House

If you're a big fan, you already knew what was coming in the season finale. But it didn't make it any easier -- or less heartbreaking -- to watch. The majority of the Season 3 "Downton" finale, or the "Christmas special" as its called in the U.K., took place in Scotland, where the whole family (minus Branson) visits the Highlands home of the Dowager's niece, Susan, and her husband, Shrimpy. Most of the trip included bagpipes, hunting, more bagpipes and Scottish reel dancing. But more on that later (and more on O'Brien meeting her Scottish lady's maid doppelganger)

When a friend told Brad Siegler and Kim Murray that a brewery in Baltimore was throwing a party for the public Saturday afternoon, distance was not a factor for the Columbia couple. "It sounded fun," Murray said at the Peabody Heights Brewery in Abell, where beers like Red Cent Amber and Knuckle-Buster IPA flowed freely, as a rock band played and a mobile food truck sold chicken and waffles. The party was also a coming-out party for the six-month-old brewery and its partners, Stephen Demczuk, J. Hollis Albert and Patrick Beille.

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet - one-tenth the size of the average new American house - and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap - that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

A decade since the 2003 tropical storm that began its fiscal and operational woes, Market House in downtown Annapolis is expected to reopen in the coming weeks with a lineup of vendors selling falafel, gelato, sandwiches and crab cakes from the historic building. Since Tropical Storm Isabel blew through and flooded the building in 2003, the Market House has operated in fits and starts as the city struggled to repair the building and attract a stable lineup of vendors. Between renovations and lawsuits from former tenants, the city has spent millions of dollars on the Market House since 2003.

They don't make many power couples like this: He's a self-proclaimed whistle blower, the focus of international headlines and Obama administration ire. She describes herself as a "world-traveling, pole-dancing super hero. " Edward Snowden and Lindsay Mills lived in a modest blue clapboard house with white trim here in a Honolulu suburb until about six weeks ago. Their former neighbors described them as quiet and private. On Sunday, Snowden announced that he was responsible for leaking secrets about America's telephone and Internet surveillance pograms to the media, reviving a global debate about Big Brother-style government surveillance of private citizens.

A natural gas explosion ripped apart a vacant Westminster house yesterday afternoon, severely damaging dozens of neighboring homes and spreading debris more than a mile away.No one was injured, officials said.Nearly 100 families were evacuated after the 1:18 p.m. blast, and at least 50 homes were damaged -- 20 of them seriously enough to be declared uninhabitable by county housing inspectors.Residents were not allowed to return to their homes last night.The Autumn Ridge neighborhood was strewn with garage doors, shattered windows, ripped insulation and aluminum siding, while all that was left of the house at 90 Sunshine Way was a smoldering pile of wood, brick and aluminum.

Sade Baderinwa came into Edie House's life when she was 4. House remembers the little girl's navy blue and red dress with white piping, her saddle shoes and Afro. Sade couldn't pronounce House's name. She called her "Edick." Soon enough, though, the child would ask, "Edick, can I call you Mom?" Today, Baderinwa, a WBAL anchor, is on the threshold of a promising television career. Proudly watching from home is House, former WBAL anchor and public affairs manager. As a child, Baderinwa spent many hours with House in the television newsroom.

When I was growing up, it seemed like every weekday morning a Diamond, Sun or Yellow cab would call for a pair of women on my Guilford Avenue block.If we happened to have an unseasonably warm day in late winter, the ladies would be in spring coats. But whatever the season, they were always formally dressed, well corseted, dusted with powder and touched with rouge. I always guessed their destination to be either the shops at Howard and Lexington streets, the doctor's office or the hairdresser's.

Three generations lived in the century-old wooden house with two chimneys in Harford County. Jerome Shropshire, a retired steelworker, and his wife, Annette, a homemaker, took care of their four young grandchildren while their daughter worked at a nearby supermarket and attended college classes. "He loved [the] children more than he loved himself," Joseph Shropshire Sr. said of his elder brother's bond with the grandchildren. "Wherever he went, they went." But a fire that started yesterday morning quickly spread and engulfed the Abingdon house, killing Shropshire, 72, and four others: a woman in her 60s, two preschool-age boys, and an 8-month-old girl, fire officials said.

