Justin Fenton
@justin_fenton
Investigative reporter at the @BaltimoreBanner. Author of WE OWN THIS CITY, which became HBO miniseries. Support local news
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At 4:30, the council will get an update on fixes to a major backlog in housing/building permits. About half as many were issued in the first 5 months of 2025 as the same period the previous year. More on that here: thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-power…
The Baltimore City Council has a busy afternoon ahead. At 1, they'll host reps from local utilities including BGE and Vicinity to answer questions about a spate of underground fires. More on the fires from me and @HayesGardner here: thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-power…
After Trump cut billions for FEMA disaster prevention, a declining & conservative town on Maryland's Eastern Shore is left to fend off rising waters on its own. “We will not be here if we don’t have a major intervention,” the mayor told me. “That’s it.” thebaltimorebanner.com/community/clim…
Coming soon. We’re just getting things sorted out around here. #montgomerycountymd #localnews
Mike Johnson shuts US House until September to avoid Epstein vote on.ft.com/4f0CwWN
How a daring audit sparked Maryland’s reckoning over police custody deaths buff.ly/MwPlq0v
Before Maryland Gov. Wes Moore vetoed studying reparations for the state’s role in slavery and discrimination, he had privately drawn up his own order to create a study commission. @WintrodeBrenda & I take you behind the scenes in Annapolis: thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-power…
State police say inmate Elias Alvarado, 30, was killed at the North Branch Correctional Institution yesterday. Another inmate has been identified as the suspect. Alvarado was convicted in 2017 of killing two women in Baltimore with his bare hands: baltimoresun.com/2017/08/01/el-…
Four hospitalized for overdoses in Penn North just over a week after mass incident thebaltimorebanner.com/community/loca…
NEW | The pipes beneath Baltimore, which date to the 1890s, keep catching on fire and launching 323-pound manhole covers into the air. And there’s no consensus why. w/ @emilyopilo: thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-power…
Former SDNY deputy criminal chief:
Trump knows SDNY prosecutors seeking to indict Epstein and Maxwell didn’t ask questions about him in their grand jury presentations while he was POTUS. It’s a red herring to distract from the evidence that matters: witness interview notes, videos, photos, etc.
Exclusive: For Jeffrey Epstein’s 50th birthday, friends created a book of bawdy letters. One was from Donald Trump. on.wsj.com/3TL8s7C
A volunteer with the Anne Arundel County Police Reserve Officer Unit since 2016, Seth Jason, was arrested by the United States Capitol Police & charged with threatening to kill Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to dept & court records. "No longer affiliated with AACP," dept says
Update: A suspected “bad batch” of drugs that sent at least 27 people in West Baltimore to the hospital last week contained a drug that research chemists had not seen before in Maryland or any other states where the program tests drug samples: thebaltimorebanner.com/community/publ…
