Reed Harrison

The plane / helicopter crash tragedy is getting a lot of coverage on Baltimore’s local news.  Perhaps more than some of my friends see. I was very positively impressed by the job federal, state, and local government agencies and people did and are doing. Reagan National Airport (aka Washington National, aka DCA) sits in Virginia, […]

  I see a lot of Trump bashing on social media, and that’s ok.  But I got thinking about the value of that.    Raising concerns about … and opposing … policies and programs is fine; that’s what the loyal opposition should do.  And in this time of declining mental health, maybe venting makes some

  One thing to be cognizant of.  (Isn’t that a pretty erudite word for a guy educated in small town Western Maryland?)   Congress has repeatedly and successfully tried to limit or reduce the number of federal government employees under the banner of smaller government.  But they missed something.  (If I were a cynic, maybe

  As I understood it, one of President Trump’s big campaign promises was deporting illegal immigrants, with a priority on criminals. Lots and lots of media coverage since the inauguration, most of which was just anecdotal and/or about policy issues.   As an operations hump and a metrics nut, I wondered what the numbers looked

Aside from voting, I’ve never been politically active.  As you may know from my previous posts, for the past couple of years, I’ve been working to implement open primaries in Maryland.  Why?  After some research, I became convinced that open primaries and/or ranked choice voting were effective tools for reducing the hyper partisanship that limits

  I see a lot of hand wringing on social media about Musk and DOGE (the “Department of Government Efficiency”).  Some of it borders on hysteria.    A lot of that hand wringing is about cutting and/or eliminating programs and services.  That’s about the last thing I would do.  But I strongly support taking a

So, I’m reading an article about Medicare Advantage plans in a credible magazine.  (Why in the world am I reading this?  The article caught my eye because I have a Medicare Supplement plan, but my ex-employer has been pushing their Medicare Advantage plan to their retirees.  Some of my former colleagues have switched to it;

Caveats:  1st, the rankings are based on a public opinion poll (17,000 people from 36 countries).  2nd, “best” is in the eye of the beholder.  But the criteria and their weightings are transparent and, from my perspective, sensible. One thing that caught my eye was that none of the top 10 are autocracies. I’m a

I “drank the Kool-Aid” on how open primaries &/or ranked choice voting can make things better.  So, I’ve been investing some time in trying to get this voting reform implemented in Maryland. Some background.  There are 4 million voters in Maryland.  Almost 1 million are “unaffiliated” (aka independents).  That’s almost 1 out of 4 voters. 

  Baltimore City has a six public markets.  Think of them as indoor farmers’ markets with permanent vendors, mainly but not exclusively, food stands.    The iconic place. The crown jewel and largest is Lexington Market.  It has been in operation since 1782!   A wonderful new building has been completed and opened next door to