Oklahoma City

BaseballAngels: Activated P Ken Hill from the 15-day DL. Optioned IF Andy Sheets to Triple-A Edmonton.Brewers: Designated P Jim Pittsley for assignment. Recalled P Kyle Peterson from Triple-A Louisville.Diamondbacks: Placed P Darren Holmes on 15-day DL, retroactive to July 18. Recalled P Vicente Badilla from Triple-A Tucson.Mets: Optioned IF Mike Kinkade to Triple-A Norfolk. Recalled P Octavio Dotel from Norfolk.Rangers: Recalled P Ryan Glynn from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Optioned OF Scarborough Green to Oklahoma City.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- It is the shoes that stop me.They are brown and look new, the rubber on the soles still thick, black and unmarked. They are toddler-size boots, made for bouncing in sandboxes and climbing on furniture. They are hanging by their laces from a length of chain-link fence.I had not planned it this way. Had not made a special effort to be in this particular city during this particular week. Hadn't even thought about it until I was on the way to catch the plane for a business trip.

MOORE, Okla. -- Six days ago the killer tornadoes struck, and for those left homeless, everyday routines are on hold. But as the massive cleanup begins, rebuilding homes and getting back to normal may take longer than they expect.A strong economy and a construction boom have created a nationwide shortage of building materials and construction crews. Supply cannot meet demand, and that is driving up prices.Moore's mayor, Glenn Lewis, estimated that rebuilding could take from six months to a year.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Standing upon the flattened ground where a federal office building stood until a bombing more than three years ago, Vice President Al Gore broke ground yesterday on a memorial to the 168 people killed as well as the people who helped Oklahoma City's physical and spiritual rebuilding."

OKLAHOMA CITY -- When former Mayor Ron Norick throws out the first pitch at the Oklahoma Red-hawks game tonight, he will be doing more than opening a new season for the city's minor-league ball club and inaugurating its elegant new stadium.He will be leading his resilient town another step out of the rubble, out of despair and destruction.For much of the past three years, Oklahoma's attention has been riveted to that instant on April 19, 1995, when 168 people died and thousands were emotionally or physically wounded in the nation's deadliest act of domestic terrorism.

Terry L. Nichols has asked the federal appeals court in Denver for a new trial in the Oklahoma City bombing, contending that the federal judge who presided over his case erred at his trial and his sentencing.In December, a federal court jury in Denver convicted Nichols, 43, a military-surplus dealer, of conspiring with his former Army buddy Timothy J. McVeigh to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building, where 168 people died April 19, 1995.Nichols was also convicted on eight counts of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the eight federal law-enforcement agents killed in the bombing.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Almost 2 1/2 years after funding was approved, the University of Oklahoma hasn't filled an endowed professorship named for former law professor Anita Hill.The delay has outraged some of Hill's supporters and endowment contributors. They say the university is stalling because of political opposition to Hill and to the position itself, which was set up to research sexual harassment and women's rights issues.Hill's allegations of sexual harassment during Clarence Thomas' Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991 ignited a national debate on those issues.

DENVER -- Still the stories come.After a trial filled with the sorrow of survivors, more witnesses arrived in federal court to give jurors wrenching accounts of the misery left by the Oklahoma City bombing.Laura Kennedy keeps the clothes of her only child, the toddler who was "like sunshine," hanging in his closet just as they were April 19, 1995. She refused anti-depressants to help her cope."I wanted to be depressed" after Blake's death, Kennedy said, her voice shaky. "I had a good reason to be depressed."

RARELY in American history has it been so crucial and difficult for the Republic to conduct a criminal trial both effectively and fairly as in the case against Timothy McVeigh that is scheduled to begin today in Denver.Defense requests for postponements, based on these difficulties, continued till the last. The alleged accomplice in the April 1995 bombing of the federal office building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people and wounded 500, Terry Nichols, will be tried separately.The bombing was a crime of anarchy against the state.

BaseballRangers: Purchased contract of OF Mike Simms from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Assigned IF Dave Silvestri to Oklahoma City.BasketballNBA: Fined Magic G Brian Shaw $2,000 for making obscene gesture to heckling fan.Pacers: Activated F Derrick McKey. Placed F LaSalle Thompson (sprained toe) on injured list.CollegeRider: Named Don Harnum men's basketball coach.Rutgers: Named Kevin Bannon men's basketball coach and signed him to six-year contract.FootballBengals: Signed DE Ramondo Stallings to a two-year contract.

