By RICK GANO
(AP)
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22 hours ago

CHICAGO — Aramis Ramirez homered with dual outs in a bottom of a eighth Friday for his third strike of a diversion as well as a Chicago Cubs rallied for a 4-3 feat over a Philadelphia Phillies.

Ramirez appears to be entrance out of a season-long slump. His 11th homer came off Ryan Madson (2-1). It privileged a bleachers in left margin as well as gave him fourteen RBIs in his last 8 games.

Sean Marshall (6-2) pitched a eighth in service of Ted Lilly as well as Carlos Marmol struck out a side in a ninth for his 17th save in twenty chances.

Ryan Howard strike his 20th homer with dual outs in a sixth, a expostulate onto a roof tiles of a batter’s eye seating territory in straight line center. It was his third home run in dual games as well as it put a Phils up 3-1.

After Howard’s blast, a Cubs rallied for dual in a bottom of a inning with a two-out convene of their own off Joe Blanton as Ramirez doubled as well as Marlon Byrd followed with his 10th homer, restraining it during 3.

Shane Victorino additionally homered for a Phillies off Lilly upon a 90-degree day during Wrigley Field.

Blanton pitched 7 innings as well as gave up 5 hits as well as 3 runs with 3 walks whilst restraining a season-high with 8 strikeouts.

Lilly, who can be a giveaway representative after a season, has been a theme of countless traffic rumors as well as met Thursday with ubiquitous physical education instructor Jim Hendry to plead his Cubs’ future.

“He wants to stay here. … And we’d identical to for him to stay here,” Cubs physical education instructor Lou Piniella pronounced prior to Friday’s game. “At a same time, we never know what is starting to happen.”

And after dual unsure starts in that he gave up fourteen warranted runs as well as eighteen hits, Lilly late a initial 10 batters he faced prior to surrendering Victorino’s career-best 15th homer with a single out in a fourth.

Lilly’s last line was identical to Blanton’s. He surrendered 3 runs as well as 4 hits in 7 innings with a travel as well as a season-high 10 strikeouts.

Cody Ransom as well as Carlos Ruiz had back-to-back singles with a single out in a fifth prior to Lilly got called third strikes past Wilson Valdez as well as Blanton.

Chicago scored equally a diversion in a fifth when Blanton walked Lilly, who was hitless in twenty-six at-bats this season, upon a 3-2 representation with dual outs as well as a bases loaded.

Ramirez singled as well as Soriano walked prior to Blanton purposely walked Geovany Soto to bucket a bases as well as face Lilly.

NOTES: Victorino strike fourteen homers in 2008. … Jayson Werth was called out upon strikes 3 times.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By BETH HARRIS
(AP)
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4 hours ago

LOS ANGELES — Drew Brees was a large leader during a ESPY Awards, pciking up 4 trophies, together with masculine contestant of a year upon Wednesday night.

The New Orleans Saints quarterback additionally won many appropriate championship performance, NFL player as good as common a group endowment with his Super Bowl hold up colleagues.

“It’s tough to kick a Lakers in LA,” Saints manager Sean Payton said, hoisting a china group trophy.

Brees was selected masculine contestant over Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Jimmie Johnson as good as Albert Pujols. All though James picked up trophies in alternative categories.

“I’d additionally similar to to appreciate a Who Dat nation,” Brees said. “We adore you.”

Gold medal-winning skier Lindsey Vonn won womanlike contestant of a year honors during a uncover hosted by “Saturday Night Live” comic Seth Meyers which aired live upon ESPN from a Nokia Theatre. She kick out Serena Williams as good as basketball players Maya Moore of Connecticut as good as Diana Taurasi of a Phoenix Mercury.

“This is entrance from a fans,” Vonn pronounced backstage. “It’s not basketball, tennis or golf. It’s not as rarely noticed as alternative sports. To win is a lot some-more than you expected.”

Vonn was additionally selected many appropriate womanlike Olympian.

