It takes real effort to penetrate the mysteries of Baltimore City government, where millions of dollars in public spending are approved in the blink of an eye and dollars disappear into the maw of departments that haven't been audited for decades. For citizens, there's plenty at stake, and we take you behind the headlines.

How good a job is Baltimore doing supplying residents with clean, affordable water and making changes that will finally ends its practice of releasing trash and millions of gallons of human waste into local waterways and Chesapeake Bay?

Millions are raised through government grants and star-studded galas, yet Baltimore's homeless services have been mired in bureaucracy and increasingly-harsh policy prescriptions, including encampment razing. Meanwhile, curled up in doorways and on friends' couches, thousands in the city still lack a place to call home.

Maryland’s system of letting party operatives fill legislative vacancies has led to some recent embarrassments, such as the House Majority Whip’s daughter getting a seat in Annapolis after breaking a 2-2 tie – by voting for herself. (A party leader tried to bar a Brew reporter from that meeting.) It's also led to some big, systemic problems - nearly a quarter of the legislature was not elected by voters, but rather appointed by small committees. Critics say when state politics is dominated by insiders - offspring, spouses, cronies - it's no surprise Maryland has been beset with corruption scandals.

Speak up at a Planning Commission meeting. Sign a Liquor Board petition about a problem business. Within your rights? Well, the first group was hit by a $25 million lawsuit and the second got a letter from lawyers threatening them with a suit. These are SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suits, generally filed by powerful parties that want to intimidate and shut down critics. There's a reason they're popping up so regularly around Baltimore and the region - watchdog groups say Maryland's laws to discourage them are among the weakest in the nation.

Baltimore Brew broke the key aspects of a controversy that dogged Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. ahead of his 2024 election to a Maryland Congressional seat. County pension officials had rejected the claim by a retired firefighter that he was entitled to credits from his days as a Baltimore City firefighter. Then came a change of tune: Philip Tirabassi, older brother of one of Olszewski’s high school buddies, got a $83,675 payment, obscured in public records under the fake name of "Philip Dough." The Brew revealed that the same two brothers had arranged for the purchase of land and the sale of a house for the county executive. We further disclosed that the county was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to thwart a PIA lawsuit about the secret payment. Or as County Administrator Stacy L. Rodgers said in an email published by The Brew, “Just so wrong on so MANY levels."

Links to Baltimore Brew's coverage of Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby and her husband, City Council President Nick Mosby, including the story we broke on July 16, 2020, about Marilyn Mosby's travel and private businesses.

There was fear among state employees in November after health-harming Legionella bacteria was found in their aging office buildings in Baltimore. Even more concerning was information exclusively reported by The Brew: the “lack of potable water” had been casually discussed for years and acknowledged specifically by an agency official in an email to staff January 25, 2024, eight months earlier. As we reported, employees had tried, without success, to get answers to reasonable questions: “Why the water was not potable. What was in it. Why we suddenly had these filters. How long there had been these problems with the water.”

Weeks before the death of Baltimore sanitation worker Ronald Silver II on a blistering hot August day, Inspector General Isabel Cumming had zeroed in on hazardous conditions at his workplace. We covered her findings at his workplace and others - no functioning air conditioning, broken thermostats, inoperable water fountains and no ice. Crews were dispatched on without cold water or Gatorade in trucks that, in many cases, were without air conditioning. After Silver died - he'd collapsed on a woman's doorstep, begging for water - the mayor promised a full investigation. But as The Brew reported, the D.C. law firm Scott hired was one that specializes in defending big employers and was leading an industry lobbying campaign to weaken OSHA's proposed workplace heat standards. Their report, which reached many of the same conclusions that Cumming did, will now guide the city, with officials promising improved conditions, safety training and procedures around workplace heat and more.

