new jili One of Baltimore’s most prominent families was thrust into the spotlight this week, when a son of the clan, Luigi Mangione , was arrested by Pennsylvania police and charged in the Dec. 4 fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson . Locally active in philanthropy, both via individual donations and through the Mangione Family Foundation, the Mangiones gave millions to Baltimore’s various institutions and nonprofits, including more than $1 million to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center and more to the American Citizens for Italian Matters, Baltimore Opera Company and others. Loyola University, which counts Mangione alumni among their ranks, has an aquatic center named after the family, and GBMC previously had a high-risk obstetrics unit, since closed, that bore their name. Their story is a uniquely American one: The Mangiones went from deep poverty to massive wealth in just three generations, with one cousin, Nino Mangione, now a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates. Despite an eventually deep portfolio of development properties and government contracting for 20 years, the family patriarch, Nicholas Mangione Sr. , said he still faced prejudice for his background when he attempted to buy land to build the Turf Valley Golf and Country Club, now the Turf Valley Resort, in Ellicott City. “Tongues started wagging,” Mangione told The Baltimore Sun in 1995. “People [were] wondering where an unknown Italian could get the money for a $5 million project. In those days, there were no Italians in real visible positions [in Howard County].” Mangione said the implication was that he must have backing from the mob, so he countered sharply. “People thought I needed money from the Mafia to buy this place. They asked me what family I belonged to,” he said. “I told them, ‘I belong to the Mangione family. The Mangione family of Baltimore County.’” The family is now defending its name again. On Monday, members released a statement on social media expressing dismay at Luigi Mangione’s arrest, saying they were stunned by the news. “We only know what we have read in the media. Our family is shocked and devastated by Luigi’s arrest. We offer our prayers to the family of Brian Thompson and we ask people to pray for all involved,” the family wrote . “We are devastated by this news.” The family did not respond to a request for comment via a family attorney or their foundation. How they went from the Depression-era streets of the city’s Little Italy to its philanthropic elite is straight out of a Horatio Alger novel. Nicholas Sr. was born in Baltimore’s Little Italy, and spent his first eight years in a one-room apartment with an outdoor privy, according to a 2008 Sun article. He earlier told The Sun his Italian immigrant father, Louis, could neither read nor write, and worked in the city water department until he died of pneumonia. Today, the Mangione family is a sprawling one, with a business empire to match: Nicholas Sr., made the beginning of the family’s fortunes in the post-World War II years as a bricklayer and contractor . He built up his business holdings throughout the following decades, with his wife, Mary , growing their family to include five sons, five daughters, and 37 grandchildren, including Luigi. The family’s holdings range from construction to commercial real estate to local radio station WCBM-AM and a majority stake in Lorien Health Services, which operates multiple assisted living facilities in Maryland. Aside from the Turf Valley Resort, with its 10,000-square-foot ballroom, 220-room hotel, and 85-seat amphitheater, the Mangiones also own the Hayfields Country Club in Cockeysville and a slew of companies registered in Maryland . Its family foundation had net assets of $4.4M as of its 2022 tax filing , the most recent on record. The Mangione Family Foundation’s stated focus is supporting, “Organizations for any of the following purposes: religious, educational, charitable, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition (as long as it doesn’t provide athletic facilities or equipment), or the prevention of cruelty to children or animals.” Politically, the Mangiones have been active across the aisle. Luigi Mangione’s parents, Louis and Kathleen Mangione donated $35,935 to state and local politicians from 2005 through 2023, according to data from the State Board of Elections. Half went to Nino Mangione ’s campaign account for his state delegate races from 2018 through 2023. Other donations went to Howard County executives Calvin Ball and Ken Ulman, both Democrats, and Allan Kittleman, a Republican, along with additional high-profile candidates of both parties, including former Govs. Martin O’Malley and Robert L. Ehrlich, and former Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon. The immense number of Mangiones also was briefly confusing for Baltimoreans on Monday. Aside from Nicholas Sr. and Mary Mangione’s 10 children and 37 grandchildren, city counts at least two other Mangione families, who were briefly inundated with phone calls from the media and queries from former schoolmates and acquaintances. One of Luigi Mangione’s two sisters is a physician at the University of Texas Southwestern, according to her LinkedIn profile. Another sister is a visual artist. Neither sister responded to requests for comment. His mother, Kathleen, comes from a family that owns a funeral home, the Charles S. Zannino Funeral Home in Highlandtown, the Baltimore Fishbowl reported , and now runs a travel agency, KZM Boutique Travel, which had removed its website as of Tuesday evening. His father, Louis was groomed to help take over the family’s business empire, according to a 2003 Washington Post article . Have a news tip? Contact Riley Gutierrez McDermid at rmcdermid@baltsun.com or Frank Gluck at fgluck@baltsun.com.None

