Lincoln

Lincoln Financial Group, the Philadelphia-based insurer, increased its stock repurchase program by $760 million, to reach a $1 billion total. The new total represents about 15 percent of Lincoln's market capitalization, which stood at about $6.5 billion Thursday. With the program, the company directors can decide to buy back stock from shareholders. If used to the fullest, the program could drive up share price and earnings per share by a similar amount. The stock price went up 3.2 percent after the news was released.

I finally saw Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter the other day. Once I stopped worrying about the divergence of even the movie's non-supernatural timeline from the actual history, I had plenty of guilty fun. I also came away wondering about the surge of interest in our 16th president over the past few years.   Every season seems to bring a dozen new Lincoln books — or maybe more than a dozen: Starting this year, visitors to Ford's Theatre in Washington have been able to view a 34-foot tower constructed largely of some of the 15,000-odd books published about Lincoln.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - The first doctor to reach President Abraham Lincoln after he was shot in a Washington theater rushed to his ceremonial box and found him paralyzed, comatose, and leaning against his wife. Dr. Charles Leale ordered brandy and water to be brought immediately. Leale's long-lost report of efforts to help the mortally wounded president, written just hours after his death, was discovered in a box at the National Archives late last month. The Army surgeon, who sat 40 feet from Lincoln at Ford's Theater that night in April 1865, saw assassin John Wilkes Booth jump to the stage, brandishing a dagger.

Lincoln University says it's opening a second campus in Chester County. The historically black institution will begin offering classes in Coatesville next year. The city is about 15 miles northeast of Lincoln's main campus in Oxford. University President Robert Jennings announced the move on Wednesday at an economic forum in Coatesville. Jennings says the Coatesville campus initially will house programs in nursing, business and entrepreneurship, and hotel, restaurant and tourism management.

LISTEN TO EAGLES chief operating officer Don Smolenski explain the inner workings of a deal that returns Real Madrid to Philadelphia, and you'd think it was love at first sight. But from the time Real walked off with a 2-1 win over the Union last July at Lincoln Financial Field, Smolenski wanted the Spanish League champions back — and as soon as possible. After nearly a year of exhaustive phone conversations, conference calls and meetings via Skype, Smolenski finally got his wish.

WHETHER he's involved in a bang-bang play at first base, or if the home plate umpire is squeezing his strike zone, don't expect Tyler Criniti to put up too much of an argument. He may grumble under his breath and kick at the dirt, but Criniti, a senior at Girard Academic Music Program, isn't going to whine to the men in blue. They say you don't know a man until you've walked a mile in his cleats. Criniti started umpiring youth baseball games last month and has newfound respect for the profession.

This was the nightmare that David J. Perri, an engineer for the city's Streets Department, did not want to read about in the newspaper. It went like this: In the middle of the night, heavy rains drench the region. The Monoshone Creek, which runs into Wissahickon Creek along Lincoln Drive, washes out. A 15-foot stone retaining wall collapses into the Monoshone, taking with it part of Lincoln Drive. Not seeing the crater in the road, an unsuspecting driver plunges into the creek bed. Commuters can rest easy.

WASHINGTON - President Obama is embracing an unlikely group of political icons as he tries to paint Mitt Romney as extreme: He's praising Republican presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan. The Democratic president typically offers up GOP leaders of the past as evidence of how both parties can work together in Washington to pursue big ideas and rebuild the economy. With Election Day seven months away, Obama hopes to persuade voters that he, like his Republican predecessors, is a reasonable moderate.

THREE YEARS AGO, Devontae Watson's eyes were bigger than his game. Then just a raw freshman, Watson can't help but remember the boyish confidence he once had. "My goal as a freshman, even though it wasn't realistic, was to win a state championship every year - as a freshman, a sophomore, a junior and a senior," he said. "And I didn't even play my freshman year. " Now a 6-10 Temple-bound senior, Watson's skills have long since caught up to his dreams. Watson is the centerpiece of Midland-based Lincoln Park (26-5)