Capita

Where Maryland stands Maryland ranked 12th nationally by collecting individual income tax of $869 per person in 2000. Nationally, state governments took in $691 per capita. Seven states had no individual income tax. State..............State individual income tax revenue .......................per capita in 2000.........Rank Massachusetts....$1,422....1 New York....1,221....2 Oregon....1,195....3 Connecticut....1,165....4 California....1,164....5 Minnesota....1,125....6 Wisconsin.

Baltimore continues to record some of the largest decreases in crime for cities its size and larger, according to recently released FBI statistics that examine crime in U.S. cities during the first six months of the year. City Police Commissioner Edward T. Norris said last night that the statistics showed the city was headed in the right direction. "We've made tremendous progress," Norris said. "I don't think anyone three years ago would have believed that we would have had this much success.

AFGHAN Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah is worried. Western financial commitments to Afghanistan are faltering, and the prospects are bleak. In Rwanda, Bosnia, Kosovo and East Timor, he notes, aid flowed at an average of $250 per capita per year. In Afghanistan, $75 per capita has been pledged for this year. For the five years after that, pledges are only about $42 per capita. Foreign assistance is a relatively recent invention, having really taken root at the end of World War II. In this relatively brief period, foreign assistance has taken various forms and directions, reflecting changing global needs.

In the Region Md. tax burden ranks 18th, just below U.S. average Maryland has the 18th-highest per capita state tax burden in the United States last year, $1,833, according to a Census Bureau report released yesterday. That's just below the national average of $1,835. Connecticut had the highest per capita state tax burden in the nation - $2,932 per person. the next highest per capita taxes were in Delaware, Hawaii, Minnesota and Massachusetts. New Hampshire had the lowest tax burden, $891 per person, followed by South Dakota, Texas, Tennessee and Louisiana.

This week, the doors to the Enoch Pratt's central library will swing open to the public on a Friday for the first time in nearly nine years - ushering in a return to seven-days-a-week service at the Cathedral Street building and a new sense of optimism among the institution's officials. To celebrate the occasion, which coincides with International Literacy Day, the library is holding a day of "First Friday" activities, ranging from jazz concerts to book signings to cooking demonstrations.

The Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations became the first state organization of its kind yesterday to certify that a select group of its member charities are particularly well-run and worthy of public trust -- stamping each with a newly developed seal of approval.The certification program, called "Standards for Excellence," requires organizations to go through a rigorous application process in which fellow nonprofit executives scrutinize financial records, seek documentation of difficult-to-define results, and examine how much information charities provide to the public.

A 16-year-old boy was shot and killed yesterday morning shortly after he got out of a taxi in Southeast Baltimore, becoming the city's 314th slaying victim of 1998 -- and the 62nd victim younger than age 20, police said.Andre Corey of the 1400 block of Kenhill Ave. was shot about 10: 50 a.m. in the 500 block of N. Linwood Ave. Police said he was wounded several times in the upper body.Agent Angelique Cook-Hayes, a police spokeswoman, said Corey was pronounced dead on arrival at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

WASHINGTON -- Yes, it's true. Good news often gains less attention than bad.The World Bank recently pointed this out with a report on the world economy that found glowing news from all points of the compass."