I could not believe it when I read that Baltimore City is rehabbing four homes on Preston Street with $1.9 million in taxpayer dollars ("Is this house worth $475K?" June 19). The government, as The Sun put it, hopes to spur development there. But if it doesn't work — which it won't — how about paying us back? How many more times will this type of insane rehabbing be allowed to go on at taxpayer expense? Darlene McKinney

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's close friend Lisa Harris Jones and her husband, Sean Malone, made almost $150,000 last year lobbying the city on behalf of business clients, according to reports filed with Baltimore's ethics board.  The forms show Lisa Harris Jones earned $77,000 while Malone, her husband and business partner, made $71,750 lobbying at City Hall in 2012, the forms show. While the money is significantly less than the couple makes lobbying at the state level, the city forms show the firm, Harris Jones & Malone LLC, is busy throughout the year advocating for clients' interests in Baltimore.

The marble hallway trod for centuries by Maryland politicians will host perhaps its most sinister character when actor Kevin Spacey arrives for work next week. Television crews from the political thriller "House of Cards" began transforming Maryland's State House into the backdrop for scenes this week, remaking the House of Delegates chamber to resemble that of the U.S. Senate. Production will take over the State House on Monday and Tuesday, closing the more than 230-year-old building to the public during filming of the Netflix drama, which stars Spacey as scheming Majority Whip Francis Underwood.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake acknowledged Wednesday that she spent Memorial Day weekend at the Delaware beach house of a top lobbyist, Lisa Harris Jones. The mayor defended the excursion as a harmless beach getaway by two close friends and their families. She said she didn't discuss city business on the trip and paid the “common rental rate” to stay at Harris Jones' vacation home. “Lisa is a lifelong friend,” Rawlings-Blake said in response to questions from a WBAL-TV reporter at a City Hall news conference.

Matt Birk's decision to use the national celebration of the Raven's astounding season as a vehicle for a political statement was uncalled for ("Birk explains D.C. absence," June 7). His "boycott" of the event was demeaning to his teammates and the organization. The idea that his appearing there would show support for President Barack Obama's stand on Planned Parenthood was ludicrous. It's sad that he chose to end his fine career with the Ravens in this manner. Kathy B. Kellogg

On a sunny afternoon last week, a family could be seen walking inside Hope House Laurel, while two groups of people of varying ages sat in chairs in the shade on the side of the building talking amicably. This private substance abuse treatment center in Laurel's downtown Historic District, formerly known as Reality Inc., was closed for nearly a year, following a drawn out and very public clash between the facility's board and many of its employees over how the center was being managed.

The Dog Program at Luna's House Inc. reached an important milestone by adopting its 100th dog this month. Edison, a terrier mix, was adopted by Donna and Michael Lubawski of Edgewood on June 5, making Edison lucky number 100. Luna's House Inc. began rescuing dogs from various shelters and taking in individual surrenders in January 2012. The Luna's House Dog Program is made up entirely of volunteers who take care of the dogs and ensure the dogs are adopted to the best homes that match the dog's lifestyle.

Over the objections of Republican lawmakers, the House of Delegates on Friday approved Gov. Martin O'Malley's bill to create incentives for development of a wind energy project off the coast of Ocean City . The measure, a top item on O'Malley's legislative agenda, was approved 85-48. Its passage was not a surprise because a similar bill passed the House last year only to die in a Senate committee. This year, the bill's prospects appear much better in the upper chamber. Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller has predicted it will pass.

No one was hurt in a two-alarm fire early Sunday in the Wilson Park neighborhood of Baltimore, but the single-family house was condemned, fire officials said. The dwelling was empty when the fire was reported at 4:23 a.m. Sunday. Firefighters brought the blaze under control by 6:30 a.m. The city building inspector condemned the structure.

Baltimore's housing authority has disciplined a group of employees after an internal investigator found that top agency officials hired lower-level staff to do contracting work at their homes. The agency's inspector general concluded that executive and senior management staff showed "a lack of good judgment" in hiring James Bassetti and Cecil Williams, who work for the housing authority's construction arm, according to a report issued by the office May 13. In all, five housing authority employees and the relative of a sixth paid for work to be done at their homes.