Landon Donovan of a U.S. inhabitant soccer group picked up 3 trophies, for many appropriate impulse in a World Cup diversion opposite Algeria, many appropriate MLS player as good as a opening underneath vigour award. He didn’t stick upon his U.S. teammates backstage.

Phil Mickelson finished Tiger Woods’ five-year run as many appropriate masculine golfer, denying Woods a jot down 23rd career ESPY.

Meyers worked a small jokes about Woods’ sex liaison in to his monologue.

“We all know which giveaway representative is creation a many income this summer — Elin Nordegren,” he said, referring to a golfer’s disloyal wife.

“Everyone, give it up for Tiger Woods, if you haven’t already,” Meyers said, sketch a single of his greatest laughs.

Phil Jackson of a two-time fortifying NBA hold up Los Angeles Lakers was declared many appropriate coach, whilst Bryant won many appropriate NBA player.

James was booed when a montage of masculine contestant nominees was shown. He didn’t attend a 18th annual awards.

Meyers zinged James’ preference to leave Cleveland as a giveaway representative as good as pointer with a Miami Heat.

“Did it unequivocally need to be an hour?” Meyers said. “Somebody time me. Miami. How prolonged did which take? A second.”

Actors Steve Carell as good as Paul Rudd spoofed James’ hour-long preference special upon ESPN in a pre-taped bit which culminated in Carell announcing he had selected to eat cooking during Outback instead of his longtime uncover up Chili’s.

Meyers sealed a uncover by saying, “Stay tuned to ESPN for an encore display of LeBron James’ ‘The Decision.’”

The year’s many appropriate diversion respect went to a U.S.-Canada bullion endowment hockey diversion during a Vancouver Olympics, won by a horde nation.

Minnesota Vikings teammates Brett Favre as good as Greg Lewis common a many appropriate fool around for Favre’s last-second pass to Lewis early final season.

“A lot of discuss about improved pass, improved catch. That was a single heck of a catch,” Favre told a audience. “That was only a small blip upon a radio detector of what kind of deteriorate you had. At 40, you still felt similar to you could do it. You guys done me hold it. It was only a enchanting year.”

Favre hasn’t voiced either he’ll fool around this deteriorate as good as Lewis appeared alone backstage.

“I unequivocally couldn’t get a review upon either he’s entrance behind or not,” Lewis told reporters. “I goal he comes back.”

Denver Nuggets manager George Karl perceived a Jimmy V ESPY for Perseverance. He longed for games as good as practices final deteriorate whilst battling neck as good as twist grip cancer. A thinner Karl appeared well, nonetheless he didn’t come backstage.

The Arthur Ashe Courage endowment went to a Ed Thomas family of Parkersburg, Iowa, for their bravery to forgive. In Jun 2009, Thomas was shot as good as killed in a tall propagandize football team’s locker room by Mark Becker, a single of his former players. Favre presented a endowment to Thomas’ mother January as good as sons Aaron as good as Todd.

“Without the conviction you do not consider there’s any approach you could get by this tragedy,” Todd Thomas said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By The Associated Press
(AP)
–
1 hour ago

A outline of events Wednesday, Jul 14, Day 85 of a Gulf of Mexico oil brief which began with a Apr twenty explosion as good as glow upon a training supply Deepwater Horizon, owned by Transocean Ltd. as good as leased by BP PLC, which is in assign of cleanup as good as containment. The explosion killed eleven workers. Since then, oil has been pouring in to a Gulf from a blown-out undersea well.

STOPPING THE STOPPING THE FLOW

BP froze wake up upon dual pass projects Wednesday meant to throttle off a upsurge of oil billowing from a damaged good in a Gulf of Mexico after days of relocating quietly toward determining a crisis. The expansion was a overwhelming reversal after a oil hulk eventually seemed to be upon lane following scarcely 3 months of unsuccessful attempts to stop a spill, which has sullied beaches from Florida to Texas as good as decimated a multibillion dollar Gulf fishing industry. The oil hulk as good as a supervision pronounced some-more research was indispensable prior to contrast could ensue upon a brand brand brand brand brand new proxy good top — a most appropriate goal given Apr of interlude a geyser. Work upon a permanent fix, service wells which will block a brief from next with sand as good as cement, additionally was halted.

