rkobell.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

The nice thing about having an election is that you get to know the candidates before you choose! Baltimore County voters did not have that opportunity; their most recent CE was appointed. Anne Arundel will, though, and Alex Mann tells us who they are. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

submitted 3 hours ago • 0 comments

I will forever be grateful to @kyoshino.bsky.social for hiring me at @thebaltimorebanner.com to cover #Baltimore County. She believed in me at a time when my own confidence was shaky. I can't wait to see what she will do at @washingtonpost.com, which is lucky to have her.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

I loved this story about leader-moms. I take my daughters on some assignments, too. I want them to understand they can be anything they want. There will be obstacles. They will surmount them - because they have seen us do it and know it's possible. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

Young women, women of color, thin women, heavy women - doctors dismiss all of us. Advocate for yourself. I was passed out and needed five blood transfusions before doctors agreed to remove my dangerous fibroid, though I'd been having pain for months. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

People get mad at me on bluesky but I rarely get called slurs, see someone posting a bullshit chart about how people like me are subhuman, and no one complains when i Romapost. People seem to actually read pieces I share! As far as social media experiences go it’s about as good as it gets

submitted 1 day ago • 125 comments

We need more mallets, crabs, baseball, beer, good friends, and joy. Thanks, @afkostka.bsky.social for a heartwarming story inspired by the Banner's own pasta-in-a-bag couple! www.thebaltimorebanner.com/sports/oriol...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Reminder that I AM LATINA AND PROUD. I am the product of immigration - my grandmother was undocumented and entered the country from Mexico as a baby. My mother was a fierce, gorgeous Latina woman of Mexican and Spanish descent.

submitted 2 days ago • 722 comments

Trump took Maya Angelou out of the Naval Academy library and Harriet Tubman off the Underground Railroad page. Black women in #Baltimore County politics are telling their daughters, we will not be erased. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/newsletters/... www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

As the Trump Administration cracks down on diversity programs and seeks to erase Black history from libraries and museums, Black women are making sure their daughters can see them leading and claiming their places and spaces. Love these photos! www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/lo...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

Rep. Andy Harris - the self-proclaimed anti-pork Congressman - and the $99 million in earmarks he's requesting. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 2 days ago • 0 comments

May 9th: #Baltimore Co IG submitted a report to the CE regarding a relative of former CE Johnny Olszewski, now in Congress, doing campaign work in a county car. May 12: IG is told she would not be automatically re-appointed. @codyboteler.bsky.social www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

This pretty kitty was helping me write my stories today. She’s a ragdoll cat. I’m allergic so I didn’t pet her, which displeased her.

submitted 5 days ago • 3 comments

The Klausmeier panel may be moot, because four of the seven councilmen have said they will only vote for Kelly Madigan. Two others support Madigan but won't commit to that. And one has not committed one way or the other. A new IG needs council approval. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Hard disagree. I rarely post to X, and when I do, it's only work-related. This has become my new home, flawed as it may be. #bluesky. www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

You have to be able to see yourself in books. Carla Hayden did, and it brought her to this place: the country's top librarian. Then, Trump fired her in two sentences. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/carla-hayden...

submitted 5 days ago • 0 comments

Don't let the fact the Orioles are playing baseball tonight distract you from what's happening in LA and elsewhere. That's all I'll write. But don't let it become normal.

submitted 6 days ago • 12 comments

Floofing!

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

I tried for five months to get a sit down with the CE. I got one this week. A lot of the news we already pulled out and ran earlier this week, but you can see the rest of it here. You can't require public officials to do interviews. You can just ask a lot. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Can smell it for an entire block.

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

What REALLY happened with the decision not to re-appoint Inspector General Kelly Madigan? I've been on this story since it broke, and I still don't know. This story doesn't clarify matters, but it does make the denouement all the more interesting. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

#BaltimoreCounty is changing. It's making history by altering the way its 850,000 people are represented. The process of change is not always pretty. In fact, historically, it's been quite ugly. But I try to explain what it means to us, and why it's vital. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Do you want to know why the #Baltimore County Executive Kathy Klausmeier did not re-appoint the popular Inspector General, who has been diligently investigating waste and fraud in the County of Spiro Agnew? I did, too, so I asked her. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/politics-pow...

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

They all think their sheriff is corrupt and should be in prison. They all think Trump should not have pardoned him. And they all voted for Trump, and probably will do so again. Journalists are doing their job informing the public. But if the voters don't act on the information, nothing ever changes.

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

Today, 23 years ago, The Wire premiered on HBO. It changed TV, it changed #Baltimore, and it helped to launch the careers of some of our best actors. (Hello, @wendellpierce.bsky.social.) Thanks to WTMD for playing me into downtown this morning with the Blind Boys of Alabama's "Way Down in the Hole."

submitted 11 days ago • 0 comments

The Trump administration has killed a $600 million grant to Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine for H5N1 influenza. @helenbranswell.bsky.social reports. www.statnews.com/2025/05/28/m...

submitted 16 days ago • 7 comments

The Trump administration is shutting down a landmark lab for measuring the impact of air pollution on health. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Everyone is trying to get away from midges, including me, especially today. But just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in!

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

You say #climatechange doesn't impact daily life? You'd feel differently if you lived on the #Chesapeake and could not open your door due to #midges. The cause: cycle of drought, followed by deluge. The cure costs millions, and takes years - if it works. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cl...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

In the past 14 months of covering #Baltimore County, I've called attention to many problems. And I will continue to do so. But it's nice to write about something that's working well, and the "Merf" seems to be one of those things. @sejorg.bsky.social www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cl...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

Anyway we all know that reality-TV is merely bread and circuses to distract us, and that understanding it will give you no insight into politics and the currents of history. Unrelated, here's what the host of The Apprentice did for the stars of Chrisley Knows Best www.nytimes.com/2025/05/27/u...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Life hack: When @rkobell.bsky.social leads a headline with the word “yes,” read that story. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cl...

submitted 16 days ago • 1 comment

My beat may no longer be the environment, but you can't take caring about the planet out of the girl. Any excuse to wear a hardhat and safety vest? I'm suiting up! This story also busted a popular myth that #Baltimore County doesn't recycle. It does. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cl...

submitted 16 days ago • 0 comments

Scarlet tanager.

submitted 17 days ago • 0 comments

Tunnel of love #bunnies.

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

“Lecherous and proud,” declared the shirt. Sir, respectfully suggest you not wear it near the HR department.

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Beavers not taking the weekend off! @bengoldfarb.bsky.social

submitted 19 days ago • 1 comment

I am not ashamed to say I take Lexapro. And that if you met me before I began, vs. after, you would see differences. Like many people have said, the right one of these medications flips a switch in your head. I am not a different person, but a better version - better wife, mom, and journalist.

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

JohnnyO promised a friend of his father's a beautiful new golf course, courtesy of the taxpayers. But the Baltimore County Council said no to the $6.6 million for Rocky Point. In a nearly $5 billion budget, it was the only thing they cut. I'm proud of my reporting on this one.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

This is the second lowest count since the crab survey began in 1990. What happened after the first lowest count, in '08? Md and Va declared an emergency; Mikulski and Kaine brought in $15 million to help, and crabbers suffered from harvest cuts. www.thebaltimorebanner.com/community/cl...

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

Grateful to @kyoshino.bsky.social for hiring me more than a year ago and bringing me into a wonderful newsroom at @thebaltimorebanner.com. Wishing her all good things at The Post! May the stories all be relentlessly interesting!

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments