Profile avatar
rkobell.bsky.social
Cover Balt Co. for The Baltimore Banner. Priors: Balt Sun, Bay Journal, Md. Sea Grant, etc. Produced Eroding History, on PBS.org now. Wolverine, Terp, Yinzer. Hopkins SNF AGORA, Knight-Wallace fellow. Writing book on E. Shore for JHU Press. Bunny/girlmom.
935 posts 1,626 followers 697 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter

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...

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.

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...

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/...

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

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...

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.

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...

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...

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

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...

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.

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...

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...

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...

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.

Floofing!

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...

Can smell it for an entire block.

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...

#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...

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...

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.

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."

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...

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

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!

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...

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...

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...

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

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...

Scarlet tanager.

Tunnel of love #bunnies.

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

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

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.

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.

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...

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!