This story has been updated with more reporting from Wesley Case, Tony Planas and @kaitlinobscura.bsky.social.

Do your kids neeeeeed NeeDoh? I *stretched* myself as a reporter and found out why the squishy toys are so hard to get right now. www.thebanner.com/culture/life...

De'Jonnae and her husband José live by one universal truth: Reunification is the goal. These foster parents have taken in 15 kids over 5 years, making them an outlier in a state where the number of foster parents has been declining and half tap out after just 1 year www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

Meet the white-haired activists leading Baltimore’s opposition to Trump

After a developer's bid for a Remington dump backfired, he's thinking bigger. Seawall reached a deal this month that looks to some like a step toward a long-held Baltimore dream: to turn the banks of the beleaguered Jones Falls into a park. w @emilyopilo.bsky.social www.thebanner.com/community/cl...

Everyone knows it takes a village to raise a child. But as extended families live increasingly far apart and the cost of living rises, many parents find themselves without the help they need. So moms started building their home away from home in West Baltimore. www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

Historians, scholars and artists are working to unearth, record, preserve and share Maryland’s LGBTQ+ history— work they say is all the more urgent as the Trump administration and conservative legislatures try to roll back the rights of queer people www.thebanner.com/community/lo...

There's a stretch of Maryland that's next to BWI and just north of Fort Meade. It holds housing, the Arundel Mills mall and has been targeted for growth and development. And it's under a complete development moratorium that seems to have come without warning. Read more in @thebaltimorebanner.com —

By Wesley Case: All the smokes: How a Hopkins professor’s mushroom trip led to 1,000 paintings of cigarettes. (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

Kids in the "iPad generation" have grown more reliant on screens at home and in school since the pandemic. The head of Baltimore's public schools has had enough. She introduced screen time and digital device limits, though she doesn't think they go far enough. www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

Thanks, Laura! I love seeing how passionate your fans are. And of course I did write an article about you when you joined us for the Banner Book Club last fall. www.thebanner.com/culture/book...

To celebrate #AWP26, I compiled some of my favorite stories about Baltimore writers, including Ta-Nehisi Coates’ dad’s press, Gertrude Stein’s neighborhood love triangle and the house Zelda Fitzgerald caught on fire. www.thebanner.com/culture/book...

Also, @awpwriter.org this week!!! Don’t miss it!! #AWP26

If you are coming to Baltimore for #AWP26 you should know that we have: 1) a kickass two story radical bookstore 2) a worker owned vegan restaurant, coffee shop, and bar 3) a packed schedule of evening offsite events with 20 presses and 100+ authors redemmas.org/awp/

Ex-Harford County sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 36 years for sexually exploiting 2 children. (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

So I wrote about the Baltimore potholes, because yikes. www.thebanner.com/opinion/colu...

Hundreds of Panamanian golden frogs are breeding in a closed-to-the-public section of the @marylandzoo.bsky.social in an effort to save them from extinction. Soon, zoo workers plan to bring some back to Panama…

A hopeful story in a bleak time… In the early 2000s, as a lethal fungus was descending on Panama’s cloud forests, scientists sent the region’s beloved golden frogs to zoos around the world 🍄‍🟫 🐸 ✈️ (1 of 3)

ICE vehicles gone from Baltimore’s Symphony Center parking garage

Did you look up your senator? Did their answer surprise you? Drop me a message. DMs open. Email [email protected]

A little bit of happy for your Wed. morning: We've been reporting for months that the federal immigration crackdown is keeping some scared immigrant families from venturing outside their homes. Norma Montesino is the bilingual Santa Claus bringing reading to them. www.thebanner.com/education/ea...

No one seems to agree on what "downtown Baltimore" actually is. Is it a narrow strip of land near the harbor? Does it include Mount Vernon? The @thebaltimorebanner.com office? Help us figure this out! Use our new tool to draw what you think of as downtown: www.thebanner.com/economy/grow...

