Cycle

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

After months searching for work and feeling increasingly discouraged, Natalie Cole caught a break — an offer of a part-time position at a Little Caesars Pizza shop in Compton. The manager scheduled her orientation and told her she had to pass a food safety test. She took the test — and failed. But rather than study and take it again, she shrugged it off. "I guess I am not working for a reason," she said. PHOTOS: A life spent battling poverty Cole isn't a victim of the struggling economy.

First of three parts Tiffany Lee wanted a car. She was weary of the two-hour bus ride to her job at a UCLA Health System clinic. She hated having to ask friends to drive her 7-year-old son to his asthma treatments. But as a single mother with three children, bad credit and a $27,000-a-year salary, she couldn't find a bank or dealership willing to give her a loan. Then a friend steered her to Repossess Auto Sales in Hawthorne. Another buyer might have balked at the deal she was offered.

When others were grimacing with the stress and effort of a daunting climb up Mt. Baldy, Robert Gesink seemed untroubled. The 25-year-old Dutchman, who only last September suffered a broken leg in a training crash, powered to the overall lead at the Amgen Tour of California by winning Saturday's big mountain stage. Going into Sunday's final 42.6-mile route that begins in Beverly Hills and finishes in front of Staples Center, Gesink, riding for the Rabobank team, has a 46-second lead over Dave Zabriskie of the Garmin-Barracuda team and a 54-second lead over Tom Danielson, another American Garmin-Barracuda rider.

B.J. Upton ruined CC Sabathia's bid to become a 20-game winner, going five for five while hitting for the cycle and driving in a career-high six runs to help the Tampa Bay Rays beat the New York Yankees, 13-4, on Friday night. Upton hit a three-run triple in the first inning off Sabathia, then doubled off the Yankees ace in the third. After hitting a two-run homer off Jonathan Albaladejo in the fourth, he completed the cycle with a run-scoring single off David Robertson in the fifth.

Troy Tulowitzki hit for the cycle and had a career-high seven RBIs to help Colorado beat the Chicago Cubs, 11-5, on Monday night. Tulowitzki, who had a grand slam denied in the first video review at Coors Field, came to bat to lead off the seventh a triple shy of the franchise's fifth cycle and first in nine years. He laced a 3-and-2 pitch down the left-field line and slid headfirst into the bag before third baseman Jake Fox could corral the throw from left. Tulowitzki hit his 21st homer in the first, singled in the second and doubled in the fourth in his first three at-bats.

All last week, commentators recounted the dramatic swing in the national mood between this January and last. In 2009, President Obama was talking about bending the arc of history. In 2010, it doesn't look like he can bend enough arms to get healthcare reform through Congress. Americans are not happy. We're on the downside of a familiar cycle: the bitter disillusionment that follows outsized hope. What could be accomplished in Washington isn't matching our expectations. And although Obama's fall has been steep and hard, he's not alone.

Dametria Williams started her financial life as a statistic — a poor single mom, just like her mother and grandmother before her. But the San Francisco healthcare worker decided to break the cycle of poverty. Now the 38-year-old is a college graduate on the cusp of opening her own business. She is also raising a high-achieving teenager who is in position to win merit-based college scholarships. She attributes her life's 180-degree turn to two things: a new attitude and a savings account with matching funds provided to low-income participants.

"Seinfeld" is going off on NBC, but it will be on in a few years on KCOP-TV Channel 13. The station surprised television insiders Friday by announcing it had purchased the second syndication cycle for the hit comedy, stealing "Seinfeld" from KTLA-TV Channel 5, which is currently showing the reruns. The deal mirrors a recent agreement in New York, where a Fox station outbid the Tribune-owned station that now carries the reruns.

Imagine tens of thousands of cycling fans gathered in front of Staples Center on Sunday morning for the final leg of the country's largest stage cycling race, the Amgen Tour of California. Now mix in 20,000 hockey fans, nearly all of them giddy in the anticipation of watching their underdog Kings clinch a berth in the Stanley Cup finals, and another 20,000 basketball fans, with the Clippers trying to reach the Western Conference finals for the first time. Those sports worlds will collide on the streets outside the arena Sunday; the Kings are scheduled to take on the Phoenix Coyotes in Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference finals at noon — about the same time some of the world's best cyclists will be barreling toward the finish line.

