Baltimore Brew

They called for help. The system called their deaths inevitable.

In 2020, police were called to the Owings Mills home of Gamel Antonio Brown after he cut his hand on a broken mirror. His family told Baltimore County Police officers there had been no altercation.
Baltimore Brew

Baltimore officials flock to Ocean City for annual MACo gathering

The corridors of City Hall will feel lonely today as top officials flee the city and converge on Ocean City to attend the Maryland Association of Counties (MACo) Summer Conference, the most popular ...
Baltimore Brew

Mushrooms and mold found inside former hotel repurposed for housing the homeless

A report by Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming finds poor living conditions and health-related issues at three city-run homeless facilities.
Baltimore Brew

Architect and key coordinator of Baltimore’s violence reduction strategy resigns

Terence Nash was credited with building the structure of community involvement and peer intervention that led to Baltimore’s sharp reduction in violent crime. Now he’s gone.
Baltimore Brew

Crematorium that had two visible smoke releases in July conducts MDE-required stack testing

Vaughn Greene Funeral Service’s state permit allows the facility to operate for 120 days before testing for emissions of particulates and metals.
Baltimore Brew

Johns Hopkins agrees to pay for parking enforcement, but critic says DSAI agreement is otherwise flawed

The MOU that Council President Cohen negotiated is faulted for ignoring those rivers of runoff coming from the project , one of which The Brew documented after yesterday’s rainstorm.
Baltimore Brew

Baltimore to nearly double fee paid by utilities using its underground conduit system

The fee increase represents a reversal of Mayor Scott’s 2023 decision to end franchise fees for BGE in exchange for its capital investments in the network.
Baltimore Brew

$11 million paid to Baltimore man who spent 25 years in prison on fabricated murder charges

The Anthony Hall settlement comes in addition to the $75 million-plus expended by Baltimore City since 2020 to settle police misconduct and wrongful conviction cases.
Baltimore Brew

Tracing some of the money the Scott administration spends without BOE approval by declaring an “emergency”

Emergency procurements not only skirt around Board of Estimates approval. They delay and sometimes hide public disclosure of how taxpayer money is used. Here are the two latest examples.
Baltimore Brew

IG fights back after Scott neuters her powers

It happened to Baltimore Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming suddenly during a snowy weekend in January: her online access to city records was cut off. This followed a subpoena issued by her ...
Baltimore Brew

After a century of industrial accidents and toxic exposures, Curtis Bay residents say they’ve had enough

The marchers who stood in the rain outside the gates of the CSX coal facility in Curtis Bay – carrying signs that said “Coal Kills” and chanting “CSX has got to go!” – pegged their protest to a grim ...
Baltimore Brew

A long-sought victory for community groups: Lawmakers end Maryland’s subsidy for incinerators

Back in 2011 when Maryland classified trash incineration as “renewable energy” – elevating it to the same status as solar and wind and subsidizing it to the tune of millions of dollars per year – two ...