BALTIMORE – The lobby of the beige brick building on Pine Street is alive with color: showy African gowns printed in gold, black, red and green vie for prominence with embroidered Mexican blouses and Brazilian soccer jerseys in blinding yellow

BALTIMORE – The air temperature is dropping quickly around the Salvation Army distribution center on Buena Vista Road, where Frank and Betty Russell stand hatless and gloveless, waiting for the food distribution van in which they have volunteered every Tuesday night for the past fifteen years

BALTIMORE – Catholic bishops approved by a large margin Tuesday a plan for ministering to gays and lesbians in the church with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity,” while maintaining that homosexual acts are “always wrong

BALTIMORE – Standing before a small congregation, her voice ringing off the walls almost powerfully enough to send the window blinds swinging, Dr

COLLEGE PARK – Parise Henry didn’t know what to say when she saw what a couple of students in her high school computer class had done with her picture

BALTIMORE – The University System of Maryland Board of Regents approved a tougher ethics policy for its members on Friday that prohibits paid lobbying and sets stricter standards on conflicts of interest

BALTIMORE – Shrugging off the implication she is building castles in the sky, doctoral student and social change activist Ann Conrad wants to build a different kind of castle

ANNAPOLIS – An unusually high number of Maryland undergraduates – about 40 percent – cancel or refuse to accept aid from the state’s largest need-based aid program, a new survey says

ANNAPOLIS – Success in college depends a great deal on Maryland students taking challenging courses in high school, a new higher education study reveals

ANNAPOLIS – Salisbury University wants to be the first public college in Maryland to make the SAT optional, with an eye to the growing pool of minority, immigrant and first-in-family applicants that are changing the face of Maryland’s college population