Entrances

It was a November Saturday in Minneapolis and it wasn't snowing. What else did local sports fans have to do with their time than line up by the thousands for a Metrodome garage sale? With the Twins moving to an outdoor stadium in 2010, lots of merchandise at the Metrodome was priced to move. There were autographed baseballs, banners celebrating Kirby Puckett's entrance into the baseball Hall of Fame, life-sized cardboard cutouts of Kent Hrbek. Some fans arrived at dawn for an event scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. By the time the gates opened, the line of fans nearly ringed the stadium.

The building at Legoland continues. Only two months after announcing plans to add a water attraction at the theme park in Carlsbad, Calif., Legoland has won approval from the city of Carlsbad to build a Lego-themed hotel on the property. The Carlsbad City Council approved a plan last week to build a 254-room hotel outside the entrance to the park. The plan must also win approval from the California Coastal Commission, which regulates construction along the state's coast. A final price tag and a construction timeline are pending approval by the commission, said Julie Estrada, a spokeswoman for Legoland.

Shortly after he joined the Army last spring, Bryce Gautier stopped by the pool at Rancho Alamitos High School in Garden Grove. He wanted to let Matt Lambert, who had coached him for three years, know that he had enlisted, a decision he made about the time of his father's death on April 10, 2008. "All of a sudden, he started evaluating things and starting to figure things out," Lambert said. "He had a friend that was going into the military and it made sense."

When Army Staff Sgt. Bryan E. Hall returned to Iraq from leave early last month, his 2-year-old daughter, Addison, hugged a fabric doll with his image. She would squeeze the doll, which caused her father's recorded voice to tell her how much he loved and missed her. "She is definitely his daddy's girl," his wife, Rachel, said with a laugh. "When daddy was around, she said, 'Forget you, Mom, I want my dad.' " Her father was frequently away over the years.

Three suicide bombers attacked a provincial governor's office Saturday in southern Afghanistan, killing five policemen and wounding three, an official said. The attackers targeted employees entering the Kandahar governor's office. One blew himself up at the entrance, and two detonated their explosives inside the compound, said Ahmed Wali Karzai, head of the provincial council and brother of President Hamid Karzai.

When November rolls around and David Beckham leaves town for the last time, what is the Galaxy going to do? That it has to do something has been made painfully obvious by the team's lack of success on the field and at the gate in the first couple of weeks of the new Major League Soccer season.

Talk about worlds colliding: Imagine what would happen if a Hollywood comedy writer started thinking up questions for the SAT. Silly thought, right? Well, try these: 1. At a Saks Fifth Avenue store, Winona Ryder examines four distinct blouses, five distinct dresses and two distinct handbags. How many different combinations of items can she shoplift if she takes exactly one blouse, two dresses and a handbag? 2. Yo mamma so _______, when you mail her a letter, you need two ZIP Codes.

An accelerant was poured around the exterior of Gov. Sarah Palin's church before fire heavily damaged the building, federal investigators said Monday. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the accelerant was poured at several locations, including entrances. Lab tests will determine the type of substance involved. Possibilities include gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel and lamp oil. The blaze was set Friday night at the main entrance of the Wasilla Bible Church while a small group, including two children, was inside.

A car bomb exploded today near a military bus carrying troops to work in northern Lebanon, killing at least five people and wounding at least 21, Lebanese security officials said. Most of the casualties were soldiers, the officials said. The officials said the car, booby-trapped and parked, was detonated by remote control as the military bus drove by at the southern entrance to the city of Tripoli.