Best of Baltimore
EDITED BY
Ron Cassie
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE MORGAN
INVESTIGATIVE SERIES
Alissa Zhu, Jessica Gallagher, and Nick Thieme
Over the course of a mammoth, two-year reporting effort, Baltimore Banner reporters Alissa Zhu, Jessica Gallagher, and Nick Thieme, in partnership with The New York Times, published more than two dozen stories around the city’s deadly opioid crisis. Suing to obtain data previously hidden from public view, the trio uncovered that nearly 6,000 Baltimoreans had died over the past six years from overdoses. Their work, garnering the Banner’s first Pulitzer Prize, revealed older Black men were disproportionately overrepresented in the fatality numbers, as well as the disconcerting neglect of one of the state’s largest treatment providers.
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CARTOONIST
KEVIN “KAL” KALLAUGHER
If a picture is worth 1,000 words, so is a great editorial cartoon. Generations from now, historians will turn to the satire of Kevin “Kal” Kallaugher to better grasp this chaotic chapter in American politics. Working simultaneously for The Economist and The Baltimore Sun, the Baltimore-based cartoonist known as KAL was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2015 and 2020. Simply put, his critiques of the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, and especially those of the insatiable, power-hungry resident of the White House, are as sharp as any political writer knocking out columns today. Which makes his firing, after 31 years at The Sun, all the more unfathomable.
COLLABORATION
THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND’S PHILIP MERRILL COLLEGE OF JOURNALISM
The University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism earned its first Pulitzer Prize recognition this year. Its Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism joined forces with Arizona State University—in partnership The Associated Press and PBS’ Frontline—and were named finalists in the investigative reporting category for their project, “Lethal Restraint.” In more than a dozen stories, they documented instances where police tactics intentionally designed to stop people without killing them nonetheless resulted in more than 1,000 deaths over a recent nine-year period. The cause of death in hundreds of the tragic events? Poor training and officers not following best practices.
1980
5TH ANNUALL
Best of Baltimore:
BEST & WORST OF BALTIMORE
NO, WE’RE NOT SURE WHY A woman with a hibiscus in her hair is drinking out of a pineapple either. (This is not the Best of Hawaii, people.) But our 1980 BOB did feature a “Best Exotic Drink”—Pineapple Paradise from Jimmy Wu’s New China Inn. This issue is chock-full of long-gone businesses, including “Best Salad Bar” (those were trending in 1980) at Meushaw’s on Security Blvd., and “Best Cheap Dinner Special” from Hollander’s restaurant on 25th Street (it featured lamb chops, calves’ liver, Canadian bacon, and a baked potato for $7.95—defibrillator not included). In another oh-so- ’80s moment, Mt. Washington Tavern won “Best Place to Watch Preppies.”
FEATURE STORY
JEAN MARBELLA
In “Who Was the Real ‘Lady in the Lake,’” The Sun’s Jean Marbella—long one of the best writers of journalism around—takes readers back to the summer of 1969. The title subject is Shirley Parker, whose mysterious disappearance—her body was found in the fountain at Druid Hill Lake— inspired Laura Lippman’s book, Lady in the Lake, and the subsequent 2024 AppleTV+ miniseries. Marbella went further than reviewing the TV series, recalling the investigation and interviewing a one-time suspect and survivors close to Parker— whose story, Marbella writes, “is perhaps even more of a mystery as time has further blurred memories and motivations.”
PHOTOGRAPHER
AMY DAVIS
Amy Davis’ daily photojournalism will be missed. The award-winning Sun photographer, who chronicled 72 of Baltimore’s historic former movie houses in her revelatory 2017 hardcover book, Flickering Treasures, retired this spring after 38 years. Davis’ departure is one of several noteworthy resignations from Baltimore’s longtime paper of the record, including renowned columnist Dan Rodricks and superb obituary writer Frederick Rasmussen. Leaving on a high note, Davis’ photo of a girl basking in a sculpture basin beneath falling magnolia blossoms won First Place in the Division A Features category at the 2024 MDDC Press Association Awards.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE MORGAN
RADIO HOST
Sheilah Kast
Approaching a milestone 20th year at WYPR, Sheilah Kast has always been one of Baltimore’s best, most informed, and most inquisitive interviewers. A former Washington Star print journalist and ABC News correspondent— where she covered the White House, Congress, and the economy—the host of On The Record brings a seasoned reporter’s preparedness to each wide-ranging segment. After coming to WYPR from NPR in 2006, she and her former Maryland Morning team won a prestigious 2014 Dupont-Columbia University award for a yearlong probe of inequality in the region called “The Lines Between Us.”
