CHESTERTOWN – More than 500 people were milling around outside the Dierkers’ tidy white farmhouse and the portable potties still had not arrived

WASHINGTON – Dorchester County may not have a big-name department store, but that has not stopped the county from leading the state in the rate of sales growth over the past five years

WASHINGTON – When Maryland officials tested their 9-year-old home- detention equipment last fall by “faking the year 2000,” they found that the ankle bracelets and voice verification systems that the program relies on shut down

NEW MARKET – Every man has his own idea of what makes history

ANNAPOLIS – By the time doctors caught Norwood Beauchamp’s lung cancer, the disease had already spread to his lymph nodes

CLARYSVILLE – The Clarysville Inn stands at a historic crossroads

GRANTSVILLE – Stepping off the National Road in Grantsville and into the Spruce Forest Artisan Village is more than a step back in history: It’s a step back into many different histories

OELLA – The front of Rich Burns’ cliffside Oella home is a two-level, wheat-colored log house that sits right up against the curb of a windy, single- lane road, looking much as it has for the past century

ANNAPOLIS – They’ve been called the “progeny” of Megan’s Law, and several variations of the law inspired by the brutal sexual assault of a New Jersey 7- year-old occupied the Maryland General Assembly this session, but only one is likely to become law

CUMBERLAND – The manner of the 66-year-old grocer’s death was not at all common in the Western Maryland town