Maryland

JESSUP – The hallways here, with their wide windows into each classroom, are just like those in any high school — only much, much quieter

WASHINGTON – Ocean City charter boat captain Mark Sampson’s specialty is shark and his customers willingly shell out up to $900 for a full day of off- shore fishing on his six-passenger boat

JESSUP – Maryland has reinstated college classes for inmates at seven state prisons, replacing federally funded programs that were eliminated in 1995

ANNAPOLIS – After a slam dunk vote in a key House committee Friday, a bill telling the federal government to keep its hands off Maryland’s tobacco settlement money could see a final vote on the House floor as early as Monday

ANNAPOLIS – Maryland children’s advocates fear a new law that takes effect July 1, will hurt a successful health program for the state’s poor children and pregnant women and force many of them to go without coverage

ANNAPOLIS – There don’t seem to be as many spring chickens on Maryland farms these days

WASHINGTON – The relicensing of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant will have minimal environmental impact and should be allowed to proceed, according to a draft statement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

WASHINGTON – Maryland lottery agents could be selling as many as 300 tickets a second in the minutes leading up to Friday night’s drawing for a $160 million Big Game jackpot, lottery officials predicted Thursday

UPPER MARLBORO – If the farming community ever needed a favor from the state government, it’s now, farm representatives said Thursday

WASHINGTON – State officials have charged five home-improvement contractors with criminal water pollution for “power washing” operations that stripped lead paint from Baltimore buildings and let it run off into storm drains