Maryland

ANNAPOLIS – Students at the Hannah More School in Baltimore County have joined forces with their senator, Paula Hollinger, to pass a law in memory of a classmate who died after a rollerblading accident

BALTIMORE – State educators downplayed a slight drop in state average performance on school assessment tests and applauded schools that boosted their scores after releasing 1999 figures Wednesday

ANNAPOLIS – Lisa Spicknall sat quietly in the hearing chamber with family, each member wearing a photo button of her two slain children

SILVER SPRING – State and federal officials met with Hispanic community leaders from around the state Tuesday in an effort to head off problems that led to massive undercounts of minority groups in the 1990 census

ANNAPOLIS – Congressional Republicans have touted medical savings accounts as the way to provide coverage for millions of Americans without health insurance, but a pilot program initiated by Congress in 1997 has had few takers in the nation or in Maryland

WASHINGTON – Black & Decker has agreed to pay the Consumer Product Safety Commission $575,000 to settle charges that the company failed to report fire- causing defects in an under-the-cabinet toaster it began selling in 1994

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Rockville attorney’s appeal of his suit against a bankruptcy court that he said “demonized” him and his former client

WASHINGTON – Cheverly officials gave the go-ahead Tuesday to buy three run-down houses from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, less than a month after the town sued HUD for neglecting the properties

WASHINGTON – It may be the season of giving, but don’t count on Marylanders to open up their wallets or purses too wide

ANNAPOLIS – Important transportation projects will be delayed because the state is not willing to spend more money on roads said one of the governor’s own transportation advisers