Owings

It is doubtful in all of the hullabaloo and hype leading up to Super Bowl XLVII that the name of one non-football-playing Baltimorean will be mentioned: John McDonogh, the philanthropist, who left an indelible mark not only on his native city but also in New Orleans for his endowment of public schools for poor children. A reader, Bill Rowe, who graduated from McDonogh School in 1970, recently brought to my attention McDonogh's philanthropic endeavors, which probably outside of the McDonogh community have largely been forgotten.

The Digital Harbor boys basketball team has been known to round into form late in the season to make a strong playoff push, winning consecutive state titles in 2009 and 2010 in that manner. Coach Johnnie Grimes is hoping the 17th annual Basketball Academy can provide a springboard for a similar run. So far, so good. The Rams got 18 points from sophomore guard William Robinson, played stingy zone defense and hit 19-of-22 free throws to come away with a 55-45 win over Woodlawn in the event's opening night Thursday at Morgan State.

PPL Park in Chester, Pa., will host the 2013 Major League Lacrosse Championship Weekend, sources confirmed to Inside Lacrosse today. The news comes on the day of the MLL Collegiate Draft in downtown Philadelphia and just days before the league is set to announce a 2013 regular-season game at Kennesaw State near Atlanta, a move that could foreshadow an expansion team there. PPL Park, about 20 miles southwest of Philadelphia, was a 2012 NCAA quarterfinal site and is the home to the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer.

The Oscar nominees for best picture owe a huge debt to books -- and the creativity of authors. Most of the top films are screen versions of tales that were woven by printed words (or digitized versions). That's not taking anything away from the writers who adapt a novel or work of non-fiction. I'm slogging my way through Victor Hugo's Les Miserables now, and it is a wonder that a hit musical and movie could be distilled from the sprawling 1800s. Here are other adaptations that join Les Mis in the best picture category: -- "Lincoln," drawn from " Team of Rivals" by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

A third man is in police custody after a fight at an Owings Mills home in November that erupted after an incident of road rage, according to Baltimore County police. Esaiah Lynn Watts, 21, of the 2600 block of Camberwell Court in Windsor Mill, turned himself in to police Wednesday, after they had obtained a warrant for his arrest on three counts of second-degree assault, police said. The Nov. 23 fight left a woman and her two sons, who were targeted by the men, injured, police said.

Imagine marrying the love of your life and winning the lottery a few weeks later. This is exactly what happened to Debby Opper, 51, of Owings Mills, last month. On Dec. 1, Opper married Hassan Manafikhalesi, 58, at a ceremony and reception at Martin's West in Baltimore. And on Dec. 28, she won $250,000 in the Mega Millions prize drawing. "It's been quite a month for us," says Opper. The two met at a singles dance about six years ago. When Manafikhalesi popped the question in October 2012, the couple quickly went to work planning a wedding but hadn't scheduled a lengthy honeymoon because Opper was taking care of her mother, who lived in a nursing home.

Mental health rehabilitation and addiction treatment center Baltimore Behavioral Health Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection because it owes more than $5.5 million to creditors and estimates its assets are less than $500,000, according to federal court filings. The center will continue to operate during the Chapter 11 restructuring, said CEO Terry T. Brown. "There's a need for us to be here," Brown said of the nonprofit company's West Pratt Street facility, on the northern edge of the Pigtown neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore.

When the Ravens visit Paul Brown Stadium Sunday, they will serve as a visible reminder of the Cincinnati Bengals' worst loss of the season. The Ravens walloped the Bengals, 44-13, in the first of two Monday night games on Sept. 10, one of two times this season that Cincinnati lost by 10 points or more. (The Cleveland Browns beat the Bengals, 34-24, on Oct. 21.) The 31-point rout was Cincinnati's worst result since Jan. 3, 2010 when the New York Jets beat them 37-0. That's why defensive tackle Geno Atkins didn't disagree with the notion that the 9-6 Bengals owe the 10-5 Ravens one. “Oh yeah,” Atkins said during a conference call with Baltimore media Wednesday.

Harrison Demchick is by his own account an optimist. He doesn't think that human society or our ruling institutions have become irredeemably corrupt. He didn't make one single preparation for this past Friday, when the Mayan calendar came to an abrupt — and some would say ominous — halt. So the 28-year-old Owings Mills resident is an unlikely candidate to have made his literary debut last week with an apocalyptic horror novel called "The Listeners. " In the book, an unnamed city is being ravaged by an airborne, flesh-eating plague that turns those it infects into walking corpses.