Adam Willis

Maryland passes torch to Pennsylvania on Chesapeake Bay clean-up Maryland Gov. Wes Moore passed a wooden gavel to Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, marking the start of more prominent role for the Keystone State in the campaign to restore the bay.

In new Chesapeake Bay chapter, Maryland passes a symbolic torch to Pennsylvania

As the Chesapeake Bay cleanup enters a new era, it’s fighting for relevance As the Chesapeake restoration enters a new era — governors from across the watershed are expected in Baltimore this week to extend cleanup to 2040 — the movement appears uncertain about its future.

Governors Moore, Shapiro, Youngkin, Mayor Bowser and other top leaders across the Chesapeake Bay watershed are meeting in Baltimore right now to discuss the way forward for restoring the bay.

@adampwillis.bsky.social has a great primer on the state of the efforts:

www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Facing sustained resident criticism, Baltimore City Council housing bill stalls The bill is the final and most controversial piece of a package of housing bills that have crossed the finish line in recent weeks.

Facing sustained resident ire, Baltimore City Council housing bill stalls

Visa canceled at the border, a Hopkins grad student has been stuck in Canada for months Ehsan Rajabi said the university declined to advocate for him.

New: A grad student at Johns Hopkins has been stranded in Canada for months after his visa was canceled at the border. He’s been incurring thousands in expenses without being paid by the university, which says it won’t petition officials for six months:
www.thebanner.com/education/hi...

As the Chesapeake Bay cleanup enters a new era, it’s fighting for relevance As the Chesapeake restoration enters a new era — governors from across the watershed are expected in Baltimore this week to extend cleanup to 2040 — the movement appears uncertain about its future.

15 years ago, it looked like the effort to save the Chesapeake Bay had turned a corner. "There was a collective sense," said one longtime federal scientist, “that we had broken through."
Today, he and others worry that, four decades in, the movement is losing steam:
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

School buses for every Baltimore student seemed impossible — until now School transportation company HopSkipDrive used AI and a Banner analysis to map how yellow buses, vans and cars could get Baltimore students to school safely and on time for less than 5% of the distri...

In journalism we’re used to pointing out problems, not solving them. This was a chance to think differently and offer Baltimore kids and parents solutions.

Take a look and tell us what you think.

www.thebanner.com/education/k-...

We investigated just how bad the problem was. Turns out it’s terrible — a quarter of city buses that students take in the morning don’t show up on time. Or at all.
And the result is Baltimore’s kids are left behind — often failing their first-period classes.

For more than a decade I’ve heard Baltimore students and parents complain about the messy and sometimes dangerous process of getting to school.

And for more than a decade school leaders have ignored the problem.

Constellation CEO to Maryland: Don’t let Exelon build your power plant Joe Dominguez took shots at the investor-owned utility company Exelon as competition to build more power plants in Maryland reaches a pivotal moment.

Constellation CEO to Maryland: Don’t let Exelon build your power plant

Overflow of raw sewage into Jones Falls upped to 1.7 million gallons The volume of raw sewage that flowed into the Jones Falls, the stream that cuts through the heart of Baltimore before emptying into the harbor, was bigger than first reported, Maryland environmental r...

State environmental officials estimate 1.7 million gallons of raw sewage drained into Baltimore's Jones Falls this week, the latest in the city's long struggle to get a handle on wastewater overflows. www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Overflow of raw sewage into Jones Falls upped to 1.7 million gallons The volume of raw sewage that flowed into the Jones Falls, the stream that cuts through the heart of Baltimore before emptying into the harbor, was bigger than first reported, Maryland environmental r...

State environmental officials estimate 1.7 million gallons of raw sewage drained into Baltimore's Jones Falls this week, the latest in the city's long struggle to get a handle on wastewater overflows. www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Decades-long Chesapeake Bay cleanup pushed off to 2040. Some worry it’s not enough. Officials from Maryland, home to the Chesapeake’s largest and most depleted waters, had pushed for loftier goals but were outvoted by other states.

For the fifth time, effort to clean-up the Chesapeake Bay gets a new deal and a later deadline, pushing the goal line farther away. Vy @adampwillis.bsky.social www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Why are neighbors against a safety tower for Patapsco Valley State Park? Patapsco Valley State Park needs a radio tower for better communication. Neighbors, however, call it a 'Tower of Terror' and are against the project back by Maryland officials.

Maryland says Patapsco needs radio tower for safety. Neighbors call it a ‘Tower of Terror.’

The little fish at the center of a big debate in the Chesapeake No one — fisherman, conservationist or scientist — can say for certain how “the most important fish” is really faring in the Chesapeake Bay.

An industrial menhaden fishery out of Virginia is the last of its kind on the Atlantic seaboard. Some say it's decimating a keystone Chesapeake fish with big fallout for other bay species.

But, perhaps thanks to industry political donations, no one can prove it: www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

The little fish at the center of a big debate in the Chesapeake No one — fisherman, conservationist or scientist — can say for certain how “the most important fish” is really faring in the Chesapeake Bay.

