Cheating

Were boxer Antonio Margarito's fists of steel actually aided by concrete? Did Ultimate Fighting Champion Georges St-Pierre defend his title bout with enough Vaseline so that he was as slippery as a greased pig? Fighting lore is sprinkled with colorful tales of questionable gamesmanship, yet even in this age of high-definition cameras and intense state testing, athletes are still swayed to sometimes bend the rules.

A judge refused to block a decision by a college testing service to invalidate the Advanced Placement scores of hundreds of Orange County high school students amid allegations of cheating and sloppy supervision at the exam site. The Trabuco Hills High School students, who call themselves Justice for 375, had sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Educational Testing Service from canceling their scores, arguing that the New Jersey nonprofit organization unfairly voided the test scores before conducting even a cursory investigation.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Several players on the women's tennis tour have been approached to fix matches or provide inside information sought by gamblers, the head of the tour said Monday, echoing disclosures of similar overtures made to male players. "Less than 10" women have been approached, said Larry Scott, WTA Tour chairman and chief executive. However, he acknowledged that the full extent of the problem might not be known. "I'm not sure I know all the ways players have been approached.

In an unusual lawsuit against the American Dental Assn., 13 students at UCLA's School of Dentistry contend they were falsely accused of aiding cheaters on a national examination and unfairly denied a chance to defend themselves. The dental association alleges that the students did not cheat during their own tests but violated rules by remembering and writing down exam questions distributed later to others preparing for a test.

PHOENIX -- In the latest example that Congress is keeping a focused eye on the NFL, a senior senator said Friday that he wants the league to explain why it destroyed the videotapes from a cheating scandal involving the New England Patriots. "I do believe that it is a matter of importance," Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said at a news conference, the same day his comments on the matter appeared in the New York Times.

Six sophomores were expelled and more than a dozen other students faced suspensions Tuesday in a cheating scandal that has rocked Harvard-Westlake, a top-tier Los Angeles private school with a national reputation for its academics. Administrators said students conspired to steal Spanish and history tests by distracting teachers in their classrooms. The tests were then shown to several other students before midterm exams last month, said Harvard-Westlake President Thomas Hudnut.

LAS VEGAS -- Only four weeks ago, before the season-opening Daytona 500, NASCAR talk centered on the potential dominance of two teams: Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Hendrick had won 16 of last year's 36 races in the premier Sprint Cup Series, including 10 by reigning champion Jimmie Johnson. And Gibbs had added the hard-charging Kyle Busch to its team of two-time title winner Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. But after three races neither team has made it to Victory Lane.

For the NFL, the New England Patriots' tale of the tape is beginning to sound more like a never-ending story. Since the Super Bowl, the league has been trying to arrange an interview with Matt Walsh, a former Patriots video assistant. He is alleged to have damaging details on additional secret videotaping by the team, footage of opponents that presumably gave New England an unfair competitive advantage. So far, however, Walsh has been unwilling to talk.

When six Harvard Westlake students were expelled last month for stealing midterm exams at the academically rigorous school, the incident highlighted an old problem facing educators: cheating. A 2006 national survey found that more than 60% of high school students said they had cheated on a test, and the number of self-admitted cheaters has steadily risen over the years. Students today can use an array of high-tech gadgetry, challenging schools to keep pace.

Where insanity happens. Trying to judge the impact of last summer's Tim Donaghy scandal, I recently called around to assess the reaction of the congenitally suspicious core audience . . . the gamblers. It turned out there was no impact. The Donaghy blockbuster, the latest story that seemed to presage The Death of the NBA, quickly faded away in what turned out to be a great season for the league.