MarylandReporter.com (https://marylandreporter.com/category/news/)
Capital News Service gathered data from the 2019 legislative session and conducted an analysis to report on some of the most striking takeaways from the General Assembly. In the Senate and House of Delegates, 188 legislators introduced 2,497 bills, which includes 16 joint resolutions. Both chambers passed 866 bills, two of which were joint resolutions.
In a city marked by startling inequity, leaf cover is just one more thing that has been historically distributed in unequal measure. Baltimore’s poorest areas tend to have less tree canopy than wealthier areas, a pattern that is especially pronounced on the concrete-dense east side, in neighborhoods like Broadway East.
Heat waves are especially perilous because consecutive days with the heat index at 103 degrees or above greatly increase risks for older people, children, pregnant women and anyone with heat-affected chronic disease.
Researchers have mapped neighborhoods called urban heat islands, and data shows that temperatures here and in surrounding neighborhoods can run 8 degrees hotter than in communities that have more trees and less pavement. McElderry Park in Baltimore is one of these.
Gov. Larry Hogan’s announcement last week that he will only consider a third Bay Bridge next to the existing spans on Kent Island was welcome news to leaders in Kent and Queen Anne’s counties, but reaction from conservation groups was mixed.
While supplies were generally ample in the Lower Bay through spring into summer, crabbers in other places had a hard time finding enough of the crustaceans to satisfy their crab-craving customers.
The Bay continued to be on the receiving end of high river flows in July. The flows have been higher than normal for 13 out of the last 15 months, according to data from the U.S. Geological Survey. The pollution carried into the Bay during that span has led to worse than normal water
There was Hysteria for Comptroller Peter Franchot in Columbia Thursday evening. Or was it Franchot for Hysteria, a craft brewery in an industrial park? The free beer and pizza for over 100 guests were part of Franchot’s continuing taproom tour across Maryland in his not-yet-official campaign for governor.
The full impact of last year’s high flows on the Chesapeake’s underwater grasses, one of the Bay’s most critical habitats, remains murky as scientists try to assess the full impact of last year’s record rainfall. The good news, according to the results of the 2018 aerial survey, is that underwater grass acreage increased overall from 2017 in areas where the survey was completed. But the full story is far from clear. Most of that survey was finished before unrelenting rains began in late July.
A new National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report, shows that rising seas are inducing a particular type of increased flooding around the country. The phenomenon, known as high-tide or “sunny day” flooding because of the absence of rainfall as a trigger, struck a median of five days last year at nearly 100 coastal locations, tying the record set in 2015.
The annual Tawes Crab and Clam Bake in Crisfield on the Lower Shore of the Chesapeake is always hot, but Wednesday it wasn’t just the crabs that were steamed and the clams that were baked. The main topic of the day was how hot it was. Cell phones were registering that it felt over 100 degrees. Gov. Larry Hogan, who posed for hundreds of photos as he worked the crowds for three hours, said it was the hottest he could recall. Here is a gallery of photos from the day.
