Columnist

Dan Rodricks

Dan Rodricks is a former longtime columnist for The Baltimore Sun, and a local radio and television personality who has won several national and regional journalism awards over a reporting, writing and broadcast career spanning five decades. He is the author of three books, including "Father's Day Creek" (Apprentice House 2019).

Senator Ben Cardin: "The major question is: How strong will the Republican leadership in Congress be to preserve the traditional independence of the Senate?" (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

Dan Rodricks: Ben Cardin, looking for signs of courage in the Senate | STAFF COMMENTARY

November 16, 2024 at 7:31 a.m.

"The major question is: How strong will the Republican leadership in Congress be to preserve the traditional independence of the Senate?"

The frontline work of Baltimore's Safe Streets violence-intervention program has led to safer neighborhoods in 10 zones across the city.

Dan Rodricks: Giving credit for Baltimore’s drop in violence and safer streets | STAFF COMMENTARY

November 14, 2024 at 3:03 p.m.

The role Safe Streets plays in reducing gun violence across a city deeply scarred from an epoch of it.

Yvon Labre, who played on the first Washington Caps team 50 years ago, displays his anniversary jersey at home in Baltimore County.

Dan Rodricks: 50 years ago, rough start for the Caps, a dream realized for Yvon Labre | STAFF COMMENTARY

November 12, 2024 at 6:58 p.m.

"The seven best years of my life."

Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke stands outside the Rotunda in 2005, when the mall was for sale and she feared the advent of big box stores there. Seven years later, a Rotunda task force she used to serve on was reconvened.

Dan Rodricks: Everyone called her Mary Pat, an energetic public servant and proud progressive Democrat | STAFF COMMENTARY

November 11, 2024 at 8:44 p.m.

Appreciation of one of Baltimore's most popular council members for many years.

A “voting report card” showed up in the mail of Maryland voters this week from the Center for Voter Information in Richmond, Virginia. The name of the recipient of this one has been blacked out.

Dan Rodricks: Was that intimidation in the mail or ‘social pressure’ to get us to vote? | STAFF COMMENTARY

November 1, 2024 at 6:08 a.m.

“The single most effective tool at increasing voter turnout is social pressure."

In Baltimore, only an empty platform remains where a statue of Confederate generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee stood for nearly 70 years. It was removed in 2017. A sign now declares the wooded area Harriet Tubman Grove.

Dan Rodricks: Are we on the way to being ‘better than this’? | STAFF COMMENTARY

October 30, 2024 at 6:05 a.m.

“We are better than this,” Elijah Cummings said many times, expressing a faith now facing its biggest test.

Mario Armstrong, longtime tech expert and entrepreneur, is working on a new program to help creative people in Baltimore reach their potential.

Dan Rodricks: Mario Armstrong, promoting a new show to keep artists from starving in the age of AI | STAFF COMMENTARY

October 26, 2024 at 6:00 a.m.

Mario Armstrong, once a champion of tech and tech careers, now fights for the next generation of artists and the creative class.

Shawn James’ “Lightning in a Jar” provides a splashy, welcoming backdrop to a community garden in Baltimore’s Reservoir Hill, and it comes with a surprise feature.

Dan Rodricks: ‘Kind of fantastic,’ lightning bugs to come alive in Reservoir Hill mural | STAFF COMMENTARY

October 24, 2024 at 3:49 p.m.

This could be the first digitally animated mural in a city with an abundance of them.

The Trump International Hotel in the District of Columbia was the subject of a lawsuit brought by the Maryland Attorney General during the Trump presidency, but without the support of then-Gov. Larry Hogan.

Dan Rodricks: Larry Hogan, the Never-Trumper, only goes so far with Never-Trumperism | STAFF COMMENTARY

October 22, 2024 at 1:00 p.m.

Republicans talk a lot about “accountability,” but want little of it when it comes to Trump.

Steve Storck, a landowner near the Youghiogheny River in western Maryland, opposes the plan to cut hundreds of trees, some of them old-growth hemlocks, for a new section of roadway for a new bridge over the river at Swallow Falls State Park.

Dan Rodricks: Cutting mighty trees in a popular Maryland park for a bridge? Must be a better way. | STAFF COMMENTARY

October 23, 2024 at 2:56 p.m.

Columnist Dan Rodricks asks, "Are we really going to allow the cutting of up to 300 trees in an area the state considers wild and scenic? Shouldn't that be against...

All Stories