McClatchy Newspapers

HOUSTON -- The games count and technically have an effect on a team's postseason aspirations, but the Lone Star Series since its inception in 2001 has had a novelty feel to it.

The winner after six games between the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros does get the silver boot, after all.

This is not a complete defense of the NCAA because a complete defense of the NCAA would be absurd. The NCAA needs fixing, needs it yesterday, and this is that rare stance that most everyone in and around universities or athletics can agree on.

TOOELE — A Grantsville couple is working to breathe new life into a town historical landmark.

The hour is 11:30 on this Saturday night aboard the American Queen, somewhere south of Natchez, Miss. The dance floor in the Grand Saloon is deserted, and a lone man sits in the 24-hour Front Porch lounge, reading a paperback novel. The evening's holdouts, perhaps 30 people who, like most of the passengers, appear to be 55 or older, are in the Engine Room Bar.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Failing to win an NHRA funny-car championship last year had John Force Racing's drivers searching for answers in unusual places.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- It was early in the morning, perhaps 2 a.m., when gunfire awoke 14-year-old Rafiullah.

He looked outside the house he'd been sleeping in with his grandmother, an aunt, two cousins and his sister, and he saw a man with a weapon walk to a shed that housed the family cow and open fire, shooting the animal dead.

"I told the women inside our room: 'Let's run! Let's get out of here,' " recalled Rafiullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name.

WATSONVILLE, Calif. — Thousands of people have trod the dirt path leading to the shore of Pinto Lake County Park in the 20 years since a Watsonville, Calif., woman reported seeing a vision of Our Lady of Guadalupe in an oak tree there.