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.

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.

Baltimore Brew coverage of Maryland's 2020 primary, originally scheduled for April 28 but pushed back now to June 2 as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. State election officials are recommending no in-person voting - advising citizens to mail-in or drop-off their ballots. However it's conducted, The Brew will be there to cover it.

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.

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.

The Brew disclosed that the city plans to demolish the former home of bandleader Cab Calloway - sparking a drive to preserve the house and debate over whether a park there would better serve a struggling community.

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?

A city-within-the-city on Baltimore's sleepy South Shore? That's what Under Armour's Kevin Plank has in mind for Port Covington. His company, Sagamore, has planned a massive mixed-use development there, centered on a new UA corporate headquarters. And they've asked taxpayers for the biggest financing package in city history - $660 million in bond funding for $535 million in infrastructure improvements. Why, many residents are asking, should a brand new mini-city get such massive aid when the old one has such urgent needs?

What caused the death of 2,000 fish, including 30"-long American eel, in a Baltimore County stream? A broken Baltimore city water pipe allowed to release millions of gallons of chlorinated water for 72 hours after it was reported by citizens, as The Brew first reported. Follow-up stories chronicle state and citizen efforts to hold city officials accountable.

Seeking transparency, reform and healing, grassroots groups and the ACLU of Maryland joined forces to push Baltimore to end the use of non-disclosure agreements to settle police misconduct lawsuits.

Power and Influence in Baltimore. The Catherine Pugh Healthy Holly scandal shined a light on the web of cozy relationships and questionable city government dealings that Baltimore Brew has been documenting for years. Our stories during this tumultuous year in Baltimore politics documented how deep-seated those relationships were - and still are.

Are Baltimore County's wastewater facilities adequate to handle the booming development in and around Towson? Chronic sewage overflows at Lake Roland suggest they are not. And a 2012 engineering study county officials commissioned - and had basically shelved - suggests the county was well aware of the problem.

Hate isn’t new. But the 2016 presidential election – filled with harsh rhetoric about race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, disability, trans status and religion – has generated troubling reports about a surge in hate crimes in America. Hate crimes and acts of bias are notoriously under-counted but Baltimore Brew is helping document them, though our reporting (archived here) and our partnership with ProPublica's "Documenting Hate" project.

Would an armed Johns Hopkins University police force make students, affiliates and the community safer? Or over-police the area, making some - particularly people of color - less safe? We delved into the protests, policy and politics around the proposal.

In 2019, the public learned about Catherine Pugh's corrupt self-dealing as a University of Maryland Medical System board member, but her ties to the hospital chain go back years. And Pugh was far from the only person benefiting from their seat on the Board. Brew reporting and analysis showed how the seeds of the scandal were sown in Baltimore and Annapolis amid lax ethics rules and a lucrative decision to turn the once public hospital into a profit-driven chain "run more like a business."

A gubernatorial race and several challenges to entrenched legislative seats are making for high drama in the upcoming election.

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.

A turbulent year of protests in 2015 made Baltimore take a hard look in the mirror and sent shock waves through the sleepy and secure political establishment. With the incumbent mayor's decision not to seek re-election and a large batch of City Council seats up for grabs, the 2016 election promises to be eventful.

The Fairfield Renewable Energy Project is a proposed trash-to-energy power plant in South Baltimore that would burn garbage, chopped-up tires and car parts and release hundreds of pounds of lead and mercury annually. It's been embraced as a job-creator by the city and the state, but it continues to be opposed by residents and environmental groups who say it will harm people's health.