Brian

The surprise retirement of Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) immediately swung attention to the state's former Democratic governor, Brian Schweitzer, who declined to say Tuesday if he would seek the job. The two-term governor left office in January and would be the immediate front-runner for the Democratic nomination if he jumped into the Senate race. For the last several months, Schweitzer said, he has been focused on an effort to take over the state's financially struggling Stillwater mine as part of an investor group seeking to save its roughly 1,600 jobs.

Brian Cashman , the New York Yankees' general manager, said this in spring training: "The story that we're too old gets written so much that at some point they'll be right. " This appears to be that point. The Yankees learned last week that Derek Jeter's left ankle had fractured once again, and he'll be 39 when he returns after the All-Star break. Then again, the Yankees thought he might be ready for opening day. Mariano Rivera is 43, and he says this season is his last.

Brian Eno fans might have to suffer a bit before they get to hear his new body of work.  According to the Independent , the producer-composer's latest project is two ambient soundtrack and light installations designed to soothe patients in hospitals. The works will make their debut at the new Montefiore Hospital in Hove, England. "77 Million Paintings for Montefiore” is a sound-and-light installation in the hospital's reception area, while "The Quiet Room for Montefiore"  is a custom separate space for patients, staff and guests to escape the sonic and emotional tumult of life in a hospital.

For some directors, it's a bolt of inspiration that prompts them to make their movie. For others, it's a serendipitous phone call outside the Lincoln Tunnel. It went down pretty much the second way for Brian Helgeland, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of “L.A Confidential” who wrote, and was behind the camera for, the surprise baseball hit of the season, Jackie Robinson biopic “42.” The Massachusetts native was riding a bus on a roots trip of sorts to Brooklyn, where his father had grown up, when he received a call from the financier Thomas Tull.

The Long Beach Unified School District is suing a former female student who admitted to falsely accusing ex-Poly High football star Brian Banks of rape in 2002. The lawsuit against former Polytechnic High School student Wanetta Gibson was filed last November, just months after Banks' rape conviction was dismissed.  Banks had spent five years in prison and another five on parole. He recently signed an NFL contract with the Atlanta Falcons.  The school district said it is trying to recoup about $1.9 million that was spent defending itself after Gibson sued the district and collected a $750,000 settlement.

"God built me to last," Jackie Robinson says at one point in "42," and, thankfully, his remarkable story is built the same way. It would have to be to survive the full-dress Hollywood biopic treatment it gets in this film, which is unabashedly subtitled "The True Story of an American Legend. " And survive it does. You almost can't blame writer-director Brian Helgeland for taking an old-fashioned, earnest-to-a-fault approach to the genuinely heroic narrative of the Brooklyn Dodger who in 1947 - in a move masterminded by team General Manager Branch Rickey -- broke the Major League Baseball color barrier, led the Dodgers to the National League pennant and won rookie of the year honors.

Brian Banks was inside a New York television studio, waiting to tape an episode of "The View," when he got a long-awaited call from a friend. For weeks, Banks had known that signing a contract to play with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons was a possibility. But he had tried out with several NFL teams the season before and did not come away with a contract. “You're holding your breath,” Banks' attorney Justin Brooks said.     Brooks was with Banks and his mother Tuesday when the exonerated former high school football standout heard the magic words: The Falcons wanted Banks in Atlanta the next day for a physical exam.

Brian Banks called signing a contract with the Atlanta Falcons on Wednesday the greatest accomplishment of his life, aside from clearing his name. Officials of his new team said they were happy to have him on board. "We are pleased to have Brian join our team," Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff said in a statement. "We had a chance to work him out last year and have been monitoring his progress since then. "He has worked extremely hard for this chance over the last year and he has shown us that he is prepared for this opportunity.

Almost a year ago, a former standout football player at Long Beach Polytechnic High School trembled in Los Angeles County Superior Court as a judge dismissed his rape conviction. Outside the courtroom that day, Brian Banks offered cautious hope that one day, he could restart his athletic career. Wednesday, Banks signed a contract with the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, a major step in his quest for redemption. "I can't believe this is happening," Banks told reporters shortly after signing.

This post has been corrected. See the note at the bottom for details. To Brian Banks, signing an NFL contact signified “the biggest accomplishment of my life” -- with the notable exception of regaining his freedom. Banks, the former Long Beach Polytechnic High School football standout who spent years in prison before his rape conviction was overturned, earned a spot Wednesday with the Atlanta Falcons. In a teleconference with reporters, Banks said making the Falcons' 53-man roster would signify success for him. “We talk about coming from the bottom,” he said.