Southern Utah University

Would you believe they are playing for the love of the sport? How about to keep their scholarships? Pride? This much is known for sure: American West Conference teams opening tournament action today at Southern Utah University are not playing for a spot in the NCAA playoffs. Twenty-nine conference champions receive automatic invitations to the 64-team Division I men's basketball tournament. The American West is among four conferences which do not.

Would you believe they are playing for the love of the sport? How about to keep their scholarships? Pride? This much is known for sure: American West Conference teams opening tournament action today at Southern Utah University are not playing for a spot in the NCAA playoffs. Twenty-nine conference champions receive automatic invitations to the 64-team Division I men's basketball tournament. The American West is among four conferences which do not.

Neil Roberts resigned as basketball coach at Southern Utah, four days after he was arrested for allegedly shoplifting a necktie. Roberts, 46, was arrested Tuesday and charged with misdemeanor theft at a department store in Moscow, Idaho. He said he inadvertently walked out with the tie after buying a dress shirt. Roberts posted bail and coached Southern Utah against Idaho that night.

Neil Roberts resigned as basketball coach at Southern Utah, four days after he was arrested for allegedly shoplifting a necktie. Roberts, 46, was arrested Tuesday and charged with misdemeanor theft at a department store in Moscow, Idaho. He said he inadvertently walked out with the tie after buying a dress shirt. Roberts posted bail and coached Southern Utah against Idaho that night.

Burch Mann, 87, founder and director of the American Folk Ballet. She was brought up in the Midwest and moved to New York in 1928 to study ballet. She began her career as a choreographer for nightclubs there in the 1930s and later worked in the same capacity for films and television. In 1962, Mann established the folk dance troupe called American Folk Ballet and toured internationally with it.

On the day Christopher Dorner was fired from the Los Angeles Police Department, officials took the unusual step of summoning armed guards to stand watch at his disciplinary hearing downtown. Those present were nervous that Dorner might do something rash when he learned that he was being stripped of his badge. He was a hulking, muscled man and his body language left no doubt about the anger seething out of him. "It was clear… that he was wound way too tight," said a police official who attended Dorner's termination hearing and requested anonymity because of safety concerns.

Bob Schermerhorn, the head coach at Southern Utah State University the past four seasons, has been hired as an assistant basketball coach at Arizona State, school officials announced Tuesday. He previously coached at UC Irvine, Chaffey College and Canyon High School in Anaheim. The addition of Schermerhorn, 44, completes the Sun Devils' staff under Coach Steve Patterson.

A memorial service will be held Saturday for Brent Leon Richey, a law student and business owner who was among the 230 passengers and crew members who perished when TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, N.Y., last month. Richey, who turned 26 the day before the crash, was traveling to Europe with his fiancee, Seana Anderson. The couple lived together in Van Nuys and had planned to wed in Italy.

Each year, high school students who lead their classes in the San Fernando, Santa Clarita and Antelope valleys are honored as valedictorians. A variety of criteria are used to choose the students, but basically, they are the best and brightest at their schools. Several of them share their thoughts as they embark on their journeys into adulthood. Melissa Hwang, Chatsworth School: Bishop Alemany High GPA: 4.

Each year when summer ends and the tourists leave, the economy plummets in this little town nestled among the crimson cliffs and twisted juniper of southwest Utah. That gave Mayor Gerald Sherratt an idea. He decided to boost off-season revenue with a festival of feasts, shows and pageantry based upon its Viking heritage. And he didn't let the lack of that heritage stand in the way.

Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, nominated by President Bush on Monday to head the Environmental Protection Agency, is the longest-serving governor in the country and a man who devised his own eight-point philosophy for governing. Leavitt, 52, is considered a moderate Republican who has served 11 years as governor and was looking at a fourth term before the announcement.

Is gesture-dominated dance the obsession of young choreographers working in colleges across the Southwest--or just something their professors teach and reward? Is head-in-the-sand conservatism also a dance trend on these campuses, or merely a ticket to wider recognition? The Southwest Regional gala of the American College Dance Festival raised lots of questions Saturday night as 10 pieces (chosen from 37) passed across the stage of the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach.