Researchers dismayed as NASA's largest research library closes in Maryland; NBCWashington, January 2, 2026

Dominique Moody, NBCWashington ; Researchers dismayed as NASA's largest research library closes in Maryland

[Kip Currier: The Trump 2.0 closure of NASA's research library at at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland represents multiple policy failures:

The library's shuttering demonstrates a fundamental lack of understanding of the strategic access to information and data, archival preservation, and competitive intelligence capabilities that libraries and their staffs provide to researchers and scientists.

The closure also is an affront to the bedrock principle that cultural heritage institutions like libraries, archives, and museums offer historical continuity to societies by curating and stewarding information and memory over the course of centuries. Discarding accumulated knowledge like NASA's for short-term reasons squanders the collective heritage and treasure of this nation.]

[Excerpt]

"For the past 32 years, David Williams has curated former space mission data and spaceflight journals for NASA's Space Science Data Archive.

The large research library NASA has at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, was an incredibly important resource in that work. The library is a hub for thousands of books and scientific journals, many of them containing information that can't be found anywhere else.

"I was there all the time," Williams said. "It was just one of the main sources of information for me in order to make this database complete and to make this data useful for researchers."

That source is no longer available.

According to the Goddard Engineers, Scientists and Technicians' Association (GESTA)— a union representing hundreds of NASA employees — all in-person library services at the Goddard Space Flight Center were paused on Dec. 9 while staff completed a 60-day review of the collection.

The in-person services paused included checking out books from the library.

Around that same time, NASA management told GESTA that the library was set to close Friday, Jan. 2.

"I have a hard time imagining a research center of the high quality that Goddard is, or any center at NASA, how they will operate without a library, without a central collection," Williams said."

He thought he was too old to be an EMT. At 76, he’s saved countless lives.; The Washington Post, August 1, 2025

Kyle Melnick, The Washington Post ; He thought he was too old to be an EMT. At 76, he’s saved countless lives.

"The day a man collapsed in a parking lot in Bethesda, Maryland, EMT Ed Levien rushed in an ambulance to the scene, where the injured man repeatedly called for Jesus.

“Jesus isn’t here,” Levien recalled telling him. “You’ve got to put up with me.”

The man looked at Levien’s mustached face, his thinning gray hair and his round glasses and replied, “Okay, Pops.”

That’s how Levien, one of the oldest EMTs in Maryland, got his nickname a few years ago in the volunteer job that — to his surprise — has become an unintended second career and reshaped his identity.

“I never had an impact on anyone until I started doing this,” Levien, who previously worked in advertising, told The Washington Post.

Levien began working as a volunteer EMT when he was 65 years old, far surpassing the age of his colleagues at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad. After recovering from an unexpected injury — with the help of strangers — he decided to help others for as long as his body would allow."

Wes Moore and the Bronze Star He Claimed but Never Received; The New York Times, August 29, 2024

 Reid J. Epstein, The New York Times; Wes Moore and the Bronze Star He Claimed but Never Received

"Doug Sterner, a military historian and Vietnam veteran considered to be a leading researcher on military service claims, said that minor exaggerations about military service were common, but that imprecision about awards was more serious.

“Every veteran — I mean every veteran, even if they won’t admit it — has told a war story or embellished a little bit, but usually not about awards,” said Mr. Sterner, who helped draft the original version of the Stolen Valor Act, a law that criminalizes some false claims of military accomplishments, though not such assertions about a Bronze Star. “When you start embellishing about awards, then it becomes a problem.”"

Moms for Liberty is winning its fight to remove books from one Maryland school district; The Baltimore Banner, September 13, 2023

Kristen Griffith , The Baltimore Banner; Moms for Liberty is winning its fight to remove books from one Maryland school district

"Carroll County is among a growing number of Maryland school systems seeing pushes to remove books from their libraries as a national movement takes root here. The American Library Association reported in March that 2022 saw the highest number of book challenges since the organization was founded 20 years ago. The 1,269 attempts nearly double the challenges in 2021.

The Maryland Association of School Librarians has supported librarians facing book challenges in Wicomico, Worcester, Calvert, Somerset and Baltimore counties. But Carroll is the only one to change its book selection procedure in response."

Court Blocks Maryland’s Library E-book Law; Publishers Weekly, February 16, 2022

 Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly; Court Blocks Maryland’s Library E-book Law

"In a rebuke to Maryland state legislators, a federal judge has granted the Association of American Publishers’ motion for a preliminary injunction, blocking Maryland officials from enforcing the state's new library e-book law."

Maryland lawmaker-doctor won’t face ethics violation for tuning into legislative meetings from the operating room; The Baltimore Sun, November 19, 2021

 PAMELA WOOD, The Baltimore Sun; Maryland lawmaker-doctor won’t face ethics violation for tuning into legislative meetings from the operating room

 "Hill had initially defended her decision to join video meetings while at work as a doctor, saying her patients knew about it and she wasn’t putting them in any danger.

A Board of Physicians investigation found that one patient did not know Hill tuned into a legislative meeting, while the other patient was told about 10 minutes before surgery, but no consent paperwork was on file. Both legislative meetings where she appeared on camera from the operating room were streamed on the General Assembly’s website and YouTube channels."