Amgen Tour of California When: Sunday through May 20. Where: Stage 1, Santa Rosa; Stage 2, San Francisco to Aptos; Stage 3, San Jose to Livermore; Stage 4, Sonora to Clovis; Stage 5, Bakersfield (time trial); Stage 6, Palmdale to Big Bear Lake; Stage 7, Ontario to Mt. Baldy; Stage 8, Beverly Hills to L.A. Live. TV: NBC Sports Network, Sunday through Friday, 11 a.m to conclusion; NBC Sports Network, May 19, 1 p.m. to conclusion; NBC, May 20, 10 a.m. to conclusion.

Jet Tanner was sound asleep in his Irvine home on a March night when he was awakened by the sound of crashing glass. He ran to the front of the house just as the thieves were pulling away. They left a computer and a flat-screen television. In fact, the only thing they took was his 14-year-old daughter Millie's cyclocross team bicycle, worth more than $5,000 and custom made for her competitive racing. "She was crying. She was devastated," Tanner recalled. "She couldn't believe they took her bicycle and equipment and left everything else.

CHICAGO — Dee Gordon nearly knocked Chicago Cubs pitcher Paul Maholm out of the game Friday when the shortstop lined a ball that struck Maholm in the right leg in the sixth inning. It was one of the few times the Dodgers were able to get good wood on a pitch from Maholm, who otherwise stymied most of the Dodgers batters except for Jerry Hairston Jr., who was a double shy of hitting for the cycle. Maholm finished the sixth inning and then the Cubs' bullpen held off a Dodgers' comeback enough to give Chicago a 5-4 win and hand the Dodgers their third loss in four games on their current trip.

It had been eight years, nine months and some change -- 3,201 days, to be exact -- since Jerome Williams threw a major league shutout, but the Angels right-hander recalled details about that game like it was last week. "It was in 2003 and was my second win against Oakland," said Williams, 30, who was pitching for San Francisco at the time. "I remember that game because [outfielder] Jose Cruz Jr. helped me by doubling off Miguel Tejada at first. " So much has happened since that June 27, 2003, win -- Williams was traded away from the Giants, released by two other organizations, ballooned to 270 pounds, injured his shoulder, pitched in Taiwan, Mexico and two independent leagues -- but Tuesday night he finally authored a bookend to that gem. Baffling a weak-hitting Minnesota lineup with his cut-fastball and power sinker, Williams threw a three-hitter with six strikeouts and one walk, retiring 18 batters in a row before a two-out walk in the ninth inning, to lead the Angels to a 4-0 victory in Angel Stadium.

A new list of most-aired political ads shows a range of groups making their early mark on the 2012 election. Of the five most-aired spots this election cycle, three were aimed at general election voters and the other two promote Mitt Romney in his quest for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a list compiled by Kantar Media's Campaign Media Analysis Group. The list reflects a landscape in which Republicans have far outpaced Democrats in the formation and financing of “super PACs” and the use of so-called social welfare organizations to run anonymously funded ads. (Watch the ads below.)

"When millions of poor children cannot even imagine the lives we are calling them to lead, we know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps," said Bill Clinton in his inaugural address. Clinton, who used the word "responsibility" four times in his speech, was referring to the need for new thinking to break the cycle of poverty and welfare dependency that has grown alarmingly in recent years.

Eric Davis insists that his hamstring still hurts. If he ever gets healthy, pitchers will have to run for cover. Davis, who came off the disabled list May 19 and has been hitting solidly ever since, had his biggest night of the season when he led the Reds to a 9-4 victory over the San Diego Padres Friday at Cincinnati. Davis, the first Cincinnati batter to hit for the cycle in the last 30 years, drove in six runs while going four for four. Davis doubled home Barry Larkin in the first, singled him home in the third and hit a three-run home run in the fourth off Walt Terrell.

Alberto Contador, for a brief time Lance Armstrong's cycling teammate, had his 2010 Tour de France title taken away and a two-year ban for doping enforced Monday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. CAS' ruling upheld decisions by the International Cycling Union and the World Anti-Doping Agency, which had fought to uphold penalties against Contador after a Spanish cycling tribunal exonerated him last year. The 29-year-old Spaniard failed a doping test that had been conducted during the last rest day of the 2010 Tour de France.

Federal prosecutors announced Friday that they have closed a two-year inquiry without filing criminal charges in a case that sources said related to doping allegations involving seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong and his cycling team. Although the grand jury investigation was confidential, details about various former teammates and associates who were subpoenaed to testify about alleged use of banned substances were widely reported in the media. Armstrong's team received sponsorship from the U.S. Postal Service.