CNN senior reporter Edward-Isaac Dovere said Thursday on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that President Joe Biden will be remembered as the guy who was in between the non-consecutive presidential terms of Donald Trump. Dovere said, “Legacy was what he had. I think you’re right—a historic first couple of years in office. More legislation on the domestic front than anybody going back to Lyndon Johnson can claim credit for. I do think that what you’ve seen is a slow receding into the bushes from Joe Biden here. I’m going to do it. I’m going to bring up a West Wing quote here. There’s a moment on the West Wing when John Spencer, as Leo McGarry, the White House chief of staff, says to his I try to rally the troops, and he says, we can do more, we can effect more change in one day in this building than we will in a lifetime after we leave the building. That is not the approach that Joe Biden has been taking, at least publicly since the election, certainly – and even since he ceded the nomination to Kamala Harris. But there are things that he could be doing through executive authority. A lot of things that he could be doing would probably put a target on them for Donald Trump to go after first.” He added, “I think it’s a really difficult thing for Joe Biden to know that he came into the presidency as a rejection of Donald Trump, and here he is being replaced by Donald Trump. I think back to an interview that I did with Joe Biden, he’d been president for about three weeks, for a book that I wrote. A part of the takeaway that I have with him trying to assert himself as Joe Biden, the guy who got elected president, not just Barack Obama’s vice president, not just the guy who beat Donald Trump. But now that is part of who he is. And it may define who he is a couple of weeks before the election. I had a conversation with a senior person in the White House and I said, if Harris loses most of the way that Biden is going to be remembered, at least in the short term, as the guy who was just in between the Trump terms.” Dovere concluded, “At this moment, that is the way he is acting.” Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNENWhat happened at final whistle should be clear Liverpool message to FSG about first priority of 2025We live on one of the most isolated but beautiful islands in the US... and now life is going to change forever

