NFL Monitoring Gang Signs During Games

NEW YORK (AP)—The NFL is stepping up its monitoring of on-field player activities to ensure that no one is flashing the hand signals of street gangs.

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the league had hired experts to look at game tapes and identify players or team officials who might be using suspected gang signals. Violators would be warned and disciplined if the episodes recurred.

League officials said Tuesday that avoiding gang-related activities has long been stressed.

They said the scrutiny was intensified after the shooting death of Denver cornerback Darrent Williams in 2007 after Williams was involved in a dispute with known gang members. Anti-gang information is included in orientation literature and stressed in the annual mandatory league meeting for rookies.

The NFL took further notice after Paul Pierce of the NBA’s Boston Celtics was fined $25,000 in April for what the league said was a “menacing gesture” toward the Atlanta Hawks’ bench. “I 100 percent do not in any way promote gang violence or anything close to it.” Pierce said in a statement. “I am sorry if it was misinterpreted that way at Saturday’s game.”

The Times said that was the precipitating incident for the NFL.

“We were always suspicious that might be happening,” it quoted Mike Pereira, the NFL’s vice president of officiating, as saying of gang-related signals. “But the Paul Pierce thing is what brought it to light. When he was fined … that’s when we said we need to take a look at it and see if we need to be aware of it.”

Most senior NFL officials were at a league outing Tuesday and could not immediately be reached for comment.

Great Expectations For Montana, Gretzky Sons

Nick Montana is new to the Oaks Christian program.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif. – Coach Bill Redell hit the practice field and started rounding up his quarterbacks.

"Hey, get me Montana," he shouted, followed moments later with, "Hey, get me Gretzky."

That would be Nick Montana, son of Hall-of-Fame quarterback Joe Montana.

Nick Montana is new to the Oaks Christian program.
That would be Trevor Gretzky, son of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky.

And this would be Oaks Christian, a private high school that now figures to attract as many stargazers as college football scouts.

While the offspring of two of the planet's most famous athletes took snaps Wednesday during a routine summer football workout, the son of an on-screen superhero had just finished catching passes. The budding receiver is Trey Smith, whose father is actor Will Smith, now starring in the box-office hit "Hancock."

Sports fans might recognize Oaks Christian as a football powerhouse. In 2006, after all, the school fielded a team that included Jimmy Clausen, the nation's top-rated high school quarterback when he signed with Notre Dame; Marc Tyler, a running back who plays for USC and is the son of former NFL standout Wendell Tyler; and nine other players who signed scholarships with Division I schools.

Not that celebrity newshounds seemed to notice.

"We were swamped by media," said Redell, head coach at Oaks Christian. "But Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight weren't among them."

Access Hollywood was denied access to campus Wednesday, and a school employee patrolled the parking lot on the lookout for unwanted paparazzi presumably lurking nearby. Oaks Christian is a short trip from Hollywood by helicopter, which is how Will Smith got to one of the school's football games last year.

Neither Wayne Gretzky nor Will Smith was on hand Wednesday, but there was Joe Montana, sporting a T-shirt, Bermuda shorts and flip-flops. He watched from the sideline with his wife, Jennifer, and was almost as hard to pick out as his son. The players wore T-shirts rather than jerseys for the passing drills.

"Which one's Montana's kid?" wondered more than a few visitors.

The sons of Wayne Gretzky and Will Smith played for the junior varsity team at Oaks Christian last year. But it was the recent arrival of Joe Montana's son that generated red-carpet buzz – after Oaks Christian realized who had arrived.

"The admissions office called and said, 'Do you know a Joe Montana?'" Redell said. "And I said, 'Yeah, I've heard of the guy.'"

A week later, having had only 20 minutes to familiarize himself with the team's offense, Nick Montana threw two fades passes and a 50-yard bomb for touchdowns during one of the weekly summer scrimmages.

"He looked like a young Joe Montana," said Redell, who seems far more excited about the younger Montana than the older Montana – or Wayne Gretzky, for that matter.

Redell, 67, was playing quarterback for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League when he first met Gretzky, known in hockey circles as "The Great One." The former CFL quarterback said Gretzky told him he was 8 years old when he attended a Tiger-Cats game in Canada and asked Redell for his autograph.

Trevor Gretzky will play with the son of Will Smith on the junior varsity team this season.
"Did I give it to you?" Redell asked upon hearing the story.

"You did," Gretzky replied

"And you thought you were the Great One," Redell quipped.

Now the question is how great will the famous offspring become.

