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RoCo gets personal with local luminaries of all stripes.

Services

RoCo checks out some of the services, public and private, available to HoCo residents.

Healthy People, Healthy World: Dr. Scott Berkowitz, M.D. on His Population Health Team at Johns Hopkins Medicine

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Regular readers of this site will know, Colleen and I came to Howard County going on six years ago now. Like the person this article is about, Dr. Scott Berkowitz, M.D., we were drawn to it because it’s just an incredible place. So we decided to stay! Scott’s reasons were similar, but he had some practical issues in mind too. This Syracuse native came here for his Internal Medicine Residency, and like so many before them, he and his family made it their home. What struck me during the hour-plus Scott and I spent at Mad City Coffee was that … Read more

Andrea Nunez, Director of the Office of Human Trafficking Prevention

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I sat in the driver’s seat of the Toyota Prius Robert and I bought. And sat, and sat, and sat. Taillights as far as the eye could see. “There’s so much traffic in Howard County!” I said, out loud. I caught myself. It was a tasteless thing to say. “Come on, Colleen,” I thought to myself. I was complaining about vehicular traffic on my way to meet a woman who works against a much more dreadful kind of traffic–or trafficking, rather: human trafficking. I got to Andrea Nunez’s office shortly thereafter on Patuxent Woods Drive. I sat down for just … Read more

Taking the High Road With Kris J, Chief, Bureau of Highways

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To this day, before I conduct interviews for rocoinhoco.com, I get nervous. And so it was last Monday an hour before I was set to meet Krishnakanth Jagarapu, or Kris J as he is known for short, the Chief of Howard County’s Bureau of Highways. Colleen experiences no such nervousness, probably because she spends an hour before each of her interviews praying, divining, and generally banishing all negativity from her aura (her words!). Alas, I’m no such amateur guru, so I have to rely on more…terrestrial, shall we way, methods of calming myself down–such as the Chocolate Cocoa Waffle at … Read more

The Right to Remain Inclusive With Howard County Police Chief Lisa Myers

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I had met Lisa Myers twice before. But even so, all things “police” intimidate me, so I was a little nervous as I drove up to the Howard County Police Headquarters to talk to her about protecting Howard County. African Violets and pansies were in full bloom alongside the Mediterranean-stye blue tiles on the side of the building. The flags undulating lazily in the spring air almost made me feel like I was at a vacation resort! Still, I couldn’t shake that feeling that probably most people get in law enforcement milieus. I felt like I’d done something wrong. It … Read more

Overseeing HoCo’s Elections, With Ann Balcerzak

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The day I was set to meet Ann Blacerzak to talk about running smooth elections in Howard County, I realized that she and I had a date and a time we’d be meeting up, but we hadn’t picked a rendezvous spot. “Do you want to come to my house, Colleen?” she asked in a text message conversation on the topic. I’d told her that I was wary of places that were too loud for fear that the audio of our chats would be unintelligible on the recordings I made on both my iPhone and the digital voice recorder that Robert … Read more

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