Amanda Beard

In November 24, 2004 Amanda Beard appeared in FOX's Quintuplets. See List of people from Maryland. A NASCAR fan, Beard now dates Nextel Cup Series driver Carl Edwards. For a more exhaustive list, see List of cities in Maryland. Beard dated South African swimmer Ryk Neethling for nearly six years, but that relationship ended in the Spring of 2005. See also:Places in Maryland Ranked by Per Capita Income. She also won silver in the 200-meter individual medley and finished fourth in the 100-meter breaststroke. Notwithstanding numerical positions, the founding intent of Maryland has made the state prominent in US Catholic tradition. For example, Baltimore was the location of the first Catholic bishop in the USA ( 1789) and Emmitsburg, the home and burial place of the first American-born citizen to be canonized, St. Elizabeth Ann Seton.

Olympic Swim Trials and competed in the 2004 Olympic Games, where she won gold in the 200-meter breaststroke, her first individual gold medal. The three largest Protestant denominations in Maryland are: Baptist (17% of the total state population), Methodist (14%), Lutheran (6%). She made a good showing at the 2004 U.S. The present religious composition of the state is shown in the table below:. In 2003 she became the world champion and world record holder for the 200m breaststroke. Therefore, despite the founding intent of the colony, Catholics have never been in a majority in Maryland since early Colonial times. She won a bronze in the 200-meter breaststroke at the 2000 Games. Nevertheless, the Crown later reversed that policy and discouraged the practice of Catholicism in Maryland.

Her childlike manner captured the imagination of the media, and she was often photographed clutching her teddy bear, Harold, who joined her on the medal stand. Maryland was founded for the purpose of providing religious toleration of England's Catholic minority. She won silver medals in the 100-meter and 200-meter breaststrokes, and a gold in the medley relay. The five largest ancestries in Maryland are: African American (27.9%), German (15.7%), Irish (11.7%), English (9%), American (5.8%). Born in Newport Beach, California, Beard made her first Olympic appearance at the 1996 games at the age of 14. The racial makeup of the state is:. Amanda Ray Beard (born October 29, 1981) is an American Olympic swimmer. The three counties of Western Maryland (Allegany, Garrett, and Washington) are mountainous and sparsely populated, resembling West Virginia more than they do the rest of Maryland.

The Eastern Shore is less populous and more rural, as are the counties of southern Maryland. Most of the people live in the central region of Maryland, in the Baltimore-Washington Metropolitan Area. As of 2003, the state's population was 5,508,909. and Baltimore, and other towns.

MARC trains, operated by the State's Transit Authority, connect nearby Washington, D.C. In addition, train service is provided between Washington, D.C., Rockville, Maryland, and Cumberland, Maryland on the Amtrak Capitol Limited. Amtrak Trains serve Baltimore along the Northeast Corridor. are also serviced by the other two airports in the region, Reagan National and Dulles International Airports, both in Virginia.

The Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. Maryland's main airport is Baltimore-Washington International Airport (formerly known as Friendship Airport and recently renamed for former Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall). I-695 is the Baltimore beltway. I-68 connects the western portions of the state to Frederick, and I-70 connects Frederick with Baltimore.

Maryland's major Interstate Highways include I-95, which enters the northeast portion of the state, goes through Baltimore, and becomes the Capital Beltway to the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Historically, there used to be small gold mining operations in Maryland, some surprisingly near Washington, but these no longer exist. Mining other than construction materials is virtually limited to coal, located in the mountainous western part of the state. In construction mention should be made of the brownstone quarries in the east, which gave Baltimore and Washington much of their characteristic architecture in the mid-1800's. The once mighty primary metals sub-sector, which at one time included what was then the largest steel factory in the world at Sparrows Point, still exists, but is pressed with foreign competition, bankruptcies, and company mergers.

Manufacturing, while large in dollar value, is highly diversified with no sub-sector contributing over 20% of the total. Typical forms of manufacturing include electronics, computer equipment, and chemicals. The third component of the food producing sector are food processing plants, which are the most significant type of manufacturing by value in the state. There is also a large chicken-farming sector in the state. In addition, the southern counties of the western shoreline of Chesapeake Bay support a tobacco cash crop zone, which has been in existence since early Colonial times.