Trevor Gretzky, a sophomore who's as skinny as the handle of a hockey stick, will start the season as the No. 1 quarterback for the JV team. He started playing the position only four months ago after Oaks Christian coaches saw him throwing the ball and suggested he give the position a shot. For the record, he has no interest in playing hockey.

"I'm a Southern California kid," explained Trevor, born after his father arrived in Los Angeles two decades ago as part of a blockbuster trade that sent Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. "There's no hockey leagues out here anyway."

Trey Smith, also a sophomore, will be one of Gretzky's primary receivers on the JV team. He is off limits to the media.

"He's a good enough athlete to play on the varsity, but he decided he wants to play for the frosh-sophomore team," Redell said.

Then there's Nick Montana.

At 6 feet 2 inches, he's already taller than his father, and Redell predicts his newest quarterback will develop into a "big-time" Division I college prospect.

Last year he started at quarterback for the junior varsity team at Concord De La Salle, a football power in the Bay Area, where Joe Montana led the San Francisco 49ers to four Super Bowls. Nick Montana also has spent the past three years working with Steve Clarkson, a highly regarded quarterback instructor in Southern California, and Joe Cool said he's taken mostly a hands-off approach with his son.

"He's one of those kids who played in the parking lot and played at every recess growing up," said Joe Montana, adding that business interests led to the family's decision to relocate to Southern California. "… He loves the game. He doesn't study it enough yet, but I think he's starting to understand what it takes."

Nick Montana shrugged off the attention he and the sons of Wayne Gretzky and Will Smith have created.

"I'm not even starting right now yet, so I'm just trying to have fun and play football."

As of Wednesday, the starting quarterback job belonged to Tony Macarena. He is a senior and the son of Sergio Macarena. And for the benefit of those less familiar with Sergio Macarena than Joe Montana, Wayne Gretzky or Will Smith, Sergio said of himself, "He lifts furniture for a living."

Trevor Gretzky will play with the son of Will Smith
on the junior varsity team this season.

Trailer - Step Brothers

Looks pretty funny!

Michigan Cities Say Hundreds Of Manhole Covers Stolen

FLINT, Mich. - Officials in Flint, Mich., say they've had to replace hundreds of manhole covers and grates that were probably stolen and sold for scrap.

The Flint Journal reported Monday that nearly 400 cast iron covers and grates have been taken from streets in the past year. A cover can fetch $20 from a scrap yard but can cost the city more than $200 to replace.

Officials in neighboring Burton say they've lost about 200 covers and grates during the same period. Utilities supervisor Mike Holzer says it leaves behind holes up to 35 feet deep.

Genesee County officials say they've been able to reduce thefts of county-owned covers by outfitting them with a bolt that is turned by a wrench only they have.

The Long Goodbye: AL Wins All-Star Game 4-3 In 15

NEW YORK (AP)—Baseball’s All-Stars came to say goodbye to Yankee Stadium—and what a long, long goodbye it was.

In a game that started Tuesday night and faded well into Wednesday, Justin Morneau slid home just in time on Michael Young’s sacrifice fly in the 15th inning, giving the American League a 4-3 victory that extended its unbeaten streak to 12.

Young ended a 4-hour, 40-minute marathon at 1:37 a.m., with the grand old ballpark half-empty. It was a good thing, too—neither team had any pitchers left in the bullpen.

The NL was given a pregame pep talk by Hall of Famer Ernie Banks, whose motto is: “Let’s play two!” And they nearly did, matching the longest All-Star game ever.

People Continue to Face Hardships With Rising Gas and Energy Costs

BAY AREA (KRON) - With gas and energy prices expected to remain high through next year, Americans will be forced to slow the use of gasoline consumption on the road and slow rate of energy use at home by finding ways to cut back on heating and air conditioning.

Though the Department of Energy expects the price of gas to stay above four dollars a gallon at least through 2009, they note that drivers are making a concerted effort to cut back, averaging almost 400,000 barrels a day less than this time last year.

Some drivers told KRON 4's Craig Sklar that they keep driving out of necessity but that they might opt for gas-sipping alternatives from now on.

Heating and air conditioning bills are also expected to cut into family's budgets. Kristin Strellis told Sklar that her family just made their 1,600-foot home energy efficient. This includes updates to their furnace, water heater and windows. She says all that was money well spent, "I find that our electricity costs are a lot lower than that of our neighbors who have smaller homes."

According to their energy bills, Strellis and her family saves about 50 percent more.

NEW CLIP From The Dark Knight, Coming This Weekend!!

I don't know about you but im super juiced for this movie to drop!