Columns

Everyone has a story about their family they’d rather not share. None may be like Christine Kuehn’s. Her grandparents and her aunt were Nazi spies working against America at the dawn of World War II. We'll talk about her new book, "Family of Spies," at The Banner Book Club.

COLUMN: This New Year's Day, I'm starting a challenge for myself: Let's focus on the things I can control and not shy away from discomfort.

COLUMN: When Zohran Mamdani is sworn in as mayor of New York on Thursday, the city will become the largest local government in the United States led by a Democratic Socialist. Til then, Montgomery County holds the title.

It was a tough year in so many ways. Don’t let it dim these moments, though.

COLUMN| I never knew how to play spades, the unofficial Black card game, until now.

COLUMN: The delayed opening of Mimi DiPietro Skating Center is merely the preamble to the indoor ice rink eventually shuttering in Patterson Park. That will leave the Baltimore Banners, a hockey team of young Black players from struggling neighborhoods, with a logistical headache.

COLUMN: With the Ravens’ season on the brink after preseason Super Bowl expectations, it’s time for owner Steve Bisciotti to tell fans how he plans to correct the trajectory of a team that took a slide in 2025.

Book banners are highly organized and loud, but we can defend our right to read.

“His mindset is so strong, and he’s so disciplined, and he wants to be great,” said Phil Wallin, founder and CEO of Diesel Optimization, where Alonso trains.

COLUMN | How do you count the ways the world went right and wrong? Here’s 2025 summed up, according to me, numerically.

COLUMN| Is “The Baltimorons” a Christmas movie? Is it a Baltimore movie? Is it both? Columnists Leslie Gray Streeter and Rick Hutzell debate.

COLUMN | The number of 2025 layoffs in Maryland is harder to determine than you’d think. Yet it remains one of the ways the average person understands what’s happening in the economy.

COLUMN | Parents spend a lot of time, money and tinsel on the holidays, which is both rewarding and exhausting. But it’s worth it. Probably.

The Ravens didn't give their star running back one touch on the last two drives of the game. It followed a pattern of John Harbaugh and Todd Monken leaving Henry out of the game plan in critical moments.

COLUMN: There’s a reason we light our nighttime hours, sing and dance around the winter solstice. Yes, it’s Christmas. Yes, it’s Hanukkah. It’s Kwanzaa, Dongzhi and Yalda, too. But we do it to ward off the dark, the bad things that lurk outside our homes and our lives and to remind of us the good.

COLUMN: The deal the Orioles made for Shane Baz, giving up prospects and picks, would have been unthinkable just months ago. Bravo to this front office for taking new kinds of risks.

COLUMN: The value is in talented, productive major leaguers. The future value going the other way is, to the Orioles, a risk worth taking.

COLUMN: The dispute over the Magothy Inn is aggravating for the neighbors, but it’s the liquor board that should concern the wider public. Fabricating a rule that downplays conflicts is a petty abuse of power, with stakes so small no one noticed till now.

COLUMN: Lind's friendship with Anthony Villa, the Orioles’ director of player development, helped inform the team’s hitting philosophies. Now they’ll work together in Baltimore.