This little fish is the center of a big debate in the Chesapeake Bay

A must read, not for the portraits, but the uncomfortable question: How much power does any mayor of a legacy city have to reverse the harm caused by bigger forces outside his/her control: deindustrialization, white flight & the tax base “sucked out each time a commuter drives past the city limits?”

Can Baltimore’s Inner Harbor makeover prevent another stinky pistachio tide? While thermal inversions like the one Baltimore’s harbor just experienced happen naturally, humans have made the consequences worse.

After putrid green waters overwhelmed the Baltimore harbor and triggered historic fish kills, local scientists remain stumped about why this season’s pistachio tide was so bad.

But they think the billion dollar revamp of the downtown waterfront could help solve it: www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Could redevelopment stem Baltimore’s pistachio tide? While thermal inversions like the one Baltimore’s harbor just experienced happen naturally, humans have made the consequences worse.

After ecological crisis, could redevelopment stem Baltimore’s pistachio tide?

It looks bad and smells worse, but some say Baltimore harbor is improving Hardly anyone who’s visited the Baltimore harbor in recent weeks has come away feeling that the urban waterway is well.

Our conversation built off of this story at the end of the weeks-long pistachio tide
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Had fun thinking out loud about the Baltimore harbor's huge, maybe historic? pistachio tide with Lindsay Smith Rogers at Johns Hopkins.

A year ago, Lindsay did a deep dive into Baltimore's progress toward a swimmable harbor. Things have felt different the last few weeks...

A year after our episode on the fight to make Baltimore’s harbor safe for swimming, the harbor is recovering from “the ecological equivalent of a heart attack”.

@thebaltimorebanner.com’s @adampwillis.bsky.social gives an update on the "pistachio tide".

podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/967-an-updat...

The hidden cost of saving the Chesapeake Bay: millions for private waterfronts Virtually all of the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline is privately owned, which means taxpayer-funded waterfront improvements go to properties with limited public access.

Millions of taxpayer dollars go toward restoring Chesapeake Bay beaches to their natural marshy state and cleaning the water. Signs on those shorelines also read: "RESIDENTS ONLY." Important story by @alexmann.bsky.social @leeosanderlin.bsky.social @adampwillis.bsky.social @thebaltimorebanner.com:

The hidden cost of saving the Chesapeake Bay: millions for private waterfronts Virtually all of the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline is privately owned, which means taxpayer-funded waterfront improvements go to properties with limited public access.

Alex Mann, @leeosanderlin.bsky.social and @adampwillis.bsky.social get at a central environmental tension in Anne Arundel County: A desire to protect the Chesapeake Bay and its shoreline meets the reality that almost all shoreline in the county is privately-owned. Read in @thebaltimorebanner.com —

The hidden cost of saving the Chesapeake Bay: millions for private waterfronts Virtually all of the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline is privately owned, which means taxpayer-funded waterfront improvements go to properties with limited public access.

Just one in 533 miles of Anne Arundel County shoreline is open to the public while taxpayers fund millions for private waterfronts.

Can Maryland balance what’s best for the Chesapeake Bay with the public’s right to enjoy it? w/ @leeosanderlin.bsky.social &Alex Mann
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

The hidden cost of saving the Chesapeake Bay: millions for private waterfronts Virtually all of the Chesapeake Bay’s shoreline is privately owned, which means taxpayer-funded waterfront improvements go to properties with limited public access.

The hidden cost of saving the Chesapeake Bay: millions for private waterfronts

Maryland, Constellation reach $341M deal over pollution through Conowingo Dam The Conowingo Dam would power Maryland homes and businesses under a new deal that requires Constellation Energy to spend millions to limit pollution.

Maryland, Constellation reach $341M deal over pollution through Conowingo Dam

With an email, Salisbury plant gets a pass on EPA rules for toxic gas In July, Trinity Sterile got a waiver from the EPA to keep releasing the same amount of toxic chemical ethylene oxide until at least 2028.

With an email, Salisbury plant gets a pass on EPA rules for toxic gas

The crown jewel of U.S. farm science is in Beltsville. Will Trump shut it down? The Trump administration plans to close the Maryland's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, just outside Washington. The USDA wants to move the farm research “closer to the people,” but p...

Hidden in the D.C. suburbs are thousands of acres of experimental farmland, home to the scientists who helped eradicate screwworm & invented the Roma tomato.

USDA's Beltsville lab is the crown jewel of American farm science. Will Trump close it forever?
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

The crown jewel of U.S. farm science is in Beltsville. Will Trump shut it down? The Trump administration plans to close the Maryland's Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, or BARC, just outside Washington. The USDA wants to move the farm research “closer to the people,” but...

The crown jewel of American farm science is in Beltsville. Will Trump close it forever?

Is offshore wind doomed in Maryland? The Baltimore-based US Wind project off Ocean City is Maryland’s only offshore wind farm close to construction, but federal tax breaks and courtroom battles may decide its fate.

It's been a rough summer for Maryland's fledgling offshore wind sector. Trump wants to revoke approval for the state's only permitted farm, which also looks very unlikely to meet the admin's new deadline for huge tax breaks.

Is offshore wind doomed in Maryland?
www.thebanner.com/community/cl...