ANNAPOLIS – Ever since he was 18, when he converted a surplus military rifle to a sports rifle, guns have been a way of life for David Eccles, owner of Eccles Shooting Sports here

WASHINGTON – For the first time in modern history, low-income Maryland taxpayers have a greater chance of being audited than higher-income individuals, according to a study released this week

WASHINGTON – Although last summer’s severe weather kept average prices down for the second year in a row at the Maryland tobacco market, foreign buyers continued to pay a premium for top-grade leaf, industry officials said

ANNAPOLIS – David Shafer said he can’t make a living hauling caskets and bodies alone – he needs the dozens of road trips he takes to the Baltimore- Washington International Airport every month for his Cumberland-based limousine service to turn a profit

UPPER MARLBORO – They look old, their faces lined like tobacco leaves and, in summer, about as dark

ANNAPOLIS – Montgomery County is finding it increasingly easy to get wishes granted by the Maryland General Assembly, at the same time Baltimore struggled this session to get 16 percent of the $49

WASHINGTON – When gunman Joseph Palczynski was loose in eastern Baltimore County for 10 days in mid-March, about 28 schools in that area went into lockdown, locking doors and windows and keeping students inside to keep them safe

ANNAPOLIS – Two of Maryland’s largest power providers own generating stations targeted by an environmental group as among the top 100 older polluting plants for their release of tons of pollutants through purported abuses of loopholes in the Clean Air Act

WASHINGTON – Federal spending in Maryland totaled more than $8,100 per person in fiscal 1999, the third-highest level of spending among the states

WASHINGTON – The federal government spent an average of $8,119