CHESTERTOWN – Lauretum looks like someone slapped together the “Addams Family” mansion and a gingerbread house

WASHINGTON – Congress will decide next year whether to require government health insurance providers to cover osteoporosis testing for patients who are at risk of developing the debilitating bone disease

WASHINGTON – A Maryland-based labor union that represents machinists and airline workers is one of the nation’s biggest spenders on federal elections, according to government reports

ROCKVILLE – The University System of Maryland Board of Regents Friday approved strategic goals set by individual campuses to both improve education and keep down consumer costs

WASHINGTON – Maryland’s 10 members of Congress took 30 privately funded trips worth $47,000 in the past two years, while their staffers went on 28 such junkets worth $27,000, according to congressional travel records

WASHINGTON – The number of new gonorrhea infections in Maryland has dropped by half in the last decade, from 24,132 cases diagnosed in 1987 to 11,318 in 1996

Carollers sing with delight

WASHINGTON – The Aspen Institute paid for more than a quarter of all privately funded trips Maryland Congress members took since January 1996, but officials of the non-profit said all they are seeking is a “well-informed, bipartisan” Congress

BALTIMORE – “Smart Growth” ideas are gaining momentum among America’s environmentalists, architects and planners, say land- use professionals who took part this week in a major national conference

WASHINGTON – Income for Maryland’s top corporate bosses jumped 75 percent between fiscal 1995 and 1996, driven by hefty stock options and bonuses, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records