What should come next for Baltimore's Harborplace, the waterfront park and plaza that was wildly successful after it opened in 1980, but whose two retail pavilions now stand largely vacant? The latest revival plan - which includes removing height restrictions, razing the pavilions and letting a developer replace them with two tall harborside apartment towers - has sparked intense debate. Will the 900 new luxury residential units at the water's edge revive the city's "crown jewel"? Or privatize and deaden a cherished public space? And what to make of the process whereby P. David Bramble was chosen - "secretly," Mayor Brandon Scott declared in public remarks - to be the developer for the project?

At the ideal tavern, there's a jolly barkeep, convivial regulars and everybody knows your name. At the nuisance establishment? They sell cheap little bottles from 6 am to 2 am, attract loitering and drug-dealing, and thwart community leaders' efforts to lift up their neighborhoods. Critics say the Baltimore Liquor Board fails to protect communities from troublesome licensees. Reform efforts are underway. But so are powerful forces dedicated to keeping the status quo.

Baltimore Brew coverage of the Maryland 2024 primary and general elections

As part of a deal that Baltimore’s mayor struck with a developer, taxpayers will contribute $16 million to a new office building that the city will rent, not own. And they're locked into renting the space for a long time - until 2055. That's a $63 million to $80 million commitment over time. Mayor Scott points to the project’s potential to uplift a disinvested neighborhood. But does the deal also reflect his close ties to the developer, a heavy campaign contributor and fundraiser? Baltimore Brew first disclosed this complex and unpublicized arrangement, then went on to take a hard look at the details of the financing as well as the pros and cons of such a large public investment.

BIG DOLLARS, LITTLE OVERSIGHT Police officers making more than $200,000 a year, over half of it in overtime. Patrol officers who make few arrests pulling down more than the mayor. Lieutenants and sergeants making $100/hour via overtime work directing traffic at parades. Some of our findings after a comprehensive look at Baltimore's steadily rising spending for police overtime.

Baltimore Brew coverage of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that has claimed more than 14,000 lives worldwide. Staff reports on the impact of the pandemic on Baltimore, as the number of confirmed cases in the city and state increases dramatically.

In August 2020, Baltimore Brew broke the story of trouble at Strong City Baltimore - disclosing that the fiscal sponsorship powerhouse's finances were in deep disarray, with the small grassroots groups whose funds it manages wondering why they were unable to access their money. But even after the serious issues were exposed and Strong City officials said they were making corrections, the groups reported that their finances were still being mishandled. "The mismanagement and lack of transparency impacts tens of thousands of people, including youth, parents, homeless people, survivors of violence and other vulnerable populations," they said in an op-ed. Since then, Strong City ended its fiscal sponsorship initiative. And, as The Brew revealed, Baltimore's Inspector General began a probe, the U.S. Attorney's Office launched an investigation and the FBI was conducting interviews. The organization was also hit by a federal tax lien and a lawsuit by clients. In August 2023, three years after our initial story, former Strong City CEO Reginald Davis was indicted by a federal grand jury on three counts of wire fraud and money laundering.

A billionaire entrepreneur ready to invest his fortune for the betterment of Baltimore? As the city prepared in 2020 to hand over the biggest tax subsidy in history to Under Armour’s Kevin Plank for the Port Covington development, The Brew reviewed hundreds of pages of PIA-ed financial reports to reveal the risky underpinnings of the deal. Also documented: the cash contributions strategically shoveled out to city and state politicians.

Baltimore Brew coverage of the Maryland 2022 Gubernatorial primary and general elections

In 2022, Johns Hopkins University's highly regarded summer youth program - whose alums include Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and performer Lady Gaga - fell apart at the last minute. What prompted the mass cancellations at the Center for Talented Youth? The Brew found out.

The cracks in the building could be seen for months as they grew in size. A handsome 1860s townhouse in Baltimore's historic Mount Vernon neighborhood was being irreparably damaged by the novice developers working on an eight-story apartment building next door. The developer - who, as it happened, owned the damaged historic structure - said it could not be saved and 4 East Eager was demolished. How, in a city with housing inspectors, a planning staff and a preservation board, did this happen? Critics said it was part of a pattern of city government favoring business interests over historic building preservation. Baltimore Brew took a closer look.