Feuds

The feud between Bobby Schwartz of Costa Mesa and Steve Lucero of Riverside erupted Friday when Lucero crashed into Schwartz on the second lap of the scratch main event at the speedway motorcycle racing program at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Schwartz, the defending U.S. champion, was leading the race when Lucero rammed into the rear of Schwartz's bike and knocked him off it. It was the third time in five weeks the riders have had problems on the track.

A bitter family dispute apparently led a 78-year-old man to throw an explosive into a law firm that represented his son, causing a blast that killed the father and injured four people in the office in Dalton. Authorities identified the bomber as Lloyd Cantrell, a man known around town for wearing bib overalls and carrying a Chihuahua. Over the years, Cantrell amassed several parcels of land and gave some of it to his son. His son came to fear his father, though, and filed a lawsuit seeking to keep him off the property, claiming the elder man stole tools, kicked down a door and was suicidal.

A group of 11 Pakistani men has been accused of raping a teenage girl and forcing her to walk half-naked through her village because her cousin eloped with a woman from the men's family, police said. Police said the 16-year-old girl's father filed a complaint Saturday in the town of Ubaro, 330 miles northeast of Karachi. She is being treated in a hospital. Police official Mushtaq Khoso said officers had arrested four men and were awaiting a medical report.

A planned $525-million waterside stadium and mall complex, sold to voters last summer as a job- and revenue-generating bonanza, is in trouble. And city officials are blaming a family feud between owners of the San Francisco 49ers football team. Things began going wrong for the project last December, when Edward "Eddie" DeBartolo Jr., chairman of the 49ers, learned that he was the target of a federal investigation into the award of gaming licenses in Louisiana.

Fourteen taxi drivers are fighting to share in a $90-million lottery ticket, contending they were part of a pool that bought the ticket. The cabbies' attorney concedes they didn't contribute to the pool for last week's drawing, but they have regularly paid into the kitty since the lottery pool was formed last month.

Two women fighting for control of a tiny tribe that plans a 2,000-slot casino in rural Northern California have settled their differences after four years of legal wrangling, ending a dispute that spawned a frenetic Washington lobbying blitz and helped to bring down a Bush administration official.

Talk about family feuds. Thomas D. Sutherland, 25, apparently wanted to end his by plowing down his brother's Long Beach house with a stolen bulldozer, police said Monday. Sutherland had smashed a station wagon in the driveway of his 37-year-old brother's home and torn up 56 feet of city sidewalk by the time police arrived Sunday evening, Long Beach Police Cpl. Josef Levy said. Police were still trying to figure out why Sutherland was so angry at his brother, whose name was not released.

Amused pop fans dub it "As the Floyd Turns." They're referring to the Pink Floyd soap opera, which has been unfolding over the last few years. And just like some of the TV soaps, this pop story is brimming with hostility, nastiness and rampaging egomania. The stars of this tawdry little soap are singer-bassist Roger Waters and singer-guitarist David Gilmour. Then there's drummer Nick Mason and keyboardist Rick Wright, who are featured players.

New York Met Manager Bobby Valentine admits he made a "bad guess" when he speculated Todd Hundley blamed him for being replaced by Mike Piazza on "an Italian thing." Hundley, dealt to the Dodgers last week, has said Valentine had it in for him. "Todd does a lot of that stuff," Valentine told the Madison Square Garden Network in an interview broadcast Thursday. "It's an Italian thing. He thinks that I would do something because he's not Italian or because I am Italian. I think that's ridiculous."

It wasn't the fake pot plant in her courtroom. Or the cigarette-smoking in her chambers. Or even the aborted courtroom wedding for infamous parent killer Lyle Menendez. What really got Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Nancy Brown in trouble was kicking the bureaucrat out of her courtroom. For four years.