Lying

A former Marine lied about his combat duty and sustaining a brain injury in an attempt to acquire sympathy and money in his pursuit of a professional golf career. And it appears the media has again been duped without checking facts. Michael Doyle Campbell, who was in the Marines from 2000 to 2004, admitted in federal court he told media outlets and military service organizations that he was injured in 2003 while on patrol in Fallujah, Iraq. The former Marine told his tale of hoping to overcome a brain injury as he pursued a pro golf career to media outlets such as National Public Radio and Golf Magazine, aiding him in defrauding charitable organizations of $40,000, according to federal court records.

The Los Angeles mayor's race took a sharp negative turn Wednesday as City Controller Wendy Greuel accused rivals Eric Garcetti and Jan Perry of lying about her record to distract from their own spending of taxpayer money on wasteful travel and perks. Her broadside came after weeks of relentless attacks on Greuel by the two City Council members and Kevin James, a former radio talk-show host. The dynamics of the campaign - Greuel's top rivals each see pockets of opportunity among key voter groups that she is well-positioned to capture - have made her a prime target, leaving the impression at times that opponents have been ganging up on her. Greuel fought back Wednesday in a mailer that showed a wooden Pinocchio and photos of Garcetti and Perry.

An appeals court has overturned a $3.8-million jury award to a former Countrywide Financial Corp. human resources executive who contended he was fired because he refused to lie for the giant home lender and exposed unsafe working conditions. Michael Winston, a former leadership coach for Countrywide executives, won a wrongful-termination verdict in February 2011 from a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury in Van Nuys. The suit named as defendants Countrywide and Bank of America Corp., which acquired the high-risk mortgage specialist in 2008 and decided against retaining Winston.

 For a Los Angeles Police Department disciplinary panel, the evidence was persuasive: Rookie officer Christopher Jordan Dorner lied when he accused his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest. But when a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge examined the case a year later in 2010 as part of an appeal filed by Dorner, he seemed less convinced. Judge David P. Yaffe said he was "uncertain whether the training officer kicked the suspect or not" but nevertheless upheld the department's decision to fire Dorner, according to court records reviewed by The Times.

You knew this was coming. Lance Armstrong is being sued over his repeated, vehement denials in two books that he did not use performance-enhancing drugs or blood doping to win his seven Tour de France titles. Rob Stutzman, an aide to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and several others who purchased Armstrong's memoirs “It's Not About The Bike” and “Every Second Counts” have filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the fallen hero of committing fraud and other wrongdoing for repeated claims that he was clean.

  Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o admitted that he lied to the media and the public after discovering his online girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, did not exist, he admitted during an interview with Katie Couric. "Katie, put yourself in my situation. I, my whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that. This girl, who I committed myself to, died on Sept. 12," Te'o said. Te'o said he received a phone call Dec. 6 from a woman claiming she was Kekua, even though Kekua had allegedly passed away three months earlier.

This review has been updated. The sound of two women singing in close harmony can give a special feeling of pleasure and even exhilaration. It is a sound not restricted to French art song, but the French especially cultivated it during the belle époque era, 1880 to World War I. This was the era lovingly mined by soprano Renée Fleming and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham in a joint recital Saturday at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The quintessential example would be the "Duo des fleurs" from Delibes' "Lakmé," appropriated as an ad by British Airways for its sense of classy uplift.

Thanks, Lance. Thanks for our kids and grandkids who dream of excelling honestly in athletics at any level. Thanks for showing all of us that the king of the cheaters, in a fringe sport made up of known cheaters, is no longer valued as an athlete or a person. We will find other ways to contribute to cancer research for both cures and treatment, while we celebrate another triumph in our kids' dreams to compete and maybe win ... on a level field. Tom Sloss Fountain Valley :: This just in. In light of his recent admission, Lance Armstrong has now been named on 36% of the ballots from the BBWAA for the baseball Hall of Fame.

Though we profess to hate it, lying is common, useful and pretty much universal. It is one of the most durable threads in our social fabric and an important bulwark of our self-esteem. We start lying by the age of 4 and we do it at least several times a day, researchers have found. And we get better with practice. In short, whatever you think about Lance Armstrong's admission this week that he took performance-enhancing drugs to fuel his illustrious cycling career, the lies he told may be no more persistent or outsized than yours, according to psychologists and others who study deception.

This country's most inspirational sportsman is exposed as a cheat. Two of the greatest players in baseball history are denied entry into the Hall of Fame because they are cheats. The NFL spends the first three weeks of the season using fake referees. A college football powerhouse admits to switching uniform numbers and deflating footballs. Into a sports world filled with deceit stepped Manti Te'o with a story too good to be true, too necessary to be questioned. A senior Notre Dame linebacker leads America's most traditional football program to its first unbeaten season in 24 years while playing for the memory of a dead girlfriend.