It’s nearly impossible to read about the dozens of violations commited in Curtis Bay by a medical waste incineration company that’s agreed to pay $1.75 million in fines and penalties for its atrocious actions without feeling at least a little bit ill. Curtis Bay Energy was ultimately caught mishandling waste, including used hospital gloves and gowns, bandages and dressings, human tissue and fluid samples, and chemicals.

As the Maryland government moves closer to adopting a battle plan for meeting the state’s comprehensive climate goals, a group of environmentalists, community organizations and other advocates is releasing a climate proposal of its own in an effort to get the state to move even more aggressively. The recommendations were put together by an informal organization called Climate Partners, which formed a few years ago to lobby the General Assembly as lawmakers were debating the expansive Climate Solutions Now Act — the basis of targets that state officials are now scrambling to meet.

The makeover of Harborplace isn’t the only big building project that’s in the works for Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. While the proposed redevelopment of the Harborplace pavilions has received extensive press coverage in recent weeks, leaders of other Inner Harbor attractions say they’re also working on building projects that will transform their properties – and affect the experiences their visitors have.

A stretch of Maryland Route 450, also known as Defense Highway, in Crofton, will be renamed after former Maryland Sen. Ed Reilly, a Republican who represented the area in the Maryland Senate for nearly 14 years before retiring at the start of this year. The road, located off of MD 3 in the west and ending near the Westfield Annapolis mall, spans around nine miles.

As I have previously written, Council Member Will Jawando has introduced a bill to eliminate the tip credit for Montgomery County’s minimum wage. The bill comes despite difficult economics in the post-pandemic restaurant industry. The ongoing phaseout of tip credits in the District of Columbia has spawned service fees and surcharges ranging up to 20% and threats by restaurants to leave D.C.

All three major tenants at the long-abandoned hospital complex in Crownsville now have a new landlord: Anne Arundel County. The Anne Arundel County Food Bank, which operates a roughly 32,000-square-foot warehouse and provides meals to those who are food insecure, had its state lease assumed by the county, as did Hope House Treatment Center. On Monday night, the County Council unanimously approved a new lease for Gaudenzia Addiction Treatment and Recovery Services, securing the final deal for the three major tenants on the now county-owned land.

Certain traffic control signs were not posted near the work zone where six highway workers were killed along Interstate 695 in Baltimore County, Maryland, in March. Maryland’s Occupational Safety and Health Office cited the State Highway Administration with a “serious violation,” which according to the report is a violation “where there is a substantial probability that that death or serious physical harm could result.”

As students begin another schoolyear throughout the United States, a troubling trend is taking shape. Political leaders, seemingly hostile to complete and accurate history, are determined to shape lesson plans in line with their own agendas, at the expense of the truth. This summer we saw shocking commentary from Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis, defending a proposed school curriculum that watered down the horrors of slavery.

Some of the city’s most valuable resources including drinking water face an ongoing threat from outside attackers. Cumberland Cybersecurity Specialist Chip Watkins was at a work session Tuesday to provide the mayor and City Council an update on protections for various systems. October is national Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Watkins talked of roughly 2,700 failed attempts in 24 hours by outsiders to log in to city accounts.

 

Even before he knew what a reporter’s job really entailed, Tim Tooten was play-acting interviews with his middle school classmates in the back of the class, holding a pencil as a pretend microphone to ask them probing questions. Tooten never stopped asking questions, and nearly a half-century later, he is perhaps the most recognizable face and longest running reporter on the education beat in the region, having been at WBAL for 35 years.