Scripps Howard News Service

If the suits running Major League Baseball are serious about realignment and making changes to correct the obvious inequities in the game, they need to take a hard look at the plight of the Tampa Bay Rays.

Why? The Rays have never won the American League wild card.

Ready for some real, live professional gridiron action?

It started on Thursday when the Canadian Football League began its 2011 regular season.

British Columbia and the defending champion Montreal Alouettes had the honor of kicking off the new campaign Thursday night, while on Friday Hamilton hosts Winnipeg and Toronto travels to Calgary.

Dear Babe: I was cleaning my storage unit and found an un-opened case of Denny's baseball cards from either 1991 or 1992. The case contains 1,000 cards. I worked there, and the case was given to me as a prize. -- Rick Sawicki, Cary N.C.

Dear Babe: I have many sets of Denny's baseball cards (lots are unopened whole boxes). -- Sherry Cole, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

WASHINGTON -- Five years after Congress called for better oversight of the nation's 100,000 missing sex offenders, only seven states have adopted federal standards for tracking the 728,000 Americans convicted of sex crimes.

After blowing deadlines in 2009 and 2010, most states will miss a third one on July 27, the U.S. Justice Department predicts. Linda Baldwin, director of its Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering and Tracking office, said in an interview that she expects only 10 to 15 states to meet the coming deadline for tracking sex offenders.

CROCKETT COUNTY, Texas -- Plastic-lined pits holding millions of gallons of blue-green water are tucked away in fields chock-full of withering mesquite trees.

After the driest eight-month period in Texas' recorded history, this barren ranch land has become inhospitable to even the most drought-resistant vegetation.

So where, amid the severe dry spell, did all this pristine water come from?

The query probably would not have been raised in non-drought times in this oil-friendly community.

But as West Texas' reservoirs run dry, cities are scouring the region for their next water supply, and farmers are becoming more desperate for rainfall, oil companies here and elsewhere are pumping out millions of gallons of freshwater from underground aquifers.

Will the real Willard Mitt Romney please stand up? Republicans recently have watched multiple Romneys at war with each other over abortion, ethanol, global warming, and more. Alas, this is nothing new. Various Romneys have battled themselves on issues as old as the Vietnam War.

Fans of mixed martial arts are in the midst of a rare treat this weekend with three shows in as many days.

Strikeforce is set to air a Challengers card Friday night. Bellator Fighting Championships kicks off its summer series, which features a featherweight tournament, Saturday night. And on Sunday night, the Ultimate Fighting Championship presents UFC Live on Versus, which features a fight between two of the promotion's top welterweight contenders.

Rick Story, who has won six consecutive fights since losing his UFC debut two years ago, will face Nate Marquardt in the UFC main event, which will be held in Pittsburgh and airs at 9 p.m. EST. Marquardt, a former top middleweight contender, is making his debut at the lower weight.