Baltimore’s water wheels collected more than 1 million pounds of litter and debris from the city’s waterways in 2023, though the amount of trash in the water is actually decreasing, the Waterfront Partnership of Baltimore announced Wednesday. 2023 was the second consecutive year that the Waterfront Partnership operated four trash wheels in Baltimore’s waterways — Mr. Trash Wheel, Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel, and Gwynnda the Good Wheel of the West — which made the collection process more efficient.

Sunday’s game at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Ravens was the most-watched AFC championship game ever, setting a new ratings record of more than 55 million average viewers, according to CBS. The game, in which the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Ravens 17-10, was broadcast on CBS and streamed on Paramount Plus. In a news release Tuesday, CBS said that 55.47 million viewers watched the game — a number 1.1% greater than the previous record for an AFC championship audience set in 2011 when 54.85 million football fans watched the New York Jets defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

 

 

Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) said he has instructed the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee to “pull out the scalpel” as it reviews Gov. Wes Moore’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget. Moore proposed the $63.1 billion budget two weeks ago and claimed millions in “rebasing” — he deftly avoided the word cuts. Lawmakers in the Senate, who get the first crack at massaging the spending plan, are likely to find additional reductions, places to increase spending and potential fee increases.

 

The Pot Spring Community Association’s quest to slow traffic on Pot Spring Road started in the Timonium backyard of Anne Lewis Smith. The nurse practitioner was getting ready for work on June 16, 2021, when she got an urgent call at 6:50 a.m. from a neighbor who wondered why a battered car was parked next to her backyard deck with a weeping young woman sitting next to it.

Crack open a Boh. We could be in for a city holiday. The Banner is reporting that the Angelos family is on the cusp of selling the franchise to a group of big-money owners led by Baltimore native David Rubenstein. It would put a period on a 31-year era of Angelos ownership, which has seen just six playoff appearances and a lot of forgettable seasons. While the franchise just had its best season in years in 2023, the shadow of John Angelos — who raised blood pressure by dragging out a stadium lease process and perhaps being a little too frank in an interview with the New York Times — has loomed over the team’s future.

The commentary by Dr. Alex Pavlak on Maryland’s climate strategy emphasizes the importance of defining goals and measuring progress in greenhouse gas reduction. While his points are valid, a critical aspect that the commentary overlooks is the reluctance of climate advocacy groups, such as CCAN, Sierra Club, League of Conservation Voters, and Environment Maryland, to consider new nuclear energy as a viable solution to climate change.

Plans to build a hotel within BWI Airport’s terminal are moving ahead again after being put on hold during the pandemic. Building a 200-room hotel on top of the airport is one of Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport’s future capital projects, Ricky Smith, the airport’s CEO, said during a talk to the BWI Business Partnership last week. Smith also offered updates on other current and future projects at the Anne Arundel County airport, including plans to connect its C and D concourses, construct a new air traffic control center and build an airline lounge, which would be BWI’s first.

A local health care startup that aims to fill gaps in care for low-income patients has just hauled in $56 million in a Series A funding round. Bethesda’s Accompany Health Inc. said Tuesday it’s secured the funding from a handful of venture capital investors and will use the proceeds to broaden its reach in offering primary care, behavioral health and social services to underserved patients with complex conditions.

Cancer diagnostics giant Exact Sciences will close down its Baltimore operations three years after acquiring a company heralded as one of the region’s biggest success stories. Thrive Earlier Detection spun out of Johns Hopkins in 2019 and raised around $369 million in venture capital before Exact Sciences acquired it in a deal worth up to $2.15 billion. The Wisconsin-based firm now plans to close down Thrive’s Baltimore office at 1812 Ashland Ave. by March 31, 2024 and lay off 50 people.

Since May, over 245,000 Marylanders have lost health care coverage from Medicaid, an insurance plan aimed at low-income residents, during a eligibility review period often referred to as “Medicaid unwinding.” Eight months into the unwinding period, a new report from Maryland Department of Health shows that some areas in Maryland are retaining Medicaid coverage while some populations are losing it. The department says it will use the data to target harder to reach populations in the remaining four months of the unwinding period.