Greed

About 700 protesters were arrested Saturday in a demonstration against corporate greed and other social inequalities after they swarmed the Brooklyn Bridge and shut down a lane of traffic for several hours, New York City police said. Paul Browne, a police department spokesman, said that the protesters initially stayed on the elevated pedestrian walkway in the center of the Brooklyn Bridge, which thousands of New Yorkers use every day. "There were no problems until a group broke away and started chanting, 'Take the bridge, take the bridge,'" he said.

Michael Moore and Susan Sarandon have dropped in. A seasoned diplomat dispenses free advice. Supporters send everything from boxes of food and clothes to Whole Foods gift cards. They even have their own app, for the legions of fans following them on iPhones and Androids. Nearly two weeks into a sit-in at a park in Manhattan's financial district, the "leaderless resistance movement" calling itself Occupy Wall Street is at a crossroads. The number of protesters on scene so far tops out at a few hundred, tiny by Athens or Cairo standards.

So, of course, in the wake of the latest college sports scandal, there echoes the latest college sports pablum. Oh, those poor underprivileged children from the University of Miami. If only the NCAA allowed the football players to be paid, a sleazy booster wouldn't have been able to buy them. Oh, the hypocrisy, the unfairness, the shame. In the words of a surely weeping Keith Jackson … whoa, Nellie. Did you actually read the Yahoo Sports report on the many impermissible benefits alleged to have been doled out to the Miami football and basketball players by a Ponzi scheme crook named Nevin Shapiro?

  Britain is in the middle of a "slow-motion moral collapse" that must be reversed if the country is to avoid a repeat of last week's riots across England, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday as he promised tough new measures to crack down on lawlessness and promote a responsible society. But the opposition Labor Party warned against knee-jerk policies incapable of striking at the causes of the looting and violence, in a sign that the political unanimity seen in the riots' immediate aftermath is fraying as leaders grope for the best way to respond to what happened.

Now on trial in an L.A. courtroom: a classic case of Wall Street greed. That's the picture lawyers for both sides painted for jurors in the first round of the high-stakes court battle between L.A. money manager TCW Group and its former investment chief. Jeffrey Gundlach, the star bond fund manager who was fired by TCW in December 2009, was ousted because he was plotting to destroy the company by setting up a rival firm with secrets stolen from TCW, TCW's lawyers said in their opening statement Thursday.

'Atlas' on the big screen Re "It just wouldn't be shrugged off," April 10 I was 15 years old when Ayn Rand's novel, "Atlas Shrugged," was published. I have read and reread it many times since then. I have also read Rand's other works and those about her. To bowdlerize "Atlas Shrugged" to fit the Christian "tea party" tastes is just sickening. I am sorry to hear that her work that clearly, proudly and freely stated Rand's principles — atheism and passionate sexuality as well as a free-market economy — are diluted in the film adaptation.

They are rebels with a cause. In their playing days, the NFL taught them to be competitors, never to go down without a fight. And so, in a quiet meeting room last weekend, away from the madding crowds of a Las Vegas casino, they got mad all over again. They have lost their youth but not their spunk. There are an estimated 21,000 NFL retirees. There are several groups that represent them, each with an agenda built around anger for the National Football League. This group was the Independent Football Veterans Inc. PHOTOS: The NFL and head injuries Visualize large men in broken bodies and listen to them as they talk about how the hits of yesteryear affect them now: Dave Pear, 57, veteran of six years and three NFL teams: "I played for the Raiders with a herniated disk in my neck.

Hundreds of environmentalists, union members and liberal activists converged on Rancho Mirage on Sunday to rally against what they see as the influence of two of the nation's leading financial backers of conservative causes. The protestors waved signs condemning "corporate greed," chanted slogans and surged toward a line of helmeted police officers at the entrance to a resort where billionaires Charles and David Koch were holding a retreat for prominent conservative elected officials, major political donors and strategists.

Kevin Spacey has earned accolades and two Oscars for nailing the nuances of characters who might otherwise seem simply reprehensible. Now he's upping the ante playing real-life criminal and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, currently imprisoned for fraud and corruption, in the darkly comedic "Casino Jack. " Directed by George Hickenlooper ("Factory Girl"), who died in his sleep last month at the age of 47, "Casino Jack," which opens Dec. 17, won praise at the Toronto International Film Festival and is propelling its leading man into award season.

A good book will leave you laughing or crying. I just read one that left me wanting to take a shower. It is titled "Play Their Hearts Out. " It is about youth basketball and the general slime that surrounds it. If you think Johnny and Joey get those college scholarships by shooting hoops over the garage door and being molded to greatness by venerable Coach Tom at Neighborhood High, think again. First, some disclaimers. The book is written by George Dohrmann, who worked for me on the sports staff of The Times from 1995 to 1997.