Broderick Jones has made a habit of watching the televised copy of Pittsburgh Steelers games, even if that means listening to the commentators criticize his performance at right tackle. And Jones has given them plenty of ammunition: He’s been flagged nine times – including a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties – and allowed eight sacks and 28 pressures in 11 games this season. But Jones doesn’t blink. “I really don’t listen to what other people are telling me because I feel like I’ve done enough to know what I need to fix and what I don’t need to fix, the things that I do to take that step forward,” Jones said Tuesday afternoon at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “I don’t listen to outsiders. That really don’t faze me.” Despite enduring what Steelers coach Mike Tomlin called the “bumps and bruises associated with on-the-job training,” Jones believes he can build upon the struggles of his second NFL season. The Steelers selected the 6-foot-5, 311-pounder No. 14 overall out of Georgia in 2023, believing as much in the enormity of his potential as his frame. That’s why Tomlin said he has “no intentions of blinking” when asked if Jones would be benched after drawing three penalties and allowing Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Odafe Oweh to record four quarterback hits and 2 1⁄2 sacks in an 18-16 win on Nov. 17. And why Jones takes comfort in knowing that he has Tomlin’s support. “Everything is not going to be perfect. Even though we’re chasing to be perfect, nothing is going to be perfect,” Jones said. “Coach T always tells me he has tremendous faith in me and belief in me, so I feel like I can do anything. It gives me a little bit more confidence. I’ve always had confidence within myself. Hearing him say that, it gives me a little bit of an extra boost or however you want to put it or whatnot. It’s good knowing he has my back.” After allowing two sacks in the season opener at Atlanta, he lost his starting job to rookie Troy Fautanu, the 2024 first-round pick. Jones was benched after picking up three penalties in a six-play span in one drive at Denver. That move was short-lived, however, as Fautanu was placed on injured reserve after undergoing surgery for a dislocated kneecap. So, the Steelers have little choice but to live with Jones and his mishaps and mistakes. In addition to the pair of personal fouls, he has been called for five holding penalties, a facemask and a false start. Jones’ five run-game penalties are tied with Trevor Penning of the New Orleans Saints for the most in the NFL this season. Even though Tomlin has publicly voiced his support for Jones, he made it clear that Jones might have heard an earful of criticism behind closed doors in film sessions and team meetings. “The things that I do with them in the privacy of our space, I’ll leave between us,” Tomlin said. “The things that I tell you guys are often not necessarily how I handle them. And I’ll simply leave it at that.” Losing right guard James Daniels to a season-ending torn Achilles likely exacerbated Jones’ growing pains. Instead of lining up next to a seasoned veteran, Jones is playing beside rookie Mason McCormick. Tomlin was quick to note that the 23-year-old Jones is still in the development stage of his career, almost a year younger than McCormick and only three months older than rookie center Zach Frazier. “So he’s got growth in all areas ahead of him,” Tomlin said, “but he also has an awesome skill set.” While Jones acknowledges that having a pair of young players on the same side of the offensive line makes them obvious targets for opponents, he credits McCormick for bringing out the best in him – even if it sometimes exposes his worst traits. “He brings the nasty to the game of football,” Jones said. “I like the way he plays. Playing next to me, it gives me some type of encouragement to go out there and be physical and finish plays. I’m watching him always be downfield after a play, always around the pile. It’s the little things like that that make him stand out to me, so I try to do the same.” That was evident when Jones got into a heated scuffle with Ravens defensive back Marlon Humphrey, drawing offsetting unsportsmanlike conduct penalties in the second quarter. McCormick claimed he is learning assignments and techniques from Jones, seeing him become more deliberate throughout the season even as he’s deals with problems with penalties and pass protections. “Some things have happened, but Broderick has done a really good job of putting things behind him,” McCormick said. “You can see him continue to grow and develop – in his mind, as well. He’s still a young player. I am, too. We’re learning and growing together. You can see that growth really starting to take place. ... “Not everybody gets to see everything that we do. Broderick comes in and works hard. He is extremely talented. The ceiling for him is crazy. He’s going to keep working hard to reach it.” That talent is why Tomlin hasn’t wavered in his support of Jones. Having the support of his head coach is why Jones is confident that he can correct his mistakes and live up to his enormous potential. “I feel like I’ve always been coachable, so I listen to what they say,” Jones said. “I definitely wouldn’t be here without them. I know they won’t lead me down the wrong path. When they say something, it’s always something encouraging, just to give you a push. They’re going to get on you, too – I know it firsthand. Coach T always has all the players’ backs. As long as we have that, we’ll be all right.”The Montreal Victoire announced the re-signing of defender Catherine Daoust on Thursday to fill the void created with Amanda Boulier being placed on long-term injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Daoust, 29, began this season on the Reserve Player list after playing in 24 games during Montreal's inaugural season. She also spent stints with the CWHL, PWHPA and PHF over five professional seasons before joining the Victoire. The Montreal native scored nine goals and added 28 assists in 140 games over four seasons at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. "We have the luxury of having an experienced player like Catherine on our reserve team. She knows the league well, having played in all our games last season, and we're sure she'll be ready for the challenge ahead of us," Victoire general manager Danièle Sauvageau said. Boulier was injured during the team's game against Toronto on Dec. 21. Montreal is currently third in the standings with seven points while through its first four games. --Field Level Media

How major US stock indexes fared Thursday, 12/26/2024NORTH CAROLINA CENTRAL 131, VIRGINIA-LYNCHBURG 51

ALBANY ‒ Sometimes finding the perfect gift for an avid hunter or angler can be difficult. The Georgia Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Resources Division has a few suggestions that will allow hunters on any Christmas list to enjoy the outdoor activities they love, regardless of age and experience. The gift of a youth license, a lifetime license or an annual hunting or fishing are all great examples of how to give access to the great outdoors and provide support for Georgia wildlife and state-managed lands. While a lifetime license purchase includes a free durable license card, you can put any annual license on a beautiful “collector’s hard card” (a credit card-sized durable license card) giving you the perfect stocking stuffer or wrap-able gift. Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

