ANNAPOLIS – If patents are an indicator of inventiveness, Maryland is edging out rival Virginia in that corner of the technology economy wars

ANNAPOLIS – When Peggy Irish’s husband told her to wander around the exhibition area of a seminar in New Orleans last year, neither expected her to start the process of patenting an ornament for the Maryland Federation of Republican Women

WASHINGTON – Ozone pollution in the Baltimore-Washington area is slowly improving, but it remains the biggest and most enduring air pollution problem in the region, said a state environmental official and a scientist who has studied the problem for years

WASHINGTON – Once a dog is declared “excess” by the Defense Department, meaning it cannot be used in another capacity by the military, it becomes a candidate for adoption

WASHINGTON – Every screw, tie-line and tea cup on every amusement ride erected in Maryland must pass Craig Lowry’s band of inspectors before the kids can climb aboard

WASHINGTON – Several classic amusement rides accumulated the most safety violations in state inspections over the last two years, according to a Capital News Service analysis of amusement ride inspection records

OWINGS – At first glance, Bryan Murtha would seem like the normal energy- guzzling American: He commutes more than 40 miles to work from his rural, air- conditioned suburban home to work in downtown Washington

ANNAPOLIS – Christie Brown places a properly fitted blue mask over her mouth and nose before she enters the isolation room at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore

ANNAPOLIS – Tuberculosis is the world’s deadliest disease killing almost 3 million people a year, but many Americans think it is a thing of the past, say health officials

WASHINGTON – Road design is only partly to blame for the relatively high number of alcohol-related fatalities on the state’s rural roads