Photo Credit: Thomson200 Talented linebacker Brian Banks spent more than five years behind bars for a crime he didn’t commit. Not only was his freedom gone, but his chances at a pro-football contract evaporated after a woman claimed that Banks had raped her. In a story from KCBS-TV (May 24, 2012), “Banks was 16 years old when he was arrested...

September 19, 1968: Detroit Tigers vs. New York Yankees. The Tigers had already sowed-up the American League pennant and were leading the Yanks 6-1 in the top of the eighth inning when Mickey Mantle comes to the plate. Mantle had not homered for several weeks. He was tied with fellow Yank Jimmie Foxx for third on the list for most...

My friend Walter is a world class World Cup fan! Walter used to play professional soccer for a time and whenever I talk to him lately, all I hear is strategy. “Look at this guy play a wall-pass (a give and go) just to get more time on the ball if he’s being closed down, or can play the ball...

In a move that surprised many, last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office cancelled six federal trademark registrations for the name the Washington Redskins, ruling that the name is “disparaging to Native Americans.” In an story authored by Travis Waldron for ThinkProgress, a liberal blog (June 18), the Patent board said, “We decide, based on the evidence properly before us,...

It’s easy to succumb to cynicism from the recent ethics-related scandals causing one to lose sight of everyday acts of civility. At the end of the men’s final at this year’s French Open, Rafael Nadal stood on the podium to accept the top prize and the crowd’s approval after four hard-fought sets of tennis against his rival Novak Djokovic. Not...

Alzheimer’s is a disease that robs an individual of their personality one piece at a time. Particularly insidious is the fact that some of the personality traits that once appeared as petty irritations of life, can grow to become acts of shocking intolerance. This brings me to the recent news about Donald Sterling. The L.A. Clippers owner went on a racist rant...

It’s OUT-RAGEOUS! Where is Rachel Maddow? Where is Fox and Friends!? Where is House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa? Subpoenas should be flying! What’s outrageous? California Chrome! No, not the car show on sunny California beaches. I’m talking about that upstart thoroughbred that creamed the competition in the Kentucky Derby and decimated the field in last week’s Preakness.  » Read more about: Sniffgate...

My opportunity to give a little advice (some ethical, some not), short and sweet. Memo to: Adam Silver (NBA President) CC: All other sports franchises Kudos on your handling of the Donald Sterling crisis: from first reaction to investigation to decision… in three days! Now, don’t let him or the owners off the hook. Continue to press and use this event to broaden race...

All of us live with a devil and an angel. The path before us is to limit temptations from the one while striving to live out the virtues of the other. In view of the decision handed down yesterday by the National Basketball Association’s Commissioner Adam Silver, it seems clear that Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has been spending far too much time...

What is your word worth? “Step by step I moved on. I kept telling me ‘Just fight, just fight,’ again and again. When I reached the summit ridge I could hardly believe it. With my altimeter I checked everything very carefully, I followed the ridge and I know I was on highest point.” That’s Swiss climber Ueli Steck, considered by...