Flag football uses talent camps to uncover new starsEvery half hour and hour, a home in Colorado Springs comes to life. Gongs and chimes ring out, melodies from once upon a time. Dozens of old clocks sing their old songs — wooden grandfathers standing tall, German cuckoos hanging on walls. Those little birds spring through little doors. Dancers twirl among other fantastical characters alive in their ornate, fantastical boxes. “I find it very therapeutic,” Todd Nipp says. “Very calming.” This is Nipp’s home, though it appears to be a hobbit’s home. The fireplace crackles with the ticking and tocking of his 60-plus clocks, some of them more than 100 years old. Other antiques are around, wooden furniture and rare books between festive, fall decor. Yes, you might expect to find a hobbit here — or a man practicing an art of the Old World. That’s Nipp, whose office is down the hall lined with black-and-white photographs. Drawers keep various springs and gears, clips and screws, hooks and nails, ornamental hands for telling the hour and minute for some clock that has forgotten. One desk keeps Nipp’s tools under anchored magnifying glasses: micro screwdrivers, micro pliers, “micro everything,” Nipp says with a grin. “You can’t be shaky.” And then there’s his current project: a box-shaped clock back on its cast iron legs, returning to life. The customer called from Arizona, Nipp says. “He called me and said, ‘There’s no way I can get rid of this clock. It’s been in my mom’s family for two generations; she used to wind it as a child every Sunday morning. Can you restore it?’” That’s what Nipp does best. “Everybody either has one or remembers their grandparents having one, and it’s in the box in the attic,” he says. “They’ll bring me a box with an old cuckoo clock covered with 20 years of dust.” Nipp goes by the Clock Doctor on his Facebook page, where customers tend to find him. Or they find his Etsy page, where he lists for sale some of the antique clocks he collects and restores. Those are the ones he can bring himself to sell. It’s a struggle to let go of others — the common struggle of the horologist, the clock craftsman and student of time. There is something oddly intimate about these old clocks, about the painstaking, sure-handed, micro process behind their revival. Nipp looks at this current project now, this generational timekeeper that came to him in dusty, rusted pieces. “I’ll be sad to send it back,” he says. Nipp is somewhat new to this niche world; just this fall he received his certificate of horology from Denver’s Emily Griffith Technical College. It was the culmination of an education that started a few years ago with the repair of his grandparents’ cuckoo clock from the 1970s. Nipp is somewhat new, while one he admires, Mike Korn, descends from two generations of Denver horologists. Korn knows the odd intimacy well. “Sometimes you open the back of the clock and you stick your nose in there, and it has this aroma to it,” he says. “Sometimes you see a spider that died in its web.” You find other things. Not long ago, at his Keenesburg antique shop called A Step Back in Time, Ken Gfeller took a close look inside an old grandfather clock. “I got the light just right, and I was able to find where different clockmakers had written in pencil when they worked on it,” he says. “I think maybe 1844 was the oldest signature I could find. And then it went up through 1977, and then us.” Gfeller was Nipp’s instructor at Emily Griffith. Nipp thought the man was someone else — “big white beard, saggy droopy eyes. His voice is super smooth and calming,” Nipp says. “I was joking with my wife, Santa Claus is my instructor.” At 53, Nipp’s classmates appeared much older than him as well. There aren’t many more than a dozen at a time, Gfeller says, and indeed there aren’t many youngsters. “They didn’t seem to have the patience for this,” recalls Korn, the instructor before Gfeller. Students tended to be engineer types, he says, and “usually guys about ready to retire or retired.” That’s the demographic of the occasional, small workshops and gatherings Korn oversees as president of Denver’s chapter of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. It counts about 10,000 members worldwide, according to its website, which also speaks to the vitality of the interest, however obscure: “Timekeepers began keeping everyone and everything on schedule, from farmers to pharmacists, from sailing ships to space shuttles. Today, almost nothing is coordinated without using a timepiece.” The website adds: “Horology offers an impressive record of engineering genius.” The record spans time and space, stretching as far back to the days our eyes first watched the sun and moon move across the sky. The National Institute of Standards and Technology traces the record to ancient Egypt. As early as 3500 B.C., massive obelisks were erected to cast shadows under the sun — early sundials. The national institute also credits the Egyptians for an early timekeeper “that didn’t depend on the observation of celestial bodies:” The pharaoh Amenhotep I was buried with a contraption that tracked time by the steady dripping of water. Ancient Greeks called such contraptions clepsydra, “water thieves.” Millenia gave way to other time-measuring concepts depending on controlled, repetitive phenomena; Galileo is credited as the first to conceive the pendulum. This was ahead of a Dutch scientist, Christiaan Huygens, developing a balance wheel and spring assembly around 1675 — a concept that prevails in some wristwatches still today. There were other advances along the way, most notably the “main spring” concept of Peter Henlein. The German inventor died long before cuckoo clocks rose out of the country’s Black Forest through the 1700s. William Clement claimed another key concept, “anchor and recoil.” His London home would go on to make famous the grandfather clock. Europeans continued to advance concepts toward timekeeping’s atomic and digital ages. And here we are now, deep in this age of timekeeping by phones, car dashboards and kitchen appliances — further and further from generations that cherished those ornate, hand-carved grandfather clocks and cuckoos on the wall. The clocks were necessary and artful before they were just artful. “The market right now is pretty much gone,” Gfeller says from his antique shop. “The current trend is smartwatches and all of that stuff.” Stuff from Walmart, Nipp says. “Designed to be thrown away.” The future of horology? “I kind of think it’s a bleak future,” Korn says. “Just because the ages of the people that are getting into it.” But every now and then someone on the younger side comes along. Someone like Nipp. He was someone who wanted his grandparents’ cuckoo clock repaired, someone who was told it would be cheaper to buy a similar antique rather than pay for the repair. “That’s not what nostalgia is about,” Nipp says. Nostalgia is about a certain time and place, a certain loved one, a certain chime. In Nipp’s home, the clocks chime and the birds cuckoo, and he is filled with the kind of comfort that nostalgia provides. And wonder. “I look at that clock, and I wonder how many homes that was in. Who looked at it? Who was excited about the time when they were looking at it, and who was maybe having a bad day and not excited about it when they were looking at it? There’s so much history and emotion in a clock.” Maybe the future of horology depends on that appreciation. Or maybe, simply, a memory. Nipp thinks back to a customer now. “I had one lady totally break down in my shop,” he says. “She started crying when her clock started cuckooing again, because she just remembered it as a child.”Stock market today: Wall Street drifts to a mixed close in thin trading following a holiday pause

