Lance Armstrong Cuts Officials Ties With His Livestrong Charity

In the wake of being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles for doping, Lance Armstrong last week cut all official ties with Livestrong, the charity he founded 15 years ago while he was treated for testicular cancer. On Nov. 4, he resigned from the organization’s board of directors; he had previously stepped down as the chairman of the board Oct. 17. He has distanced himself from...

Read More..

False Posts on Facebook Undermine Its Credibility

SAN FRANCISCO — The Facebook page for Gaston Memorial Hospital, in Gastonia, N.C., offers a chicken salad recipe to encourage healthy eating, tips on avoiding injuries at Zumba class, and pictures of staff members dressed up at Halloween. Typical stuff for a hospital in a small town. But in October, another Facebook page for the hospital popped up. This one posted denunciations of President...

Read More..

Mike D'Antoni to be next coach of the Lakers

Mike D'Antoni, not Phil Jackson, will be the next coach of the Lakers."We signed Mike D'Antoni to a multi-year deal," Lakers...

Read More..

<em>Observation Deck:</em> The Cities That Re-Elected Obama

You might be sick of hearing explanations for what happened in the election last Tuesday. I wouldn’t blame you. But this week on The Observation Deck I want to draw your attention to just one more — the primacy of cities in re-electing Barack Obama as president. This episode is map-heavy (but hey, who doesn’t love maps?) by way of taking a higher-resolution look, geographically...

Read More..

Laughing in the storm: Comics don’t shy from Sandy

NEW YORK (AP) — Comedian Dave Attell told a packed house at the Comedy Cellar that New York after Superstorm Sandy had a familiar feel. “It was dark. Toilets were backing up. … It was pretty much like it always was.”Another comic, Paul Mecurio, told the same crowd that he got so many calls from worried family members that he started making things up about...

Read More..

Well: Quitting Smoking for Good

Few smokers would claim that it’s easy to quit. The addiction to nicotine is strong and repeatedly reinforced by circumstances that prompt smokers to light up.Yet the millions who have successfully quit are proof that a smoke-free life is achievable, even by those who have been regular, even heavy, smokers for decades.Today, 19 percent of American adults smoke, down from more than 42 percent half...

Read More..

California's Iraq and Afghanistan war dead remembered

They came from Walker Basin, a speck of a community at the edge of the Sequoia National Forest. From the farm town of Reedley,...

Read More..

<em>Epic</em> Fantasy Book Excerpt: Read 'Bound Man' in Full

Epic fantasy has become the literature of more. We equate it with more pages than the average book, more books than the average series. There are more characters, more maps, more names and more dates. The stories and the worlds are bigger to contain all of this more. And when all the books have been devoured, the fans want more.For my just-released anthology, Epic: Legends of Fantasy, I compiled...

Read More..

Colin Firth, Emily Blunt film “Arthur Newman” goes to Cinedigm

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Cinedigm has acquired domestic distribution rights to “Arthur Newman,” starring Colin Firth and Emily Blunt, the studio announced on Friday.“Arthur Newman,” the directorial debut of Dante Ariola, chronicles Wallace Avery (Firth), a depressed man loathed by his ex-wife. He stages his own death and heads out on the road where...

Read More..

Mind Faded, Darrell Royal’s Wisdom and Humor Intact Till End

Three days before his death last week at 88, Darrell Royal told his wife, Edith: “We need to go back to Hollis” — in Oklahoma. “Uncle Otis died.” “Oh, Darrell,” she said, “Uncle Otis didn’t die.” Royal, a former University of Texas football coach, chuckled and said, “Well, Uncle Otis will be glad to hear that.” The Royal humor never faded, even as he sank deeper into Alzheimer’s...

Read More..