of Joe Cassilly, the elder brother of the new county executive, to a seat on the county’s Board of Ethics. It would be a fine nomination, if you don’t mind the … Continue reading Cassilly withdraws from consideration for an ethics post. That’s good, and here’s why.

Dates have been set for performances of two plays by Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks — a second run of “Baltimore, You Have No Idea” in December 2023 and a new play, “Baltimore Docket,” for February 2024. Both plays will be staged in the theater of the Baltimore Museum of Art. “Baltimore, You Have No … Continue reading Dates set for two plays by Dan Rodricks

Johnson My weekend column is about a young man named Ryan Johnson, formerly of Baltimore and pre-med studies at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the hit-and-run car crash that, for the time being, has left his dreams for a career in neurosurgery on hold. When he originally contacted me, it was to tell of the accident and … Continue reading Two men named Ryan relate their experiences with dangerous drivers and poor police response

From The Washington Post: On Jan. 27, 1973, with U.S. involvement in Vietnam over, Defense Secretary Melvin Laird declared the end of the military draft, after 25 uninterrupted years of conscription. “I wish to inform you,” Laird said, “that the Armed Forces henceforth will depend exclusively on volunteer soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.” The decision … Continue reading The draft ended 50 years ago. We need a new Selective Public Service.

Look at a map of the huge Maryland portion of the Chesapeake Bay and there are numerous places where you could make a crossing by boat in a reasonable amount of time. But since the 1950s, when the first Bay Bridge was completed — the second span opened in 1973 — we’ve been sending all … Continue reading Electric Ferries: Not the name of a rock band. A solution to Chesapeake Bay Bridge traffic.

In answering questions about his new book for my Sunday Sun column, Ben Jealous mentioned, as he has on occasion, that he was a stutterer. I remember him talking about this during his unsuccessful run for Maryland governor in 2018, after the incumbent, Republican Larry Hogan, released a negative campaign commercial mocking Jealous for speaking … Continue reading Overcoming a childhood stutter helped Ben Jealous write his new book about getting past racism