The stench can be overpowering. A rotten egg cloud so sour it causes headaches and watery eyes. Residents weep as they describe the feelings of nausea and helplessness, sick with the frustration of suffering this miasma.

I’m recounting the almost forgotten, violent history of the days after enslaved Marylanders were freed not because I want to spoil the Juneteenth Parade and Festival on June 22. But appreciating the meaning of this holiday is more than just a party. It is about honoring survival.

There are plenty of partisans in America right now. We’re a country overflowing with pundits and provocateurs. Rep. Jamie Raskin, though, is something apart.

A year, 365 days. It’s not enough to heal when someone you love is shot to death. Maybe all the time in the world isn’t enough.

For once in what sometimes feels like our miserable, national march toward oblivion, the worst didn’t happen. If all goes as planned, the 700-foot channel into the port, 50 feet deep, will be certified free of dangerous debris and declared reopened by Monday. Maryland is ready to rebuild.

You could catch the music of George and Ira Gershwin at the Classic Theatre of Maryland in Annapolis, listen to the great John Hiatt or try a new run and paddle club. Those are just some of the great things to do over the next seven months.

It’s a long seven months to Inauguration Day 2025, and it will take some magic to get us through the coming wave of rage. Enter crab dip.

John Sarbanes is exactly the right person to ask about fixing Congress. It’s his cause. His answer is long and flows from The Federalist Papers to the fall elections. It isn’t Congress that’s broken, he says, it’s us.

L. Rodgers may have been eliminated on the NBC talent show “The Voice,” but she’s still got a hometown following.

You may be wishing Maryland had never abandoned the network of ferries that once glided along the Chesapeake Bay. But if ferry service is restored someday, it will be about tourism, not easing traffic jams.

When midshipmen graduating from the Naval Academy today reach retirement age in 2066, the Chesapeake Bay will be more than a foot higher.

Pleasant weather means the pace of life in Annapolis shifts outdoors, and one of the most pleasant things about the season may be the opportunity to enjoy theater under the stars.

Ralph Parker’s story is unlike any others you’ll hear as we approach Memorial Day. It is about secrets and secret families, and a man who otherwise won’t be celebrated.

When the mayor of Annapolis plans a $10 million, glass-walled maritime welcome center at City Dock — right on top of an $88 million public works project to save downtown by lifting part of it above climate-driven flooding — Historic Annapolis pays attention. The question is, is anyone listening?

I recently caught up with state Sen. Sarah Elfreth over coffee, days after she won the Democratic nomination for Congress in Maryland's 6th District. She recently adopted a puppy named Ollie and thinks often of the late House Speaker Mike Busch, who encouraged and inspired her.

There are four chances to catch the Blue Angels during the Naval Academy’s Commissioning Week in Annapolis, which begins May 17.

The rally came out of Prince George’s County just after midnight when police were alerted it was on the move. Anne Arundel County Police say the drivers were headed for the Giant Food parking lot in Gambrills, where they planned to set up an exhibition of wildness behind the wheel.

Democratic voters — early voting is over and election day is Tuesday — have to decide not just who is better for the job, David Trone or Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks. They have to decide if his spending so much of his own money to win an election is, well, right.

Montgomery County is the beast that beats them among Maryland’s local governments. Its budget proposal is a whopping $7.1 billion, more than the combined spending plans for Anne Arundel, Howard and Frederick — plus seven of the state’s 16 smaller counties. Why should you care? What happens there affects the rest of us.

Here’s a look at great things to do in Annapolis for the week starting May 9.