James Buchanan

On December 31, 2007, JAMES COBERN BUCHANAN; beloved husband of Juanita Jones Buchanan; devoted father of Danny C. Jones and his wife, Tammy; loving grandfather of Jennifer Taylor, Danyelle Filiaggi and her husband Jamie; cherished great-grandfather of Lauren, Kendall, Madison Filiaggi, and Clayton Taylor, Jr.; dear brother of William Buchanan of Valdosta, GA, and Pauline Mauney of Kings Mountain, NC. Also survived by numerous nieces and nephews....

LOS ANGELES -- Doris Duke, who as a youngster was dubbed "the Richest Girl in the World" and as an adult took pride in overseeing where every dollar of those riches was invested and donated, died yesterday at her Beverly Hills home after a long illness. She was 80.Her fortune was estimated at $750 million earlier this year by Forbes magazine.She was the only child and lone heir of tycoon James Buchanan Duke, founder of the American Tobacco Co. It is now a part of American Brands Inc., a liquor-tobacco-food-office equipment conglomerate.

I became a James Buchanan fan 25 years ago. So I was depressed at how 2000 treated him. He was rated the worst president in the nation's history -- three times. C-Span polled a group of 58 experts and, separately, 1,145 viewers to coincide with Presidents Day in February. The Wall Street Journal and the Federalist Society polled 78 experts for articles that appeared after Election Day in November. In all three exercises, Buchanan was looking up to Franklin Pierce, Ulysses S. Grant, Warren Harding and Richard Nixon, presidents he had ranked above in earlier polls.

THE BUSH administration ought to direct some of its considerable power and influence toward bringing an end to years of agony in Liberia. Americans, after all, created that West African nation more than 180 years ago. Maryland's connection to Liberia is particularly strong. During the 1830s, Annapolis legislators allocated hefty sums of taxpayers' money to encourage free blacks and slaves to move to the mosquito-infested swamps of coastal Africa. Even today, the main thoroughfares in the hot and humid capital of Liberia's Maryland County are Baltimore Street and Maryland Avenue.

Moss L. Wagner Compton, 81, member of historic boardsMoss L. Wagner Compton, who served on the boards of several historic homes, died Oct. 17 of respiratory failure at Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. She was 81.She was formerly president and board member of the historic Hammond-Harwood House in Annapolis and the Hampton House Dulaney Valley.She was a member of the Junior League, the Federated Garden Clubs of America and the Society of Colonial Dames and a board member of the Maryland House and Garden Pilgrimage.

Erectile dysfunction, also known as ED, refers to the inability of the man to obtain and maintain erection of the penis sufficient to permit satisfactory sexual intercourse. About 18 million American men experience erectile dysfunction. Dr. Arthur L. Burnett II, medical director of the Johns Hopkins James Buchanan Brady Urological Institute's Male Consultation Clinic and professor of urology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, discusses causes, effects and treatment of the condition.

The Johns Hopkins Children's Center — originally founded as the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children — celebrated its centenary earlier this month. Its endowment originated from the largesse of Harriet Lane, who during the mid-19th century was considered one of Washington's most glamorous women and hostesses. Harriet Rebecca Lane — she later dropped her middle name — was born in 1830 in Mercersburg, Pa., the daughter of Elliott Tole Lane and Jane Ann Buchanan Lane, and raised in Franklin County, Pa. Her mother was the sister of James Buchanan, who would become the 15th president of the United States in 1857.

After John Allen Muhammad was found guilty of six counts of murder in a Montgomery County courthouse last week, Vickie Snider - whose brother James "Sonny" Buchanan was shot to death by the sniper while riding a lawn mower outside an auto dealership in Silver Spring - talked to the media while State's Attorney Douglas F. Gansler looked on. As chance would have it, I had also photographed Snider in 2003, about a year after a sniper bullet killed her...

One of Baltimore's rare cast-iron fronted buildings will soon be reborn as the city's newest loft condominiums. The historic Rombro Building at 22 Howard St., a six-story former warehouse whose original owners included the niece of a U.S. president, is scheduled to reopen early next year as the Rombro Lofts, with 17 condominiums priced starting at $215,000. The $6 million conversion is one of the first condominium projects to be launched on the west side of downtown Baltimore, where more than $1 billion worth of redevelopment projects is under way or planned.

Frank Weatherly's 1983 acquisition of a vacant candy factory in downtown Lancaster, Pa., was a purchase negotiated, for the most part, out of necessity. A friend had made him an offer he couldn't refuse on a Baldwin grand concert piano and - in addition to the fact that he always wanted to tackle a home renovation - he would need a place big enough to house his "grand" soon-to-be possession. "I spent an entire day roaming around in [the factory], visualizing what could be done," Weatherly remembered.