Saga

Three of Charlotte's finest came rushing down the slope with all the urgency that might accompany a hazardous materials leak. Within moments, one male spectator found himself being led away swiftly from the Quail Hollow Championship's 17th green. When the man's buddy stood up to complain, the other officers descended for a round of sharp conversation. "Do you want to give Charlotte a bad reputation?" one officer asked, cutting off the man's response to ask the question again.

Gilbert Arenas said he used "bad judgment" in bringing guns into the Wizards locker room. He also denied that he gambles and said there are misconceptions in stories about a dispute between him and teammate Javaris Crittenton . His remarks came following the Wizards' 97-86 loss to the Spurs on Saturday night after two days of reports about the investigation into the guns he kept at the Verizon Center - and about an hour after the family...

The dark shadow that performance-enhancing drugs continue to cast on baseball was picked as the sports Story of the Year by members of the Associated Press, even surpassing the Tiger Woods sex scandal. Some of the biggest names in baseball - Alex Rodriguez , Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz - were linked to performance-enhancing drugs this year, which swayed editors to pick the steroid scandal over Woods' fall from grace. The Woods scandal was fifth behind Jimmie Johnson's historic fourth straight NASCAR championship; Roger Federer winning his 15th Grand Slam and Brett Favre ending his (second)

LONDON - Iran is holding five British sailors after stopping their racing yacht in the Persian Gulf, the British government said Monday. The move could heighten tensions between Iran and major world powers, including Britain, that are demanding a halt to its nuclear program. The yacht owned by Sail Bahrain was stopped on its way from the tiny island country to the Gulf city of Dubai on Wednesday when it "may have strayed inadvertently into Iranian waters," Britain's Foreign Office said.

FORT COLLINS, Colo. - -The parents behind the "balloon boy" hoax pleaded guilty to criminal charges arising from the case Friday and will be sentenced next month, a Colorado judge ruled. Richard and Mayumi Heene, who allegedly fabricated the stunt in a bid to land their own reality television show, spoke quietly as they entered their pleas before a packed court-room at Larimer County Court. Richard Heene, 48, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of attempting to influence a public servant while Mayumi, 45, a Japanese national, admitted a misdemeanor offense of false reporting to authorities.

The subtitle promises "sex, money, genius and betrayal." The cover backs that up with an image of an overturned martini, broken glass strewn next to a Harvard swizzle stick and a lacy, scarlet brassiere. The first line: "It was probably the third cocktail that did the trick." Ben Mezrich's take on the founding of Facebook is certainly salacious. Booze. Women. Scandal. But the reviews? Well, those imply that the truth of the Facebook story might not include quite as much lingerie and drama as the author of The Accidental Billionaires, which came out last week, would have us believe.

You have to admit late-night TV has become a lot more interesting in the past two weeks, since Jay Leno, who consistently dominated the competition, left for prime time. Two weeks ago all eyes were on Conan O'Brien, who struggled in his much-hyped opening nights to find the right voice - especially when it came to the monologue, his great and glaring weakness. Last week, David Letterman was all the buzz with crude jokes about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughters - and Palin's angry response that stopped just short of labeling him a sexual "pervert" - her word, not mine.

Chazz Palminteri and his bus-driver dad, Lorenzo, became expert at keeping secrets. They could be gregarious, even expansive, but they knew when to shut their traps. For instance, Lorenzo Palminteri withheld crucial information about a murder that his then-9-year-old son witnessed from the family's Bronx front stoop in 1961. "At the time, I thought those men were fighting over the parking space in front of my building," says Palminteri, an Academy Award-nominated actor who specializes in playing thugs.

In less than a year, the prospect of saving Maryland's racing industry with an infusion of slots dollars has become something of a mirage. The owner of the state's biggest tracks is in bankruptcy court, the promise of robust gaming parlors is iffy and the future of the Preakness Stakes is fuzzy. And the latest interested buyer of Pimlico Race Course and Laurel Park wants to build shopping malls on their grassy environs and says he'll pay for the tracks - in cash. After years of debate over legalizing slots in Maryland, voters overwhelmingly approved them (granted, the recession and the state's deep budget woes helped)

Walk along the beach at Sullivan Cove in Severna Park and enjoy the serenity. You might see a heron swoop through rare Atlantic white cedar to an adjacent tidal pond. Some community residents, worried that all that could be destroyed, waged a long and expensive fight to stop three homeowners from getting permits to build piers there. The opponents did not succeed, but the debate has prompted state environmental officials to launch a review of rules covering residential pier construction, particularly in environmentally sensitive tidal wetlands.