Maryland’s gubernatorial race, opioid addiction, March for Our Lives and more
??? for Governor
Maryland’s Democratic gubernatorial primary race is wide open, according to a poll by Goucher College released just days before the campaign filing deadline. Nearly half of the Democrats who are likely to vote in the primary say they have no preference among the seven candidates in the race, and the majority say they don’t know enough about the candidates to form an opinion, according to The Washington Post. The poll, which was released on Thursday, asked Democrats whom they would select if the election were held today. Forty-seven percent said they were undecided or had no preference, a statistically insignificant change from September, when a Goucher poll found 44 percent had no preference. Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III fares the best among the potential Democratic challengers, with 19 percent saying they support his campaign. Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz receives 12 percent and former NAACP president Ben Jealous follows with 10 percent. The poll found the rest of the field in the single digits. Tech entrepreneur Alec Ross has 3 percent support, while state Sen. Richard S. Madaleno Jr., attorney James Shea and former Michelle Obama aide Krishanti Vignarajah each received 2 percent. In another Goucher poll released earlier this week, Gov. Larry Hogan’s approval rating remained strong and unchanged since September, at 61 percent. But the poll also found that the Republican incumbent’s chance of reelection is not certain. Forty-seven percent of Marylanders say they are “leaning toward or will definitely vote” to re-elect Hogan to a second term, while 43 percent say they are leaning toward or will definitely vote for a different candidate.
Read more: Goucher Poll: Race for Maryland Democratic gubernatorial nomination is wide open
6 degrees of opioid addiction
In a staggering look at the opioid crisis gripping the state, a little more than half of Marylanders say they personally know someone who has been addicted to opioids, according to a new poll, according to Baltimore Fishbowl. Eighty-two percent of respondents say they view the opioid addiction crisis as a major problem, and an almost identical number, 81 percent, say medical care is needed to treat addiction, according to the new Goucher Poll. Pollsters from the college surveyed 800 Marylanders from Feb. 12-17. The number of opioid-related deaths in Maryland has spiked in recent years, according to data released by the Maryland Department of Health. From January to September of last year, the most recent period for which data is available, 1,501 people died, an increase from 1,344 people during the same period in 2016. Overall, there were 1,856 opioid-related deaths in 2016, a stark increase from 1,089 the year prior, according to health department data. Heroin and fentanyl have proved to be the most fatal. Baltimore had a total of 986 deaths related to heroin, fentanyl and other prescription opioids that year, the most of any jurisdiction in the state.
Read more: Half of Marylanders say they know someone who has been addicted to opioids
Spielberg, Katzenberg each pledge $500K to gun control march by Fla. students
Director Steven Spielberg and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg have pledged $500,000 each to the student-organized March For Our Lives imploring action on gun control. The nationwide protest scheduled for March 24 is the brainchild of the Never Again movement organized by the student survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., and joined by students from across Florida and the United States. In their announcements on Feb. 21, Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, and Katzenberg and his wife, Marilyn, joined stars such as George Clooney and his wife, Amal, and Oprah Winfrey in pledging $500,000 to offset costs of the protest. Seventeen students and teachers were killed and at least a dozen others wounded in a shooting rampage Feb. 14 at the school by a 19-year-old expelled student with a legally purchased AR-15 assault rifle. The march to demand action on gun control will take place in Washington, D.C., and other cities. Students nationally also plan a walkout from school on March 14.–JTA
Chabad security footage shows school shooter ‘casually walking by’
A Chabad center in Coral Springs, Fla., may have evidence that can help police bring the Parkland high school shooter to justice. When Rabbi Hershy Bronstein of the Chai Center Chabad saw in a report from the local sheriff’s office that a suspect had been arrested at a McDonald’s across the street from his building, he checked security camera footage to see if it contained any evidence that could help police, Chabad.org reported. The camera footage showed suspect Nikolas Cruz, 19, walking down the street and into McDonalds after the Feb. 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Cruz reportedly had purchased a drink at a Subway located in a Walmart along the route before entering the McDonalds. Bronstein shared the footage with the FBI, as well as news media outlets. “They told me it could be an important part of the case,” Bronstein told VIN. “If he takes an insanity plea, the confident way he is walking could prove otherwise.”—JTA
Spanish institution aims to boost Ladino with academy in Israel
The Royal Spanish Academy, the main institution that establishes and reinforces the use of the Spanish language worldwide, announced the creation of the National Ladino Academy in Israel. The new academy was announced on Feb. 20 by the Royal Spanish Academy’s director and the president of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, Darío Villanueva. Israel will be the 24th branch of the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, or ASALE. Based in Madrid, Spain, the Royal Spanish Academy centralized the normative use of the language among 23 national institutions of the Hispanic world, mostly located in Central America and Latin America. The announcement means that more than 500 years after King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain in 1492, the language of Spanish Jews will be honored by the leading linguistic authority of Spanish worldwide based in the capital of Spain. Ladino, sometimes referred to as Judeo-Spanish, is an endangered species in the linguistic world. Some estimates say that fewer than 100,000 people currently know how to speak Ladino. “The creation of this academy in Israel will be an extraordinary step that will not only serve to boost philological studies on Judeo-Spanish, but will give it greater prestige in Spain, in Israel, and in Spanish-speaking countries,” said the Israeli ambassador in Spain, Daniel Kutner. Two months ago, the Royal Spanish Academy added the words “kosher” and “hummus” to the latest update of the online version of its official dictionary.–JTA
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Former Baltimorean Mindy Sager Dickler, who made aliyah in 2021, writes about the experience of living in Israel over the past week.
The city’s not a winner when little girls can’t walk through a shopping mall with their mothers without getting shot, writes Michael Olesker.
When interviewing for a job, focus on everything you have to offer a prospective employer, advises Karen Hammer of the Ignite Career Center.
Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev writes about leading Beth Tfiloh's recent mission to Israel and the resilience of the Jewish people during the most challenging of times.