WYPR Features

In the Allegheny County mining town of Lonaconing, Maryland, Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove perfected his fast ball and went on to a storied career with the Baltimore Orioles throughout the 1920’s and 30’s.

It was a warm spring evening as I set off in a kayak from a boat ramp in Middletown, Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Baltimore, into the still waters of Swatara Creek.

A family of ducks, with a dozen ducklings, paddled in the river.  A pair of kayakers, father and son, came in off the waterway, dragging their boats up and laughing with each other. Children in their bathing suits splashed in the shallows at the boat launch.

As the sun set, illuminating  the clouds, I passed around a bend and, beyond the trees, saw the four enormous cooling towers of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

It was 40 years ago, in 1979, that a partial meltdown at Three Mile Island triggered the evacuation or flight more 140,000 people from south central Pennsylvania. The incident – and the authorities’ bungled response to it -- generated so much fear that the nuclear industry never recovered in the U.S.

Al and Chef Pellegrino offer some ideas on how to use shallots with sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, fish and more! 

Bob Atlas, president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association, explains how Maryland's health care leaders and public officials are working to provide Marylanders with fresh, affordable food. 

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, our book critic Marion Winik reviews Angie Kim's fiction debut, Miracle Creek. The new novel is our selection for the July meeting of the Weekly Reader Book Club.

Just in time for the rest of us to settle into the 21st century, a piece to settle in, one branch of college athletics has finally advanced to the 20th century.

The Big Ten Conference tapped former Minnesota Vikings COO Kevin Warren as its new commissioner last week. In the process, the Big Ten became the first of the so-called Power Five conferences to select an African-American to such a post.

Generation X often gets lost in the shuffle between bigger demographics--baby boomers and millenials. But this group is struggling to build retirement security while juggling work, children, and caring for aging parents. Catherine tells us some unsettling information about Gen X-ers' retirement preparation.

Out on Dulaney Valley Road at Dance Mill Road, a yellow school bus turns into a narrow road. In minutes, the school children-- as thousands did before and after —disembark. They have come this day in 1955 to Cloverland Farms—to see cows milked! But in 1981 the milking barn closed---leaving subsequent generations of children believing, this story goes, that maybe chocolate milk comes from brown cows.

BMA Director Christopher Bedford interviews Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu about her transition from working in collage to bronze sculpture and this moment of success for her and other black female artists. Mutu’s Water Woman sculpture is on view at the BMA. 

The Smithsonian Institution makes a stop in Calvert County with H2O Today, now at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum. This Smithsonian Institution traveling exhibition explores the beauty and essential nature of water and the diversity and challenges of our global water sources. Rachelle Green, Acting Director at Jefferson Patterson Park and Museum, tells us more.

On June 6, 1944, the 29th Division of the United States Army, made up of soldiers from Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, landed on Omaha Beach in Normandy to begin the liberation of France and Northern Europe from the Nazis.

The popular grape viognier comes is a variety of styles, changing its shape depending on where it's grown and who's making it. Click the links to purchase Cellar Notes recommendations at Kenilworth Wine & Spirits.

“We got our Jackie back!”  That was the sentiment of Jackie’s parents after their daughter had been treated for chronic pain at the Kennedy Krieger Institute Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Clinic. With an interdisciplinary team approach to treatment, Jackie learned how to manage her pain and to get back to the things she loves.  

On this edition of The Weekly Reader, book critic Marion Winik reviews two novels by the young Irish novelist Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends and Normal People.

Yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Chinese government’s crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy demonstrators. Many Americans used the occasion to criticize the Chinese government for being intolerant of public protests, and to feel good that such authoritarian behavior could never be tolerated in the U.S., where the rights to freedom of assembly and speech are enshrined in the Constitution.

After all, America was born in protest – with the Boston Tea Party. Nonviolent civil disobedience was the cornerstone of the abolition, suffrage, labor, and Civil Rights movements.

But over the last two years, a growing number of Republican states have been passing laws to outlaw and criminalize public protests, often threatening long prison sentences for activists.

A recent example was in Texas, where state legislators last week passed a law making it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for protesters to try to interrupt the construction of oil and gas pipelines or any other so-called “critical infrastructure” projects.

A complex and delicate connection exists between Atlantic horseshoe crabs and a threatened migratory bird called the Rufa Red Knot in nearby Delaware Bay. Hear how human-induced issues such as coastal development, sea level rise and climate change, have put the ties that bind them in jeopardy.

Moths are often regarded as the less appealing cousins of butterflies.

Moths are seen as the night-flying pests that harass our summer porch lights and eat holes in our clothing. Their relatives, the butterflies, steal all the glory, flitting through flowery fields and delicately sipping nectar from colorful flowers.

But the incredible luna moth may be just the creature to change your perspective.

This is high season for salad lovers, so what better time to be creative and make your own salad dressing! Al and Chef Jerry give some tips and tricks. 

Goucher College President Jose Antonio Bowen comments on why the future of work is about being complimentary to technology, not dependent on it. 

Hector tells us what small business owners may need to consider in order to get health insurance for their employees. 

Anirban reports on average hourly earnings, the dwindling number of new entrants to the real estate market,  large  metropolitan areas losing population, Americans struggling to meet expenses, and those struggling to save for retirement. 

On July 7, 2007, Baltimoreans whose habit it was to look up nine stories to the top of the Bromo Seltzer tower to check the time on one of its four clocks --  facing east,  west, north, south—were bewildered. The clocks were out of sync, one with the other, and showing different times. The story--when Baltimoreans didn’t know the time of day!

During the 1960's, Rachel Carson raised the alarm about pesticides and their harmful effects on the environment and human beings.

Did you know that third grade is a pivotal year for students learning to read? Reading proficiently by the end of that grade can be a marker for successes through a student’s college years. Angelique Jessup, Program Director at the Baltimore Campaign for Grade Level Reading, tells us more about reading development.

High quality doesn't always have to break the bank.  Landmark Vineyards produces these two fine wines at very reasonable prices, both in the mid-$20's. Click the links to purchase Cellar Notes recommendations at Kenilworth Wine & Spirits.