NORTH POTOMAC – When Lisy Lara, 23, looks around the six homes in her cul- de-sac in Montgomery County’s Dufief Mill development, she sees four Asian families and two white, including her own

ANNAPOLIS – Tourism officials tout Washington County as a Western Maryland, small-town, vacation spot known for streams, orchards, mountains and waterfalls — but it could also be known for putting people behind bars

WASHINGTON – Disabled children in Maryland were less likely than other foster children to be placed with relatives, more likely to be set on a course of long-term foster care and slightly more likely to end up in group homes or institutions in 1998

WASHINGTON – When Linda Patterson decided to become a foster parent, she did not envision a child with disabilities — nor did she ever intend the arrangement to be permanent

WASHINGTON – The public housing project at Hollander Ridge was demolished last year, but the 8-foot wrought-iron fence that separated the Baltimore City project from its Baltimore County neighbors still stands

WASHINGTON – Janet B

ANNAPOLIS – He successfully lobbied for schools to drop transcript fees, tried to remain out of the school board’s expense account mess and is pulling better than a 4

WASHINGTON – Help came too late for Robby

WASHINGTON – The amount of air pollution emitted by all facilities reporting annually in Maryland fell slightly in the latter half of the 1990s, according to an analysis of four years of state emissions certification reports

ANNAPOLIS – Not all patents filed in Maryland are complex scientific ones granted to inventors working for high-tech companies