Baltimore County

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski announced Thursday that he is nominating Kelly Madigan, a career prosecutor, for the job of rooting out corruption, fraud and abuse in county government. 

Madigan will be the first leader of the county’s newly created office of ethics and accountability.

The Baltimore County School Board Thursday night threw in the towel and gave up trying to elect a new chairman. 

Despite that, the current chairwoman Kathleen Causey will continue on in the post for now.

A behind-the-scenes battle is being waged over the future leadership of the Baltimore County School Board, leaving it fractured.

Lettuces and herbs soon will be growing on an environmental cleanup site in eastern Baltimore County. 

The Bethlehem Steel site at Sparrows Point was a toxic wasteland when Tradepoint Atlantic began developing it five years ago. 

The company Gotham Greens’ mission is to grow produce where you would least expect it. 

Climate change is real and human activity is driving it. That is the science, and teachers and administrators say it’s being taught that way in Baltimore County schools. 

But there are climate change skeptics. 

In this way, climate change is like evolution. The teaching of the scientific theory runs afoul of some people’s beliefs.

Baltimore County will prohibit landlords from rejecting would-be tenants because they use housing vouchers, also known as section 8. 

The Baltimore County Council approved the controversial legislation Monday night in a vote that went straight down party lines.The four Democrats on the county council voted for it. The three Republicans voted against. 

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Arbutus are near each other. But when you think about Arbutus, “college town” probably doesn’t come to mind. 

A business is opening Monday morning in the southern Baltimore County community that hopes to help change that. 

It was standing room only in the Baltimore County Council Chambers Tuesday afternoon, as the council heard from both sides of the controversial issue of housing vouchers. 

Meantime, the odds may be improving that the legislation will pass the county council when it comes up for a vote next week.

Housing vouchers, also known as section 8: are they a helping hand for people in need or do they threaten neighborhoods? 

The Baltimore County Council has scheduled a public hearing Tuesday afternoon on legislation that would forbid landlords from rejecting would-be tenants because they use the vouchers. 

Thousands of people in Baltimore County find themselves on opposite sides of the controversy.

The Baltimore County School Board is deciding whether to start school before or after Labor Day next year.

But at a public hearing Tuesday night, the board heard mostly from people who asked it to treat the major religions equally when deciding on religious holidays in the 2020-2021 school calendar. 

The fate of a controversial proposal to ban landlords in Baltimore County from rejecting someone because they are using a housing voucher, commonly called section 8, rests with two members of the Baltimore County Council.

WYPR’s John Lee joined Morning Edition host Nathan Sterner in the studio to talk about the two council members whose votes are in play and the political tug of war over this legislation. 

What is driving climate change? According to a recent Goucher poll, your answer to that question has a lot to do with whether you are a Democrat or a Republican.

You need to look no further than Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District to hear the political divide over the science that humans are mostly to blame for what is happening to the climate.

The Baltimore County Council is expected to vote Monday night on whether it will sue Monsanto Company for contaminating the county’s environment with Polychlorinated biphenyls, also known as PCBs.

WYPR’s Baltimore County reporter John Lee and Morning Edition host Nathan Sterner hashed out the details.

Controversial legislation that would ban landlords in Baltimore County from rejecting someone because they are using a housing voucher, commonly called section 8, is to be introduced next week at the County Council. 

The so-called “source of income discrimination legislation” was soundly defeated when it last went before the council three years ago.

It appears the live music ban in Catonsville and Arbutus will be lifted. 

Following a public hearing Tuesday, The Baltimore County Council is poised to make a change in zoning law to let songs fill the air legally in those two towns.

This past weekend, congressmen returned home to their districts following a tumultuous week in Washington. 

But when Dutch Ruppersberger made his first stop in his congressional district, in Dundalk in Eastern Baltimore County, people he talked to had something other than the impeachment inquiry against President Trump on their minds.

Catonsville in Baltimore County is home to several well-known music stores. The town takes pride in calling itself “Music City Maryland.”  

But that moniker falls a bit flat because currently it’s illegal for bars and restaurants along the town’s main drag to have live music.

On a warm, picture perfect late summer day, Rob Deford, the President of Boordy Vineyards in Baltimore County is pointing out some of his grapes that are almost ready to be picked.

“We’re approaching the cabernet franc vineyard, and first you see how beautiful the crop looks,” Deford said.

This has been a great year for grape growing in Maryland.  But 2018 was not. Deford said they got 32 inches more rain than usual. It was catastrophic. He lost more than 50 percent of his best red grapes.

Baltimore County is looking to raise the legal age to buy cigarettes or any other tobacco product from 18 to 21.

Legislation being proposed by County Executive Johnny Olszewski also would ban the sale of e-cigarette devices to anyone in Baltimore County under the age of 21.

Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski said Thursday he has found seed money for two new high schools for Towson and Dulaney. 

Even with that, there are no guarantees those schools will be built for years.

The joke in Towson is that its town bird is the construction crane. More than a half dozen of them are part of the skyline, as Towson transforms into what one developer said will rival College Park as Maryland’s best college town. 

There is excitement about what Towson is becoming, as well as concern about what all of those changes will mean for Baltimore County’s county seat.

The number of students participating in a program that offers free tuition at the Community College of Baltimore County has nearly tripled this year. 

School officials hope even more students will get the College Promise scholarship, which is beginning its second year this month.

Counties usually stay out of each other’s business, but the Baltimore County Council voted unanimously on Monday night to oppose a Harford County megachurch’s plans to build a wastewater treatment plant.

At the Guinness brewery, beer is on the move.

Kegs of beer are kept in cold storage, below the bar and its 92 taps. The bartender pulls a tap, and the beer is pumped from the keg through tubing to the tap, then to the glass.

Mountain Christian Church has four locations in Harford County. Church leaders estimate that on any given Sunday, about 6,000 people attend services, half of them at the main location in Joppa.

Despite the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s financial straits, Baltimore County is reducing the amount of money it usually gives to the orchestra. 

Nevertheless, County Executive Johnny Olszewski said the BSO still has the county’s full support.

Mountain Christian Church is in Harford County. But it is just over the line from Baltimore County, where officials say they were not properly notified about the church’s plan to build a wastewater treatment plant. The discharge from that plant would make its way into Baltimore County via the Gunpowder River.

There is a public hearing on that proposal Tuesday night in Perry Hall. It's being held by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE.) WYPR’s John Lee joined Morning Edition host Nathan Sterner in the studio to talk about it.