Waiting List

Widening Route 32 estimated to cost $200 million State transportation officials have put a $200 million price tag on widening nine miles of Route 32 to Howard's rural west, reviving hopes that the project, which has lain dormant for nearly a decade, may go forward. County Executive James N. Robey and members of the state delegation said the work on Route 32, designed to ease congestion on the road where it narrows to two lanes between Route 108 and Interstate 70, was expensive. But they agreed that it has to be done.

A revamped federal welfare program and a weak economy are spelling trouble for adult education and literacy programs nationwide. Baltimore Reads Inc., the city's best-known literacy organization, has slashed its budget 49 percent to $1.8 million, reduced weekly classes from 36 to 22, and laid off 25 full- and part-time employees after key government grants vanished and money from United Way shriveled, said the organization's chief executive officer, Marlene...

Besieged by 2,800 low-income families seeking help with their rent, Howard County's Housing Commission has voted to close the waiting list for federal Section 8 housing vouchers for the first time in 15 years. Leonard S. Vaughan, the county housing director, said the county has not received new housing vouchers for the past four years and current certificates are turning over very slowly as the waiting list lengthens. "We'll probably be closing the list for at least six months," he said.

We were not quite accidental tourists in our own town. For one weekend, we joined the pleasure-seeking masses that stream through the Inner Harbor area filling up restaurants and themselves as they encounter a Baltimore dining experience. We picked a prime tourist weekend, one in which the Yankees and their free-spending fans were in town. We ate on busy nights, Friday and Saturday. We fanned out to six establishments, the Cheesecake Factory, Obrycki's, Mo's Fisherman's Wharf, Chiapparelli's, Phillips Harborplace and ESPN Zone - places where casual attire and throngs of out-of-towners were common.

More than 800 low-income families, elderly residents and disabled people from Carroll have applied for fewer than two dozen housing assistance "vouchers," creating the longest waiting list in memory, county officials said yesterday. Some seeking assistance could wait as long as two years, Carroll's Bureau of Housing staff said yesterday while presenting a plan for providing rent subsidies to the area's neediest through funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Through the federal government's HUD program, the county has 549 housing choice vouchers available.

More than 800 low-income families, elderly residents and disabled people from Carroll have applied for fewer than two dozen housing-assistance "vouchers," creating the longest waiting list in memory, county officials said yesterday. Some seeking assistance could wait as long as two years, Carroll's Bureau of Housing staff said yesterday while presenting a plan for providing rent subsidies to the area's neediest through funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Through the federal government's HUD program, the county has 549 housing-choice vouchers available.

PUEBLO, Colo. - Two and a half years ago, World War II veteran Ernesto Tafoya decided to enroll as a new patient in the Veterans Health Administration system. His hearing was failing, and his back was giving him trouble. Many of his friends who were VA patients were getting drug prescriptions filled at dirt-cheap prices. It seemed like a good deal. Tafoya, 77, is still waiting for the VA to give him a doctor's appointment. He is one of almost 120,000 American veterans languishing on Department of Veterans Affairs waiting lists as its vast, persistently under-funded health system struggles with an unprecedented demand for services amid a national crisis of skyrocketing medical costs.

Addressing a demand for senior housing that has left about 250 people on its waiting list, Carroll County's largest retirement community is planning a $60 million expansion that would double the size of its hilltop campus in Westminster. Carroll Lutheran Village is to formally announce today plans for its 29-acre Wakefield Overlook project, which is to include 82 apartments, 60 houses, a new indoor pool, exercise room, classrooms, a doctor's office, a bistro and a convenience store. The community has about 500 residents, who come from Carroll County and elsewhere.

Addressing a demand for senior housing that has left about 250 people on its waiting list, Carroll County's largest retirement community is planning a $60 million expansion that would double the size of its hilltop campus in Westminster. Carroll Lutheran Village is to formally announce today plans for its 29-acre Wakefield Overlook project, which is to include 82 apartments, 60 houses, a new indoor pool, exercise room, classrooms, a doctor's office, a bistro and a convenience store. The community has about 500 residents, who come from Carroll County and elsewhere.