Bill was a political and investigative reporter in Washington from the 1980s until 2020, when he joined the University of Maryland's Howard Center for Investigative Journalism as a visiting professional. Fruits of those labors digging into saltwater intrusion, a lesser known impact from the climate crisis, can be found here and in the archives of various newspapers.

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       In 2021, Bill became a partner with his wife, Sandra Olivetti Martin, in New Bay Books, a publishing house.

 

       Bill began his career as an intern and later a correspondent in the Illinois Statehouse, in his home state. He became a St Louis Post-Dispatch Washington correspondent  in 1984 and later bureau chief. In 2013 he joined the Hearst Newspapers Washington Bureau as a national investigative reporter and later wrote primarily for Hearst's Texas papers, among them the San Antonio Express-News and the Houston Chronicle.

              

       He has won a number of journalism prizes and was nominated for the Pulitzer on multiple occasions. He is the author of two books, including the acclaimed Dinner at the New Gene Café. He is co-founder of his family's Bay Weekly in Annapolis, the largest weekly newspaper covering Chesapeake Bay -- sold in early 2020 to Chesapeake Bay Media.

 

      Bill covered presidential campaigns starting in the 1980s, attending 16 national conventions. He focused a fair amount on Congress, albeit grudgingly after toxic politics left Capitol Hill largely incapable of dealing with Americans’ problems.  Over the years he has reported often at the intersection of politics and science on a mix of public policy matters, from biotechnology to biofuels to water policy on America’s big rivers. He has conducted many environmental investigations, some on foreign soils.