Devil

Do we have a little spat going on now at the Archdiocese of Los Angeles? Archbishop Jose Gomez and Cardinal Roger M. Mahony seemed to be going at each other in recent days over the molestation scandal that just won't die, thanks to Mahony's years-long efforts to keep all the dirty little secrets under wraps. On Wednesday, Gomez issued a rebuke, announcing that Mahony was being relieved of public duties now that the priest personnel records have been made public. And by the way, I'm not clear as to why it took Gomez two years to look into the files he describes as making "brutal and painful reading," for their descriptions of behavior that was "terribly sad and evil.

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis called the recent allegations that he took a banned substance to help him recover from a serious injury "the work of the devil. " A recent Sports Illustrated article said that Mitch Ross, owner of a business called Sports With Alternatives To Steroids (SWATS), recorded a call he received from Lewis hours after the player tore his right triceps in a game in October. Ross said Lewis asked for a shipment of deer-antler spray and pills, which contain the banned substance IGF-1, and that Lewis took some of those pills he already had on hand while they were talking.

TEMPE, Ariz. - Jordan Bachynski, Arizona State's big-lug-of-a-Canadian, was as good a place as any to start. There was so much Arizona State did right, and so much UCLA did wrong, at the Wells Fargo Arena on Saturday. But where you could hang the Sun Devils' 78-60 victory was from Bachynski's 7-foot-2 frame. It could be argued, at least Saturday, that Bachynski was as even better Canadian import to the Phoenix area than NHL hockey. "I never heard of the guy," UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad said.

When: 1 PST. Where: Wells Fargo Arena, Tempe, Ariz. On the air: TV: Prime Ticket; Radio: 570. Records: UCLA 16-4, 6-1; Sun Devils 15-4, 4-2. Update: UCLA goes for a road sweep in Arizona. The Bruins have gone 2-0 on trips three times in the last four seasons. They have been swept six times in that span. The Bruins have already linked back-to-back victories on a Utah-Colorado run this season. The last time UCLA won both games in Arizona was the 2007-08 season, which was the last time the Bruins won the conference title.

The irony was not lost on Josh Hamilton, the slugger whose career seems to have come full circle from the day Tampa Bay made him the first overall pick of the 1999 draft. "I started off with the Devil Rays," Hamilton said Saturday in a packed news conference at the ESPN Zone in Anaheim, "and now I'm an Angel. " So much has happened in between, from Hamilton's well-chronicled addiction to drugs and alcohol, to his three-year ban from baseball, to his 2007 ascent to the major leagues with Cincinnati and his rise to stardom with the Texas Rangers.

NASA's Curiosity rover has felt what appear to be dust devils pass by as it samples the Martian atmosphere, mission scientists said Thursday. Though the Mars Science Laboratory rover has yet to catch the whirlwinds on camera, its Rover Environmental Monitoring Station (REMS) has recorded pressure dips and wind shifts that often signal a vortex's presence, said the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Manuel de la Torre Juarez, the instrument's investigation scientist. Curiosity has been photographing, laser-zapping and even eating rocks since its Aug. 5 landing in Gale Crater.

USC tailback Curtis McNeal enjoyed his most productive game of the season Saturday in USC's 38-17 victory over Arizona State at the Coliseum. With junior Silas Redd sidelined because of an undisclosed injury, McNeal rushed for a season-high 163 yards and two touchdowns in 31 carries. He also turned a screen pass into a 22-yard touchdown. McNeal, a fifth-year senior, was the Trojans' top returning tailback after gaining 1,005 yards last season. But Redd's transfer from Penn State to USC before the start of training camp reduced McNeal's role.

UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone, who just last year held the same position at Arizona State, won't be fanning any flames this week. His current quarterback protégé, Brett Hundley, can help UCLA become bowl eligible in October for the first time since 2005 if the Bruins can win Saturday at Arizona State. But standing in the way are the Sun Devils, who also have a prolific first-year starter at quarterback. Taylor Kelly, a redshirt sophomore, was groomed by Mazzone the last two seasons.

In a concert last month at Hollywood's Hotel Cafe, the buzzy English singer Paloma Faith crouched down near the floor to sing "Let Me Down Easy. " It's a tough-love song associated with a number of hardy soul-music veterans, including Bettye LaVette and the late Etta James, and Faith was doing what she could (despite her youth and a seriously movement-constricting dress) to channel some of their gravitas. LaVette does some crouching of her own on "Thankful N' Thoughtful," a powerful new covers album that finds the 66-year-old R&B singer tapping into the desperation of tunes like Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere" and "Everything Is Broken" by Bob Dylan.

A baseball postseason in Washington is as rare as bipartisanship in that city. Hall of famer Walter Johnson got the Washington Nationals to the World Series in 1924 and 1925. But when was the last time a Washington team reached postseason? Why it was the Washington Senators in 1958. Of course, getting to the World Series required Satan's help. Joe Boyd, middle-aged Senators' fan, is transformed into Shoeless Joe Hardy by the Devil in the movie “Damn Yankees.” While he makes the hapless Senators a contender, Hardy sours on the deal and tries to use an escape clause.