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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)

Gilman's Biff Poggi was looking forward to one final chance to coach his son, Henry Poggi, the Greyhounds standout and Michigan-bound defensive lineman. "I sure would've liked to coach him one more time," said Biff Poggi, the original coach of the Maryland team in Saturday's Big 33 Football Classic at Hersheypark Stadium who stepped down from the position last week for reasons he discussed in a phone call Friday afternoon. "It's a different schedule than I thought it was going to be," said Biff Poggi, who coached in this year's Under Armour All-America Game and was previously on staff in the 2011 Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl and Chesapeake Bowl.

Sen. Rand Paul is recruiting plaintiffs - and seeking donations - for a class-action lawsuit against the National Security Agency. “Dear Patriot,” the Kentucky Republican wrote Thursday in an e-mail to supporters. “I'm looking for ten million Americans to stand with me and sue the federal government and TAKE BACK our rights. “Can I count on your help? “Without it, I truly fear where our fragile Republic could be headed …” Paul, who is expected to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, told a Fox News interviewer this week that he would be asking Internet providers and telephone companies to join him in a lawsuit against the electronic eavesdropping agency based at Fort Meade.

Irene Pollin, the wife of former Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Abe Pollin, has given $10 million to Johns Hopkins' Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Heart Disease. Her donation establishes the Kenneth Jay Pollin Professorship in Cardiology and will enable the school to embark on new research projects, the university announced Thursday. Pollin lost two children to congenital heart defects. Kenneth, for whom the professorship is named, died when he was 13 months old. Pollin's daughter, Linda, died at age 16. Her husband died in 2009.

Matt Fortese came 75 miles from Hagerstown to meet Taylor Queen at Camden Yards. She drove more than three hours from Virginia. Their second date was going well, Queen said, until an hour of taunting from two fans boiled over into an altercation that left Fortese fighting for his life. Fortese, a lifelong Yankees fan who wore his team's cap to Wednesday's game, suffered severe head trauma and a skull fracture. He was listed in serious condition at Maryland Shock Trauma Center Saturday.

I f you watch Spike TV's "Bar Rescue"you know how hard Jon Taffer's job is. Recruited by drinkeries, Taffer not only revamps bars' design, menus and business practices, but deals with bullheaded owners. He's already had to fix a pirate bar (!) in Silver Spring (!!) for the premiere of Season 2 last week. But for this Sunday's episode (9 p.m.), he attempts to fix Fells Point's J.A. Murphy's, which became Murphy's Law ... and then closed. What went down? We decided to awkwardly ask Taffer.

A long-running domestic dispute between movie actor John Heard and "Homicide" actress Melissa Leo moved yesterday to a Baltimore courtroom, where prosecutors dropped a stalking charge against Heard but named him in new harassment charges.Leo, 36, who plays a tough police detective in the NBC television series, alleges in court papers that Heard has been stalking their 9-year-old son, whom she was awarded custody of after a bitter 1994 court battle.She and Heard had a three-year relationship in the 1980s, but they were never married.

Charles Jacob "Buck" Miller Jr., founder of a Carroll County contracting company, died Tuesday from heart failure at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He was 71. The son of farmers, Mr. Miller was born in Baltimore and was 9 when he moved with his family to Hampstead. He was a 1958 graduate of North Carroll High School. "He was actually in high school when his parents helped him buy his first piece of equipment in 1957. He began the business digging ponds and septic systems," said a son, Charles Jacob "C.J.

The Rev. Dr. Harold A. Carter Sr., senior pastor of the New Shiloh Baptist Church, whose legendary preaching spanned generations and brought him an audience beyond his congregation of 5,000 members, died of cancer Thursday. He was 76. In 47 years of ministry, Dr. Carter preached with legends of the civil rights era, before his congregation in West Baltimore and to bigger audiences across America and in foreign countries. And for years, his resounding voice could be heard on Sundays on WBAL-Radio.

The relationship between Michael Oher and Sean Tuohy Jr. has - like Tuohy himself - grown dramatically in the 10 years since Oher was brought by Tuohy's family into their home in the leafy suburbs of Memphis. If those early years became the genesis of a best-selling book and a hit movie that documented Oher's transformation into a college football star at Mississippi and the No. 1 pick of the Ravens in 2009, this year takes the brothers' relationship to another place. In Baltimore, call it The Other Side.

