WASHINGTON – If money talks, then Marylanders are shouting their early support for Al Gore for president in 2000, campaign finance records show

ANNAPOLIS – Women who go to major Maryland hospitals for mastectomies can expect to stay just one night — a stay that in some cases is 75 percent shorter than it was just three years ago

BALTIMORE – Victoria Smith does not fit the typical 20-something, white, single, female college graduate Peace Corps volunteer prototype

WASHINGTON – Sales tax collections grew at the fastest rate in some of the least likely places in Maryland over the last five years

ANNAPOLIS – Baltimore County resident Rosemarie Kaufman believed the worst was behind her

WASHINGTON – There are more than five infants and toddlers in Maryland for every one state-licensed child care slot for children under age 2, according to an analysis of state records by Capital News Service

COOKSVILLE – Doris Bell is almost certain her house has no ghosts

WASHINGTON – Reported oil and chemical spills in Maryland fell by half over the past five years, according to a Capital News Service analysis of Environmental Protection Agency data

ANNAPOLIS – Over the past 20 years, Maryland has increasingly lost population to states on its eastern, western and southern borders, even as its economy continues to grow

SILVER SPRING – Except for the red fire hydrants and plastic poodles, the cemetery nestled inconspicuously on the corner of Aspen Hill Road and Georgia Avenue looks much like any other