A snow day read: Who is Winnie Harris? She wrote her will in the pages of a Bible. It became a state record, $ now it lives at the Maryland State Archives — where what she wrote & other records give a glimpse into Black life in Baltimore shortly after emancipation. More in @thebaltimorebanner.com

Column: Baltimore County public school students have only had two full weeks of school since winter began on Dec. 20. Now it’s the fourth week of February and parents are tired. buff.ly/Mc8BDwk

Snow covers Ocean City beaches as winter storm wallops Eastern Shore

The "death ball" is taking over pro ball 💀 It might just be the pitch that helps top Orioles pitching prospect Trey Gibson reach the big leagues

@thebaltimorebanner.com Book Club is Tuesday, with author Tre Johnson discussing his debut book "Black Genius" with @tramonlucas.bsky.social www.thebanner.com/culture/book...

I love my children so much my heart could burst. I would walk through fire for them. But I cannot make them another round of quesadillas. www.thebanner.com/education/k-...

By @juliemore19.bsky.social: Who took the tiger’s head from the Maryland Club? (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

The longest-running Black-owned family newspaper and the third-oldest Black-owned business in the U.S today, The Baltimore Afro American's beginnings in the aftermath of Reconstruction—and its staying power—are almost impossible to wrap one’s head around.

Is an ICE legal office opening in Hunt Valley? Baltimore County executive calls emergency council meeting after federal lease news. www.thebanner.com/politics-pow...

Happy Valentine’s Day. For nearly two years, this photo has lived rent free in my mind. I finally got to find out what happened to Ellin and Franklin, the former Frederick Douglass High School students whose spark electrified this photo from 1942. www.thebanner.com/community/fa...

Who sewed the Star-Spangled Banner? Not Betsy Ross! It was Baltimore's own Mary Pickersgill and today is her 250th birthday. www.thebanner.com/culture/life...

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Sending shockwaves through Baltimore!: The Brewer’s Art, a Mount Vernon mainstay, abruptly closes after 30 years, @juliemore19.bsky.social reports www.thebanner.com/culture/food...

In N Out is known for not being on every corner like other burger chains. You won’t find it in Maryland, but I had to investigate whether a new burger spot compared. www.thebanner.com/culture/food...

Household items are making their way outdoors in Baltimore. Do you save your parking spot after a snowstorm? www.thebanner.com/community/tr...

Here are seven ways to save a snow day when it’s too cold to play outside. www.thebanner.com/community/fa...

The Center City District has changed the schedule of its popular restaurant promotion to winter only.

“I really feel like I kind of tapped into this need for community. Especially in your 20s, it’s pretty difficult to make friends, no matter where you live.” www.thebanner.com/culture/life...

Jack Cover's name might not be known by most Baltimoreans, but many of us have experienced his work. Cover curated most of the National Aquarium's major exhibits, helped create the Inner Harbor’s floating wetlands, and even rescued a python from Mr. Trash Wheel. www.thebanner.com/obituaries/j...

YouTuber Nick Shirley came to Baltimore to talk about fentanyl. People weren’t happy, @alissazhu.bsky.social reports. (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

What do a Twinkie, a butterscotch candy, a ball of foil and a severed head have a common? They’re all things crows have brought to Marylanders. www.thebanner.com/baltimore/cr...

By @juliemore19.bsky.social: Crows bring gifts to some Marylanders, but murders leave their marks. (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

By @juliemore19.bsky.social: A genetic disease is stealing their toddler. A blood test at birth could have saved her. (📸: @jessicagallagher.bsky.social) (via @thebaltimorebanner.com)

New for @thebaltimorebanner.com -- Baltimore won a unique carveout in Purdue Pharma's massive bankruptcy restructuring plan: the city can keep suing the Sackler family for their role in the opioid crisis.

15 years ago, it looked like the effort to save the Chesapeake Bay had turned a corner. "There was a collective sense," said one longtime federal scientist, “that we had broken through." Today, he and others worry that, four decades in, the movement is losing steam: www.thebanner.com/community/cl...