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INDIANAPOLIS -- Danica Patrick's return to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a stock car ended in a hard crash less than halfway through Saturday's Indiana 250. Patrick, the former IndyCar driver who now races in NASCAR's second-tier Nationwide Series, was running about 20th when the top five race leaders made pit stops. Patrick remained on the track and was running behind Reed Sorenson. As the two entered Turn 1 on lap 39 of the 100-lap race, Patrick's No. 7 Chevrolet tapped the back of Sorenson's No. 98 Ford, sending Sorenson into a spin.

— Most San Antonio Spurs possessions start with Kawhi Leonard setting up in the corner. It's good strategy for a small forward whose career three-point accuracy in the playoffs is better than that of Ray Allen, Stephen Curry and Steve Nash. It's also symbolic of his basketball career. You see, it feels as if everyone puts Kawhi in the corner. He was the overlooked star at Riverside King High who went to San Diego State while less talented players in his area went to UCLA.

Vietnam veteran John Otte did his best to forget the war. He got married, raised two sons and made a career working at credit unions. But as Otte neared retirement, memories of combat flooded back. Starting in 2005, he filed a series of claims with Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, contending that many of his health problems stemmed from the war. The VA agreed, and now the 65-year-old with two Purple Hearts receives $1,900 a month for post-traumatic stress disorder and diabetes - and for having shrapnel scars on his arms.

BALTIMORE - Horse racing's Preakness is a place of history and a bubble of hope. If you come here with a Kentucky Derby victory under your belt, as trainer Shug McGaughey and Orb have, you have little time to appreciate that history. You are lost in the Triple Crown bubble. Every question goes in the same direction: Can you win? How will you (a) feel, (b) react, (c) enjoy? Orb's morning-line odds are even money. If you want to make money on him Saturday, you'll need to bet lots of it. This year, only Orb can hope for immortality.

The Angels' Albert Pujols ended his career-long home-run drought Sunday, cracking a two-run home run into the Angels bullpen in left field in the fifth inning of Sunday's game with the Toronto Blue Jays at Angel Stadium. The home run came on a 2-2 pitch from Toronto right-hander Drew Hutchison. The crowd, which had booed Pujols when he struck out an inning earlier, came to its feet and gave the slugger a long, loud ovation, but Pujols did not acknowledge that with a curtain call.

The genre known as the Chinese New Year movie generally gives off a whiff of the family-friendly, the silly and sentimental, and the Hong Kong import "All's Well, Ends Well 2012" is no exception. This latest installment in a series of goofy romantic comedies - with only a title to bind them and a year to differentiate them - proves that antic dippiness isn't strictly the province of American comedies. Using the connective meet-cute tissue of a website that acts as a platonic matchmaker for women who need chivalrous men to help them out, the film whips up four ridiculous tales of role-playing, including a blind ballerina (Lynn Xiong)

Matt Groening has put an end to his Life in Hell comic strip, the weekly comic that he's been drawing for 35 years. In an email to the website Poynter.org , Groening explained: "I've had great fun, in a Sisyphean kind of way, but the time has come to let Binky and Sheba and Bongo and Akbar and Jeff take some time off. " The strip, which initially described the young cartoonist's life after his move from Portland, Ore., to Los Angeles in...

U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday, spurred by optimism over forthcoming technology earnings and in the wake of strong orders from Dow component Boeing. Based on the latest available data, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 56.53 points, or 0.56 percent, at 10,154.43. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 6.39 points, or 0.60 percent, at 1,071.27. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 19.18 points, or 0.88 percent, at 2,198.23.

J.J. Redick scored 17 points in place of an injured Vince Carter, and the Orlando Magic ended a losing streak at four games with a 113-81 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night. Matt Barnes had 18 points for the Southeast Division-leading Magic, which built a 38-point lead. Orlando is 1 1/2 games ahead of Atlanta and has won the two regular-season meetings against its division rival. -- associated press

The 25th time is the charm for Chris Volstad, who had gone 24 starts without a win before Sunday's 5-0 rain-shortened Chicago Cubs victory over the Colorado Rockies. Volstad's winless streak dated back to July 17 of last year, when he was a member of the then-Florida Marlins. He was 0-14 with an earned-run average of 5.27 during that stretch. His streak will end four starts short of the major league record of 28 consecutive winless starts. Jo-Jo Reyes tied the record last May and now shares it with Matt Keough and Cliff Curtis.