A 47-year-old Baltimore man has been charged with attempted first-degree murder in the near drowning of his 3-month-old son in a bathtub at the family's Mondawmin Avenue home last week, according to Baltimore Police. Augustus Parker, who has previously served time in prison for child abuse, allegedly admitted to police that he intentionally held his son, Montez Parker, under water in the tub until the "bubbles began to stop" and the boy appeared unconscious, according to a police report.

Joan B. McClernan, a retired real estate broker and animal lover, died May 23 of complications from chronic pulmonary obstructive disease at Stella Maris Hospice. She was 79. The daughter of a businessman and a homemaker, Joan Brown was born and raised in Media, Pa., and graduated in 1951 from Radnor High School. She worked as a secretary in Philadelphia, and after her marriage to an aerospace engineer, lived in Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Detroit. She moved to Monkton in the early 1960s when her husband took a job with the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River.

Baltimore police said they charged a suspect Saturday in connection with the fatal shooting of a 1-year-old boy in South Baltimore's Cherry Hill neighborhood. The boy's father was also shot in what police said was a targeted attack. The shooting occurred on Friday evening when the two were in a car. Police confirmed Sunday that Eddie Tarver, age 20 of the 200 block of Cherry Hill Road, was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree assault and a related handgun violation in connection with the incident.

Three men wearing latex gloves, two in hooded sweat shirts, fired at least 16 shots as Rashaw Scott sat in the driver's seat of a parked red Chevrolet — his 16-month-old son, Carter, was in the back passenger seat — in what police say was a targeted shooting that left the child dead. Scott, 22, of Harlem Park, described the scene inside the Cherrydale Apartments complex in South Baltimore to police before he was admitted to surgery, according to an arrest warrant obtained Sunday.

As the hospital ship USNS Comfort motored up the Chesapeake Bay, Chief Petty Officer 2nd Class Josh Cackowski was eager to see his son - and anxious about how the 18-month-old might react to him. Cackowski had celebrated Jakob's first birthday before leaving for the Iraq War, and had been around to see the boy take his first steps. He had stayed in telephone and e-mail contact with his wife throughout the five-month deployment, and had been getting regular updates on their son's achievements and adventures.

Daniel Baker, a former general partner at Alex. Brown & Sons who headed the firm's institutional sales department and in retirement managed a family farm, died May 19 of cancer at his Ruxton home. He was 82. "Dan was one of the true gentlemen in the investment business in Baltimore. He was highly respected by his colleagues and clients, and everyone liked and trusted him," said Joseph R. Hardiman, who was chief operating officer at Alex. Brown for 13 years and later was chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers.

Kenna and Andrew Hill, of Glen Burnie, announce the birth of their son, Covin Marsden Hill, on June 25, 2011, at 8:01 p.m. He weighed 8 pounds, 7 ounces. His sister is Briella. His grandparents are Maureen Marsden, of Columbia; Thomas Marsden, of Glen Burnie; Steele and Gail Hill, of Columbia; and Lynn Walters, of Orange Park, Fla.

Meet Samwell Tarly, the zombie slayer. In a horror-movie-style closing scene in Sunday's 'Thrones' episode, Sam came face-to-face with a seemingly unbeatable foe: A White Walker. With Gilly's baby in danger, Sam wielded his broadsword, which the frozen-zombie easily shattered, casting the overweight, cowardly Night's Watchman to the snow-covered ground.  But then Sam pulled out his obsidian blade, the dragonglass knife he found on the Fist of the First Men. Gathering his courage, Sam charged The Other, stabbing him in the back.

David Waldemar Gjerde, a retired Procter & Gamble executive who became a restaurant investor and consultant to his sons, Spike and Charlie, died of a heart attack May 2 at his Cockeysville home. He was 75. Born in Mankato, Minn., he was the son of Waldemar Gjerde, an engineer, and the former Ferne Sorenson, a church organist. Raised in Cedar Falls, Iowa, he earned an engineering degree from the University of Iowa. He served in the Army National Guard. He joined Procter & Gamble in Iowa and moved to Maryland in 1968 with his wife, the former Alice Silletto, and their two sons.