News in Maryland


  • More Metro funding demanded by coalition to avoid service cuts - A coalition of activists launched a petition this week to press governments in Virginia, Maryland and the District to increase funding for Metro by $74 million to help stave off service cuts and fare increases.

  • Maryland eases environmental restrictions on some developers - Maryland officials have agreed to make developer-friendly changes in a law that requires new building projects to reduce the pollution that rain washes off their roofs and parking lots.

  • Bump in unemployment rates seen as sign that jobseekers are back on market - Unemployment rates rose in the District, Maryland and Virginia in January, a shift that economists called a positive sign for the economy because it suggests that discouraged jobseekers are feeling more optimistic about their prospects and have resumed looking for work.

  • Aging Md. detention center raises questions about girls' rehabilitation - Maryland's only secure detention center for girls is so old and outdated that frustrated state legislators have raised the prospect of closing the Laurel facility by next year.


  • Security gaps exploited in grade scandal remain, may be difficult to close - Montgomery County school officials have not yet closed gaps in their computer system that allowed students at a high-performing Potomac high school to change dozens of grades using a device that can be bought from Amazon.com for $69. And other school systems, including Fairfax County, remain just...


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  • Annapolitans fear more job cuts - Parking enforcement officers who issue tickets like this one on a car at City Dock would likely be replaced by contract workers in Mayor Joshua J. Cohen's effort to shrink the projected $8 million budget deficit for fiscal 2011. Thirty-three employees have been laid off; 52 more jobs would be lost in his proposed budget.


  • $300,000 textbooks called 'a mistake' - Officials admit failing to follow rules

    Balto. Co. schools officials admit failing to follow rules


  • 2 fur coats formerly owned by Dixon join Xbox on eBay site - State prosecutor to donate proceeds from online auction to city summer jobs program

    State prosecutor to donate proceeds from online auction to city summer jobs program


  • Biologists discover deadly bat disease in Western Md. cave - White nose syndrome could destroy 90 percent of hibernating bats

    Biologists believe they have discovered the first evidence that Maryland bats are now infected with white nose syndrome, a deadly fungal disease that has wiped out more than a million hibernating bats from New England to Virginia in recent years.


  • Balto. Co. water main repaired after break, service restored -