Baltimore agreed to a $100,000 settlement Wednesday to close out a lawsuit filed by rail company CSX after a city contractor dumped sewage-tainted water at the company’s Curtis Bay coal terminal while a city inspector was using the bathroom. The settlement, approved unanimously Wednesday by the Board of Estimates, stemmed from a 2018 incident in which a city contractor was working on one of several large sanitary sewer lines that runs beneath CSX’s property in South Baltimore.

National ice cream brand Ben & Jerry’s is opening a shop at the Baltimore Peninsula development at the newly-opened Rye House apartment building. The shop, which will open next year, will sell ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and non-dairy products. Ben & Jerry’s was founded in 1978 in Burlington, VT by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield. Ben & Jerry’s flavors can be found in grocery stores, restaurants, and at more than 200 of its owns stores throughout the country.

Howard County is out with a report card that’s published every two years, showing some good signs about the declining use of tobacco products. The county’s report showed an almost 40% reduction in smoking among adults over that time period. The study also looked at other health indicators, like cancer. While the rate of newly diagnosed cases are stable, the county says cancer deaths are lower, although cancer and heart diseases are still the two most common causes of death in general.

 

As Maryland officials put the finishing touches on a plan for how the state should hit its aggressive goals for combating climate change, an adjacent report from a longstanding advisory body offers some clues on what the final recommendations might include. The annual report of the Maryland Commission on Climate Change, which guides the work of the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), was released last week, and it’s an expansive document with a range of short-, middle and long-term strategies.

Constellation Energy Corp. is closing 2023 the same way it started the year, buying back its own stock. The Baltimore-based clean energy giant will spend another $1 billion on stock buybacks, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing last week. The latest round of buybacks comes as Constellation (Nasdaq: CEG) is nearing the end of its 2023 goal of buying back $1 billion worth of its stock.

Changes in the Annapolis lobbying world happen all the time. But this is a big one. A “name” partner of one of Annapolis’ most high-powered lobbying firms is moving on to start a government relations practice at one of the top PR shops in Maryland. Josh White, a founding partner of Perry White Ross & Jacobson, is joining Baltimore-based KO Public Affairs to launch a full-scale lobbying practice, which includes opening an office on Duke of Gloucester Street in Annapolis.

I remember the first time I brought my son and daughter to Camden Yards. I can still feel the magic of watching them cheer for their favorite team, screaming “Let’s Go O’s!” I can see their smiles and the smiles of Marylanders from all backgrounds, who shared one hope: to watch the home team pull out another win. I’ve always imagined that years from now, my children might return to Camden Yards with their children and make memories of their own. Now, they can — and hundreds of thousands of other families can, too.

People did rotten things, real and mythical, in the vast Leakin woodlands of West Baltimore. It’s an old story, going back decades, and the stuff of local legend: Leakin Park, where killers dump their victims or bury their bodies. It’s by now a municipal cliche. A few years ago, when I heard of a witness in a murder case claiming to have been “taken to Leakin Park” and ordered by the primary suspect’s gun-wielding brothers to change his story or else, the tale struck me as trite. I had heard Leakin Park invoked in a criminal context, or just for laughs, too many times.

 

As 2023 draws to a close, we look back on some of the year’s biggest headlines, alphabetically: A is for the Attorney General’s Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which was released in April and chronicled 80 years of horrific abuse of hundreds of young people. B is for Brooklyn Homes and the tragic mass shooting that took two lives and injured 28 other young people during a block party this summer.

Over the past several weeks, world affairs have moved to the forefront of our national dialogue, and an exchange of viewpoints is underway at colleges across the country, including those in Maryland. Global learning has never been more critical for fostering the mutual understanding and cross-border collaboration essential to addressing our shared existential challenges and to deepening our humanity.