WASHINGTON – The number of Maryland children living in poverty grew by 34 percent between 1989 and 1995, rising to 171,746 children, according to a report released Thursday

WASHINGTON – State officials have charged five home-improvement contractors with criminal water pollution for “power washing” operations that stripped lead paint from Baltimore buildings and let it run off into storm drains

UPPER MARLBORO – If the farming community ever needed a favor from the state government, it’s now, farm representatives said Thursday

WASHINGTON – State officials have long conceded that it is virtually impossible to collect taxes on out-of-state sales such as mail-order purchases: That headache may now go high-tech with the projected boom in online sales

ANNAPOLIS – Maryland farmers will try to cut their losses caused by low market prices and last year’s drought by planting less corn this year, according to an agricultural report released Wednesday

ANNAPOLIS — A bill exempting purchases of prisoner-of-war flags from Maryland’s 5 percent sales tax will be debated in a Senate hearing Thursday

ANNAPOLIS – A class of screaming kindergartners, a small pack of sun-baked family and friends, and one red-faced governor welcomed seven walkers and a dog to Annapolis on Tuesday

ANNAPOLIS – In an effort to protect cigarette makers involved in last year’s national tobacco settlement, key legislators have proposed a bill that would set up an emergency fund to cover payments to the state if the tobacco industry’s profits drop

ANNAPOLIS – Comptroller William Donald Schaefer — the head of Maryland’s tax-collecting agency — said Monday that he supports a bill suspending the sales tax on purchases of clothing and lodging for one week

ANNAPOLIS – Pepsi officials yanked a television commercial filmed at the University of Maryland-College Park after school officials complained that it tarnished campus fraternities’ image and made light of alcohol abuse