Agriculture is oriented to dairying for nearby large city milksheads plus specialty perishable horticulture crops, such as cucumbers, watermelons, sweet corn, tomatoes, muskmelons, squash, and peas (Source:USDA Crop Profiles). Maryland has a large amount of fertile agricultural land in its coastal and Piedmont zones, although this land use is being encroached upon by urbanization. While not, strictly speaking, a commercial food resource, the waterfowl support a tourism sector of sportsmen. The Bay also has uncounted millions of overwintering waterfowl in its many wildlife refuges.

The largest catches by species are the blue crab, oysters, striped bass, and menhaden. One component is commercial fishing, centered in Chesapeake Bay, but also including activity off the short Atlantic seacoast. Maryland has a large food producing sector. A list of government agencies located in Maryland is summarized below:.

Altogether, white collar technical and administrative workers comprise 25% of Maryland's labor force, one of the highest state percentages in the country. In fact, the various components of Johns Hopkins University and its medical research facilities are now the largest single employer in the Baltimore area. In addition to these are many educational and medical research institutions. and emphasizes technical and administrative tasks for the defense/aerospace industry and bio-research laboratories, as well as staffing of satellite government headquarters in the suburban or exurban Baltimore/Washington area.

A second service activity takes advantage of the close location of the center of government in Washington, D.C. Although the port handles a wide variety of products, the most typical imports are raw materials and bulk commodities, such as iron ore, petroleum, sugar, and fertilizers, often distributed to the relatively close manufacturing centers of the inland Midwest via good overland transportation. The port ranked 10th in the USA by tonnage in 2002 (Source: US Corps of Engineers, "Waterborn Commerce Statistics"). One major service activity is transportation, centered around the Port of Baltimore and its related rail and trucking access.

Maryland's economic activity is strongly concentrated in the tertiary service sector, and this sector, in turn, is strongly influenced by location. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://www.bea.gov/) estimates that Maryland's total state product in 2003 was $212 billion. Per capita personal income in 2003 was $37,446, 5^th in the nation. Growing climate varies from USDA Zone 8 on the Eastern Shore and in the cities of Baltimore and Washington DC to Zones 7 and 6 is the Piedmont, to Zone 5 in the mountainous west. Extreme western Maryland has a mountain climate with mild summers and cold winters.

Beyond the plain rise the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, and the Piedmont region has warm summers and colder winters, where snow often falls. Mary's City) are a part of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, which has a humid subtropical climate of hot summers and mild winters. The Eastern Shore region, as well as a small part of the western shore (including Baltimore, Annapolis, and St. Climate varies greatly across the state, depending on factors like elevation, rainfall, and proximity to water.

One of the most noted features of Delmarva is Maryland's Assateague Island, on the Atlantic, with its herd of wild ponies accustomed to the seashore. The Delmarva Peninsula is a geographic term for the Eastern Shore counties of Maryland, the state of Delaware, and two counties of Virginia, which all together form a long extension down the Atlantic seaboard. This geographical curiosity, the " Maryland wasp-waist" is located near the small town of Hancock. Also in Western Maryland, about two-thirds of the way across the state line, is a point at which the state of Maryland is only two miles wide.

The highest point in Maryland is Backbone Mountain, which is the southwest corner of Garrett County, right near the border with West Virginia near the headwaters of the North Branch of the Potomac. A portion of extreme western Maryland in Garrett County is drained by the Youghiogheny River as part of the watershed of the Mississippi River. The Chesapeake Bay nearly bisects the state, and the counties east of the Bay are known collectively as the Eastern Shore. It shares a border near the center of the state along the Potomac with Washington, DC.

Maryland is bounded on the north by Pennsylvania, on the west by West Virginia, on the east by Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean, and on the south, across the Potomac River, by Virginia. See: List of Maryland counties, List of Maryland rivers. Virtually all state and county elections are held in even numbered years not divisible by four, in which the President of the United States is not elected - this, as in other States, is intended to divide State and Federal politics. Most of the business of government is done in Annapolis, the State capital.

Unlike most other states, significant autonomy is granted to many of Maryland's counties. Power in Maryland is divided among three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial. Maryland is a republic; the United States guarantees her "republican form of government" [|USC Article IV, section 4 (http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articleiv.html#section4)] although there is considerable disagreement about the meaning of that phrase. The United States is a federation; consequently, the Government of Maryland, like the other 49 state governments, has exclusive authority over matters that lie entirely within the state's borders, except as limited by the Constitution of the United States.