SAN JOSE - Live by the five-on-three and lose on the five-on-four. Two days after the Kings took advantage of a two-man advantage to rally from a one-goal deficit in a dizzying comeback against the Sharks in Game 2, they found themselves staring straight at a five-on-three disadvantage here Saturday night. They escaped the five-on-three but could not survive the five-on-four. The Sharks won it at 1:29 into overtime on Logan Couture's power-play goal, giving San Jose a 2-1 victory in Game 3 at HP Pavilion.

Another tragedy at a Bangladesh clothing factory, another announcement by Wal-Mart about additional steps it will take to beef up worker safety, this time by inspecting all of its suppliers' facilities itself. Not that the retailing giant hasn't made real efforts already to improve employee safety in notoriously bad factories overseas, but the deaths of more than 1,100 people at the Rana Plaza factory last month should signal that a piecemeal, go-it-alone approach is insufficient, even for the biggest retailer in the world.

ATLANTA - With Hanley Ramirez and Mark Ellis expected to return from their injuries at some point, the Dodgers figure to hit better in coming months than they are now. The recent activation of Zack Greinke moved a depleted rotation closer to full strength. But the problem that was exposed in an 8-5 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Friday night could be something that hinders them for the remainder of the season. Their bullpen is a mess. The magnitude of the issue was exposed in the opener of a three-game series at Turner Field, when Manager Don Mattingly was all but forced to leave in left-hander Paco Rodriguez to face National League home run leader Justin Upton with the game on the line.

WASHINGTON - Disclosure of a highly classified intelligence operation in Yemen last year compromised an exceedingly rare and valuable espionage achievement: an informant who had earned the trust of hardened terrorists, according to U.S. officials. The operation received new scrutiny this week after the Justice Department disclosed it had obtained telephone records for calls to and from more than 20 lines belonging to the Associated Press news service and its journalists in April and May 2012 in a high-level investigation of the alleged leak of classified information.

The federal judge who oversaw a dramatic, forced transformation of the Los Angeles Police Department has freed the department from the final vestiges of federal oversight. In a brief, three-line order Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Gary Feess formally lifted the binding agreement the U.S. Department of Justice imposed on the LAPD in 2001, which spelled out dozens of major reforms the police agency had to implement and frequent audits it was required to undergo by a monitor who reported to Feess.

NBA owners voted Wednesday to reject the Sacramento Kings' proposed move to Seattle, the latest in a long line of cities that have tried to land the franchise. The 22-8 vote in Dallas followed a recommendation made last month by the NBA's relocation committee and may have finally brought an end to an emotional saga that has dragged on for nearly three years. A group led by investor Chris Hansen had a deal to buy the team. Hansen hoped to move the franchise to Seattle and rename it the SuperSonics.

Eric Bruntlett became the second player in major league history to end a game with an unassisted triple play, accomplishing the feat Sunday to preserve the Philadelphia Phillies' 9-7 win over the Mets. "I didn't know how to react. I didn't know what to do," Bruntlett said. It was a stunning end to a crazy game that included an inside-the-park homer after the ball got stuck under the outfield wall. The amazing final sequence made a winner of Pedro Martinez in his return to New York.

Jamal Crawford missed a three-point shot with 2.3 seconds left as the Clippers had a franchise-record 13-game home winning streak end with a 104-101 loss to the Orlando Magic on Saturday afternoon at Staples Center. The defeat ended a three-game winning streak overall and left the Clippers 18-3 at home this season. Orlando snapped a 10-game losing streak. Crawford had given the Clippers an eight-point lead, 95-87, with five minutes left in the fourth quarter, but the Magic scored eight unanswered points in less than two minutes to tie the score and turn momentum in its favor.

Planet-hunting scientists were dealt a major blow Wednesday when NASA officials announced that a crucial wheel on the Kepler space telescope had ceased to function and that the craft had been placed in safe mode. Even as NASA officials raised the possibility that they could get the telescope back up and running, scientists began mourning the potential loss of a spacecraft that they said had fundamentally altered our understanding of alien planets in the Milky Way - and Earth's place in an increasingly crowded galaxy.

They rallied from a non-playoff team to the No. 2 seeding in the Western Conference, set a team record for consecutive home wins, displayed an exciting comeback nature, surprisingly emerged with dueling goalies, and locked up their two pending star free agents. Yet, the Ducks bowed out to the seventh-seeded Detroit Red Wings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. So following Sunday's 3-2, Game 7 loss that deprived Southern California of the first Ducks-Kings playoff series, the season assessments were: "Disappointment.