SPEWING

Oil one after another to pour scarcely unfettered in to a water, with no transparent timeline upon when it would stop. “We wish to pierce brazen with this as shortly as you have been ready to do it,” pronounced Kent Wells, a BP comparison clamp president. BP had zipped by week finish preparations for removing a 75-ton top in place as good as undersea robots sealed it uniformly in to place Monday atop a well, raising hopes a gusher could be checked for a initial time given a Deepwater Horizon supply leased by BP exploded Apr 20, murdering eleven workers. Wells pronounced which it was a government’s call late Tuesday to re-evaluate skeleton for contrast a brand brand brand brand brand new cap, as good as which skeleton were upon reason for during slightest twenty-four hours. Federal officials as good as a association will re-evaluate a most appropriate trail brazen after which time period.

WASHINGTON

The run-up to a now-delayed contrast routine was being closely monitored from Washington. Allen, who came to BP’s U.S. offices in Houston upon Tuesday, additionally met with Energy Secretary Steven Chu as good as U.S. Geological Survey conduct Marcia McNutt along with BP as good as attention representatives. And President Obama has been reception mixed any day briefings upon a work’s progress, his confidant David Axelrod said.

RELIEF WELL

Work upon a permanent fix, a service good which would block a trickle with complicated training sand as good as cement, was halted for up to 48 hours as a prevision since it’s not nonetheless transparent what outcome a contrast of a brand brand brand brand brand new top could have upon it. BP pronounced upon Tuesday which it halted work upon a second service well, though which holdup was expected. The association is training a second good as a backup in box a initial doesn’t work. The service well’s timeframe has regularly been hazy, with association as good as sovereign officials giving estimates trimming from a finish of Jul to a center of Aug prior to it can be completed.

REACTIONS

The advise check mixed Gulf Coast residents already sap of constant gloom. On a Alabama coast, Joyce Nelson pronounced any bit of headlines from a brief site increases her highlight as good as sparks a brand brand brand brand brand new turn of write calls in in between friends as good as kin in Bayou La Batre, where a seafood attention is probably close down since of a spill. The slack during a supply site only done things worse. Roger N. Anderson, a sea geologist during Columbia University, pronounced he believes BP as good as supervision scientists have been only being really discreet as good as he’s not worried. Freezing work upon a service good might meant scientists have been disturbed which clamping down a top will pull brand brand brand brand brand new vigour all a approach down to a inlet of a damaged well, he said. “So we wouldn’t panic, is a answer. They’re starting to be very, really counsel about this,” Anderson said.

BANKING

Regulators urged banks to have loans to creditworthy people as good as businesses whose livelihoods have been harm by a Gulf Oil spill. In a corner matter expelled Wednesday, a regulators pronounced banks should have an bid to work with business to assistance them get over any monetary humps. Doing so, will assistance a internal economies reanimate as good as make firm a long-term relations in in between a banks as good as their customers. “Banks can assistance business redeem financially as good as be improved positioned to respect their obligations,” a regulators said. “In a influenced areas, these efforts can additionally minister to a illness of internal communities.” The agencies creation a defence embody sovereign regulators, such as a Federal Reserve as good as a Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., along with a Conference of State Bank Supervisors, which oversees banks during a internal level.

FOOD WEB

Scientists inform early signs which a Gulf of Mexico oil brief is altering a sea food web by murdering or tainting a little creatures as good as spurring a expansion of others some-more matched to a fouled environment. Near a brief site, researchers have documented a large die-off of pyrosomes — cucumber-shaped, gooey organisms fed upon by involved sea turtles. Along a coast, droplets of oil have been being found inside a shells of immature crabs which have been a buttress in a diet of fish, turtles as good as shorebirds. And during a bottom of a food web, little organisms which devour oil as good as gas have been proliferating. If such impacts continue, a scientists advise of a grave reshuffling of sea hold up which could over time pour out by a ecosystem as good as endanger a region’s multibillion-dollar fishing industry.

