Community voices

Providing affordable and flexible consumer loans to people who don’t have access to traditional banking services can transform lives and help boost the economies of places like Baltimore, says Kasra Movahedi, executive director of the International Rescue Committee’s Center for Economic Opportunity.

Nonprofit hospitals can put into place a stopgap measure to help cover care for people ineligible for health insurance, such as those without documentation, say people familiar with a Johns Hopkins program that serves uninsured East Baltimore residents.

Maryland can build on the progress begun under the Affordable Care Act to provide health care coverage and lower prescription drug costs for more state residents, says Vincent DeMarco, president of the Maryland Health Care for All! Coalition.

Three University of Maryland Medical Center clinicians say they are committed to ensuring access to abortion as health care in the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling eliminating the constitutional right to an abortion.

Parents, schools and health care providers are vital in helping teens through today’s unprecedented mental health challenges, says Dr. Harsh K. Trivedi, president and chief executive officer of Sheppard Pratt.

U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger wants Congress to approve a clean debt ceiling increase and he opposes Republican budget proposals that he says would cut funding for programs vital to Marylanders.

Baltimore County is committed to making community college tuition free, and that educational opportunity needs to be available nationwide, say Baltimore County Executive John Olszewski Jr. and Community College of Baltimore County President Sandra L. Kurtinitis.

Carmelo Anthony retires as one of the greatest scorers in NBA history, leaving a legacy of inspiring young men in Baltimore, where he grew up and began pursuing his dream on the city’s playgrounds, writer Alanah Nichole Davis says.

The proposed Lakefront Library project in Columbia has raised concerns among community organizations and residents about cost and who will benefit from it, says Hiruy Hadgu, president of the Progressive Democrats of Howard County and a Howard County Citizens Association board member.

Merchants in the business corridor surrounding Pimlico Race Course want to expand business and community development opportunities on Preakness day and beyond, Yeshiyah Israel, president of the Pimlico Merchants Association, says.