On April 14, 2009, BERNARD TURNER, originally of Sparrows Point, MD passed away in Oklahoma City, OK after a long illness. Survived by wife, Cheryl, three step-children, five grandchildren, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Services will be held in Oklahoma City, OK on April 24, 2009.

Dwyane Wade scored 41 points, 10 in the final 8 1/2 minutes, to help the Miami Heat rally in the fourth quarter and beat the visiting Charlotte Bobcats, 100-96, last night. Mario Chalmers scored 15 and Shawn Marion added 13 points for the Heat (12-9), which extended its winning streak to four - its longest in nearly two years. Jason Richardson scored 24 for Charlotte (7-14) but missed two free throws that would have tied the game with 32.3 seconds remaining. Emeka Okafor added 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Bobcats, who lost to Miami for only the second time in the teams' past eight meetings.

This was, remember, Game 6 of 82, an early step in a long journey. Yet there was Caron Butler, near center court, animatedly pulling off his jersey and waving it at the final horn, celebrating a victory as though it truly meant a lot to him. Moments earlier, as Butler and fellow All-Star Antawn Jamison were combining for 20 fourth-quarter points, there were their Washington Wizards teammates, up out of their sideline seats, hopping and high-fiving as...

Radcliffe runs down NYC Marathon title No. 3 running Paula Radcliffe defended her title at the New York City Marathon yesterday to become the second woman to win the race three times. Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil won the men's race for the second time in three years, passing Abderrahim Goumri of Morocco with about a mile left. Unlike Radcliffe's tight victories in 2004 and 2007, the world-record holder from Great Britain pulled away from Ludmila Petrova in the 22nd mile to win comfortably in 2 hours, 23 minutes, 56 seconds.

The two news items from early and late Wednesday weren't exactly related, but they were more than coincidental. In the morning: a front-page story in The Sun about how The Relic on Howard Street (aka 1st Mariner Arena) still makes a decent profit. At night: a settlement that allows the NBA's SuperSonics to move from Seattle to Oklahoma City. Two items, both bad news for Baltimore. At least for those of us here who feel the NBA void, now at 35 years and counting. Or who, if nothing else, wonder whether we'll ever see a halfway-decent arena of any size here in our lifetime.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- If anyone still doubts the correlation between obese America and our fast-food culture, consider Oklahoma City, where the mayor has asked residents to join him on a diet. The city best known to many Americans as the site of Timothy McVeigh's horrific act of terrorism in 1995 is also the fast-food axis of the nation and the eighth-fattest, with an obesity rate of 25 percent. Mayor Mick Cornett is hoping to change that. On New Year's Eve, he challenged citizens to lose 1 million pounds and launched an interactive Web site where people can sign on and track their weight loss (thiscityisgoingonadiet.

ARCADIA, Okla. -- You can see the big, glowing thing from a couple of miles away on historic Route 66, and as you approach from the east, you wonder what it is: A rocket ship at an amusement park? Surely not out here in the middle of nowhere. A giant, glowing Q-tip, like they used to have at the Johnson & Johnson factories? Nope, wrong shape. You get closer, and it becomes clear. It's an enormous soda bottle, 66 feet tall (in homage to Route 66), complete with a straw. When the bottle is lighted at night, it changes colors, morphing from soft grape to lemon yellow to cherry red. If ever there was an instance of advertising matching substance, this is it. The store behind the bottle, Pops, which opened in August, sells nearly 500 kinds of soda pop, along with soda-fountain-type food, shakes, souvenirs and gasoline.

Brian Billick's endless attempts to reconnect with his players over the years have taken him from the Las Vegas strip to an IHOP restaurant in Oklahoma City. Yet it wasn't until three weeks ago in a cramped, dingy locker room in New Orleans that Billick truly felt he bonded with his team again. Falcons@Ravens Today, 1 p.m., Ch. 45, 1090 AM, 97.9 FM Line: Ravens by 4

It started within hours, maybe minutes, of the time that the two planes hit the World Trade Center, the feeling among ordinary Americans that something must be done: Blood must be donated, food must be collected, money must be given. Within days it was clear that there were not enough injured to need all the blood, and that donated food was rotting in New York firehouses. But the impetus continued unabated. There were all sorts of offers, from free bicycles to free college tuition for all children who lost a parent, no matter if these were children of wealth or poverty.

Good morning --Seattle SuperSonics -- If you move to Oklahoma City, please change the name. Having the Utah Jazz is bad enough.