SEA TURTLES

The initial sea turtles to induce from eggs evacuated to Florida’s Kennedy Space Center since of a Gulf Coast oil brief have been expelled in to a Atlantic Ocean. Biologist Jane Provancha says a baby Kemp’s ridley sea turtles did good after their release. About 700 sea turtle nests — any containing about 100 eggs — have been being trucked from oiled shores along a Gulf to Cape Canaveral, where they’re kept during a climate-controlled facility. The turtles have been being expelled in to a Atlantic as they hatch. Scientists feared which a era of a at risk class would die if they hatched as good as swam in to a oil.

Information from: Florida Today, http://www.floridatoday.com

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By TIM FOUGHT
(AP)
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16 hours ago

BORING, Ore. — Phyllis Owens assumingly didn’t know day from night when she died during 87, an hour after sheriff’s deputies sealed in upon her as she reached for the handgun, an military military officer pronounced Friday.

“We had to respond,” pronounced Detective Jim Strovink of the Clackamas County sheriff’s office.

An military military officer stealing in the thicket around her farming home jolted the thin lady with the jolt gun Thursday afternoon, as well as she collapsed unconscious. She died shortly after in the hospital. The post-mortem inform pronounced her heart mildew was the means of death.

Two Clackamas sheriff’s deputies had left to her wooded housing growth nearby Boring after the male regulating the backhoe to reinstate her H2O line reported which she had in jeopardy him with the handgun, Strovink said. It was about 2:30 p.m.

“She came out fluttering the gun as well as had him up opposite the backhoe,” Strovink said. “She yelled during him, ‘What have been you you do here during this time of night?’”

The workman called for help, as well as deputies arrived to find the lady upon her porch, Strovink said. Approaching her, they talked her in to putting down the weapon, he said, though she fast picked it up again.

The probes of the officer’s Taser strike her left arm as well as hip, pronounced Dr. Larry Lewman of the state healing examiner’s office.

Owens had the story of heart mildew as well as which was the means of death, Lewman pronounced Friday. He pronounced he would do some-more investigate to establish what outcome the electrical startle had upon her pacemaker.

“A full of health chairman would not have died this way,” Lewman said.

Strovink pronounced Owens had not long ago gotten out of the sanatorium as well as was reportedly pang from dementia. He pronounced it wasn’t transparent how she came by the weapon.

Since her father died the little years ago, Strovink said, Owens had lived alone in Big Valley Woods, the village about twenty miles southeast of Portland which bills itself as the in isolation growth for made housing. Journalists who visited Friday were systematic to leave.

The dual deputies, who were not identified, have been upon executive leave. That would be the use if the genocide was deliberate the outcome of fatal force, nonetheless Strovink pronounced it wasn’t.

“But we’re doing it as if you had essentially shot her,” he said. That includes an review involving outward officers.

Strovink pronounced which when the lady grabbed her handgun off the porch railing, officers would have been fit in regulating their firearms, though they didn’t.

“They did the worthy pursuit in regulating the minimal volume of force,” he said.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

By JIM LITKE
(AP)
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2 hours ago

The King?

Of what, exactly?

Hype? Wasting time? Stacking the deck?

Check, check as well as double-check.

So LeBron James is starting to Miami. Man, did he ever collect the right place to win. Just do not dont cruise about given people contend to be clever what we instruct for.

Because when James eventually does win it all, chances have been great he will be as many the supporter as the leader, the bigger, better, badder chronicle of Scottie Pippen, an additional aristocrat who picked up the fistful of rings nonetheless was never unequivocally cut out to be king.

He could do worse, of course. The contrition is James could have finished better.

A genuine aristocrat would have dug in his heels in Cleveland as well as redoubled his bid to vegetable patch the cracks in the substructure of the authorization that’s already outlayed some-more than 7 seasons as well as hundreds of millions perplexing to set up him the throne. That’s what Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson as well as Kobe Bryant did. Maybe even give the Cavs the hometown discount, receiving reduction income than he was value to giveaway up top space down the road, the approach Tim Duncan did.