What's Going On With Walgreens Shares Friday?We live on one of the most isolated but beautiful islands in the US... and now life is going to change forever

Trump calls meeting with Trudeau 'productive' after tariff threat

Franklin Income Fund Q3 2024 Commentary

FOOTBALL fans trolled Plymouth Argyle manager Wayne Rooney after a disastrous five days that saw his team concede a staggering TEN goals. Plymouth suffered a miserable 6-1 loss at Norwich on Tuesday in the Championship. And then the Pilgrims sustained a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Bristol City at Ashton Gate. That means, Rooney , 39, has now officially lost nine out of 19 matches during his short six-month stint in charge of Plymouth, winning only five games along the way. And some fans took to social media joking that at this pace the Manchester United record goalscorer may soon be free to fly to Australia and find his wife Coleen. The England legend's missus is currently competing in the hit reality show I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here! which takes place Down Under. Read More on Football One fan tweeted: "Think he will be able to go to Australia, if this carries on." Another commented: "Should have gone to the jungle." A third wrote: "He'd of been better off going in the jungle and let Coleen run the team." This fan said: "That's really tough for him." Most read in Football BEST FREE BET SIGN UP OFFERS FOR UK BOOKMAKER S And that one stated: "Tough week for Wayne Rooney ." Rooney switched to management after rolling credits on his glittering 19-year football career in 2021. The legendary striker underwent a two-year spell with Derby County and spent a year with DC United as well as Birmingham City before moving to Home Park.

Digital Gift Cards: The Next Frontier in Cross-Border E-CommerceThe e-commerce landscape has seen rapid evolution over the past decade, and digital gift cards have emerged as a dynamic force within this space. With their convenience, flexibility, and ease