VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) — Four were engineers who worked to maintain streets and protect wetlands. Three were right-of-way agents who reviewed property lines. The others included an account clerk, a technician, an administrative assistant and a special projects coordinator. In all, they had served the city of Virginia Beach for more than 150 years. These 11 city employees and one contractor ... Read More

May 23--Through the last decade’s roller coaster of recession and recovery, Philadelphia has managed to keep adding new housing at a steady pace -- some 20,000 units since 2006. Old industrial buildings were turned into apartments. New rowhouses sprouted on empty lots. Philadelphia officially became a city of renters in 2017, when the apartment count surpassed the number of owner-occupied ... Read More

May 20-- May 20--Construction crews trying to cleanup a Superfund site in Portsmouth three years ago accidentally moved three piers of the South Norfolk Jordan Bridge, according to court documents. One shifted 3 1/2 inches, another 2 1/2 inches and a third 1 1/2 inches. Despite the movement, the bridge is "safe and functioning," according to an attorney for its owner. The pier footings and ... Read More

May 18-- May 18--A gas company has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Maryland after state officials unanimously rejected plans for a pipeline that would carry fracked natural gas through three miles of Western Maryland. Columbia Gas Transmission, which is owned by TransCanada Corp., filed the lawsuit Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. It seeks a preliminary injunction to ... Read More

May 14-- May 14--A man died from injuries sustained in an accident Tuesday morning at a high-rise construction site in City Center at Oyster Point, according to Newport News police. Spokesman Brandon Maynard said in a news release that dispatchers received a call at 7:45 a.m about the accident at the construction site supervised by Newport News-based contractor W.M. Jordan Company on Lakefront ... Read More

BALTIMORE (AP) — A $5.5 billion redevelopment effort that aims to transform a mostly forsaken Baltimore waterfront is moving forward, as officials held a Monday groundbreaking for the latest phase of what's been touted as one of America's biggest urban renewal efforts. Developers and politicians held the ceremonial gathering for the Port Covington redevelopment vision conceived by Kevin Plank, ... Read More

May 13-- May 13--Howard County will spend as much as $140 million to ease the deadly flooding that sweeps into historic Ellicott City. The massive civil works project involves boring a massive tunnel under Main Street to divert the storm water that rushes down the steep-sided valley into the quaint mill town. Four buildings on the lower part on the historic strip also will be razed, county ... Read More

May 09--Starting in the early ‘60s, newspaper companies began slipping out of cities and following their readers to the suburbs, where they erected graceless, low-slung buildings, usually near highway interchanges. Since these buildings tended to be conceived as printing plants, the newsroom and office spaces were often tacked on as an afterthought. I know this first-hand because, as a young ... Read More