Mid-Atlantic (DC DE MD PA VA WV)

"It’s finally peak bloom for the airy pink cherry blossoms in Washington, a welcome sign of spring in a city of concrete and granite continuously weighed down by the necessary heft of the nation’s decision-making."

"It’s the best of times in recent memory for Chesapeake Bay oysters. It’s just the opposite, though, for the Maryland and Virginia watermen who make a living harvesting them."

"In a scathing decision issued Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Maryland tossed out climate change lawsuits filed against fossil fuel companies by Baltimore, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, ruling the localities were stepping on the toes of the federal government."

"State regulators have allowed the Beaver County ethylene plant to keep exceeding limits on damaging nitrogen oxides while the official permitting process has taken seven times its original timeline."

"On a recent afternoon, deep in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and less than an hour’s drive from Shenandoah National Park, a tricolored bat was moving its mouth rapidly, as if it was trying to chew something. In fact, it was echolocating, using its mouth to shape and direct pulses of ultrasonic sound as a way to survey its surroundings."

"The massive sewage pipe that ruptured and leaked millions of gallons of raw waste into the Potomac River returned to operation Saturday after the completion of emergency repairs."

"On a recent afternoon, deep in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley and less than an hour’s drive from Shenandoah National Park, a tricolored bat was moving its mouth rapidly, as if it was trying to chew something. In fact, it was echolocating, using its mouth to shape and direct pulses of ultrasonic sound as a way to survey its surroundings."

"A portion of Baltimore’s suburbs, including the region’s busy airport, has been put under a growth moratorium to control the threat of more wet-weather sewage overflows into the Patapsco River. The stoppage could potentially last for years."