ARCHIVES
The Afro-American
The Afro-American continues to build out and share its rich archives through partnerships, exhibitions, and panel discussions— like one this past April at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum on the future of media— always managing to inform and connect Baltimoreans to each other and their city.
COMMUNITY MUSEUM
The Peale
Recent compelling Peale museum exhibitions include the youth-designed “Toxic Overburden: 100 Years of Environmental Injustice and Resistance,” which documented South Baltimore’s ongoing pollution crisis, and “The Future of Here: A Glimpse of River Culture to Come,” which reimagines the future of the Jones Falls.
OUTREACH
Baltimore Beat
Community is built into the Baltimore Beat’s ethos. Manifested in its free print newspaper and “Beat Boxes,” which include free, needed items, the Beat also hosted a series of Lexington Market conversations this spring around the 10-year anniversary of the death of Freddie Gray.
PUBLIC HISTORY
The Baltimore Legacy Project
Morgan State University professor S. Rasheem’s Baltimore Legacy Project is rooted in the belief that the experiences of community elders are crucial in capturing the city’s story. The effort’s first docuseries installment, Baltimore Still Rising, premiered at The Senator Theatre in April, highlighting personal accounts of the events following the death of Freddie Gray.
YOUTH ENGAGEMENT
Wide Angle Youth Media
For 25 years, Wide Angle Youth Media has engaged Baltimore youth, providing the tools, teaching, and experience to create media projects about their own lives and community. Check Wide Angle events to see what the next generation of Baltimore’s photographers and filmmakers are up to.
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RELIGION REPORTING
JESSICA CALEFATI, JULIE SCHARPER, AND JUSTIN FENTON
Banner reporters Jessica Calefati, Julie Scharper, and Justin Fenton received the 2025 Dart Award for their “Uncovering Abuse at Greater Grace Church” series, which investigated allegations of child sexual abuse at Greater Grace World Outreach and the church’s handling of the accusations. Judges for the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma award, a project of the Columbia Journalism School, described the series as “[unfolding] with depth and discipline, supported by richly reported character arcs and clearly annotated timelines” to show how survivors “uncovered the church’s web of lies and demanded accountability.”
SUBSTACK
JOHN EISENBERG
John Eisenberg was a Sun sports columnist for 27 years, one of the paper’s long string of accomplished baseball writers. He is also the author of 12 books, including From 33rd Street to Camden Yards: An Oral History of the Baltimore Orioles. If you’re an O’s fan in need of great baseball stories this underwhelming season, head straight to Eisenberg’s The Bird Tapes. Rich with content, including audio taped interviews with the likes of Paul Blair, Brooks Robinson, and Janet Marie Smith—the woman behind Camden Yards—culled from his reporting, even the site’s free content is not to be missed.
UNDERGRADUATE JOURNALISM
THE JOHNS HOPKINS NEWS-LETTER
The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, published by students since 1896, remains a valued resource—not just for Baltimore’s acclaimed institution of higher learning, but for the broader city. Case study: Current co-managing editor Cathy Wang’s deep dive last year, “An investigation into the University’s controversial real estate holdings,” examined the controversial relationship between Baltimore’s largest tax-exempt property owner and the city. A Collier Award finalist in the Ethics & Journalism Initiative at New York University, Wang’s story concisely and clearly laid out Hopkins’ often-fraught real estate history— from redlining, gentrification, and forced displacement to unnecessary tax breaks—making a case for the need for community voices in the school’s decision-making process.
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Explore The Winners