The Government of Maryland is conducted according to the state constitution. Main article: Government of Maryland. The right to vote was not, however, extended to non-white males until 1867. Article 24 of that document outlawed the practice of slavery.

A constitutional convention was held during 1864 that culminated in the passage of a new state constitution on November 1 of that year. Because of this it was not included under the Emancipation Proclamation. Despite popular support for the cause of the Confederate States of America, Maryland did not secede during the United States Civil War, in part due to precautions taken by the government in Washington, D.C. It was during this bombardment that the Star Spangled Banner was writen by Francis Scott Key.

During the War of 1812 the British military attempted to capture the port of Baltimore which was protected by Fort McHenry. In 1708 the seat of government was moved to Providence, renamed Annapolis in honor of Queen Anne. St Mary's City is now an archaelogical site, with a small tourist center. During the persecution of Maryland Catholics by the Puritan revolutionary government, all of the original Catholic churches of southern Maryland were burned down.

This lasted until 1658 when the Calvert family regained control and re-enacted the Toleration Act. In 1650 the Puritans revolted against the proprietary government and set up a new government that outlawed both Catholicism and Anglicanism. After Virginia made the practice of Anglicanism mandatory, a large number of Puritans migrated from Virginia to Maryland, and were given land for a settlement called Providence (now called Annapolis). Mary's City was the largest site of the original Maryland colony, and was the seat of the colonial government until 1708.

St. The Calvert family, which controlled Maryland, and the Penn family, which controlled Pennsylvania, engaged two surveyors, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, to survey what became known as the Mason-Dixon line which would form the boundary between their two colonies. This was found to be a problem, because the northern boundary would put Philadelphia, the major city in Pennsylvania, within Maryland. Originally, based on an incorrect map, the royal charter granted Maryland the Potomac River and territory northward to the fortieth parallel.

The Maryland Toleration Act (1649) was one of the first laws that explicitly tolerated varieties of religion (as long as it was Christian), and is sometimes seen as a precursor to the First Amendment. Maryland was one of the key destinations of tens of thousands of British convicts, which carried on until independence. The English colony of Maryland was founded by Lord Baltimore who on March 25, 1634 led the first settlers into this area which would soon become one of the few dominantly Catholic regions among the English colonies in America. The new colony was named in honour of Henrietta Maria, Queen Consort of Charles I.

George Calvert died in April 1632, but a charter for "Maryland Colony" (in Latin, "Terra Maria") was granted to his son, Cęcilius Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore, on June 20, 1632. George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore applied to Charles I for a new royal charter for what was to become the Province of Maryland. Main article: History of Maryland. See: Annapolis Convention..

Its Associated Press abbreviation is Md. Maryland was one of the thirteen colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution. postal abbreviation is MD. Its U.S. Maryland is a state of the United States, one of the South Atlantic States (although often considered part of the Northeast or Mid-Atlantic States).

See List of counties in Maryland. Towson – county seat of suburban Baltimore County. Salisbury – largest city and business center of Delmarva pennisula. Rockville – business center of affluent Montgomery County northwest of Washington.

Ocean City – very popular beach resort on Atlantic coastline. Laurel – large suburban community directly between Baltimore and Washington on Interstate 95. Hagerstown – Largest community in 3 county Western Maryland region, has decaying industrial base. Frederick – Western gateway to Appalachian Mountains, suburban center.

Columbia – Large unincorporated town managed by the Columbia Association. suburb, home to the University of Maryland, College Park. College Park – D.C. Baltimore – Most populous city; commercial and cultural hub.

Annapolis – state capital, home of United States Naval Academy. Non-Religious – 8%. Other Religions – 4%. Other Christian – 2%.

Roman Catholic – 25%. Protestant – 58%. 2% Mixed race. 0.3% American Indian.

4% Asian. 4.3% Hispanic. 27.9% Black. 62.1% White non-Hispanic.

Fort Detrick. Webster Field. Naval Air Station Patuxent River. Indian Head Naval Surface Weapons Center.

Fort Meade. Bethesda Naval Medical Center. Andrews Air Force Base. Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Consumer Product Safety Commission. U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Social Security Administration (SSA).

Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC). National Security Agency (NSA). Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

National Institutes of Health (NIH). National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Goddard Space Flight Center. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Census Bureau. Federal Agencies