Not LeBron.

He’s lighting out for South Beach to cling to with superfriends Dwyane Wade as well as Chris Bosh, whilst the rest of us redeem from an hour-long infomercial which was recognised as well as choreographed by his advisers, afterwards aided as well as abetted by ESPN. The proclamation was approaching to pull in audiences rivaling Tiger Woods’ reparation as well as the O.J. outcome — the dual greatest non-sports sports stories ever. And usually similar to those two, James is substantially the usually male entrance out of it who essentially believed what he was saying.

Even the kids from the internal Boys & Girls Club stranded in the credentials as props — who would have guessed which rich Greenwich, Conn., even had the chapter? — knew which usually given James has the permanent skin stain which says “Loyalty” doesn’t have it so.

The many revelation impulse came when he was asked either it would have been “sweeter” winning the championship in Cleveland, usually down the widespread from Akron, the locale James grew up in.

“I cruise championships have been championships, as well as we can’t demeanour during it as saying, ‘Well, if we would have did it somewhere else, it would have been sweeter,’” he replied. “Because, we mean, it’s the championship. A lot of people do not get there.

“When we get to which indicate as well as we win the championship, we can’t say, ‘Wow, we instruct we would have did it somewhere else.’ That creates no clarity to me, given we put the lot of tough work in to it to get to which indicate as well as we have not got there yet.

“But I’m starting to do all in my power,” he added, “to lead which Miami authorization to the second one.”

If 0 about the proclamation astounded Wade, which final partial should validate as news. He’d never confess observation Bosh as well as even James as sidekicks — strictly they’re equals, for the impulse any approach — though it’s revelation which they wound up entrance to him. Plus, Wade was the male in Miami when the Heat won their initial title, nonetheless he had copiousness of assistance from Shaquille O’Neal.

Yet which agreement worked precisely given Shaq had already won 3 championships in Los Angeles. Deferring to Wade during break time was not usually intelligent — the child was usually attack his walk — it done Shaq demeanour similar to an even bigger man. Contrast which with James, who brings the same outsized ego though 0 championships to the table. There will never be sufficient credit to go around.

Russian billionaire as well as formula new Nets owners Mikhail Prokhorov might not be an NBA insider yet, though he already knows how the diversion is played off the court. Getting in what is between the initial of the thousand approaching digs during the move, he expected even prior to the proclamation which fasten the bona fide All-Stars available James in Miami would “diminish his brand.”

Orlando Magic manager Stan Van Gundy was even some-more pointed.

“Come on, an hour long? OK, it takes fifteen seconds to say, ‘I’ve motionless to stay in Cleveland.’ But we’ve got an additional 59 mins as well as 45 seconds to, what, foster LeBron James? As if,” Van Gundy told the internal newspaper, “we do not do which enough”

Frankly, that’s about all anybody remotely continuous to the NBA did for the final dual years. Attention chase which he’s become, James milked each final drop. He wore the New York Yankees shawl to the playoff diversion opposite the Indians in Cleveland as well as the Dallas Cowboys top to the Browns’ deteriorate opener.

James pronounced which he’ll regularly cruise Akron home, which is convenient, given he additionally has it’s area code, 330, tattooed upon an additional partial of his hide. But outward his house, he’s expected to be noticed with the same kind of contempt which northeast Ohioans indifferent for Art Modell, the NFL owners who ripped the Browns authorization out of Cleveland as well as ran all the approach to Baltimore with it.

“You simply do not merit this kind of villainous betrayal,” Cavs owners Dan Gilbert pronounced in an open minute to fans upon the team’s website. He went upon to pledge the Cavaliers would win the championship prior to James did: “You can take it to the bank.”

Maybe it hurts some-more given James is the single of their own, may be the many appropriate contestant many of them will ever see, as well as right away even he doesn’t wish to be there.

Some aristocrat he incited out to be.

Jim Litke is the inhabitant sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him during jlitke (at)ap.org

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.