Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS — The pace inside UNLV's Mendenhall Center was frenetic with players running at breakneck speed, pushing the ball up the court and finishing with controlled rage. Jrue Holiday must have thought he had gone to basketball heaven. Indeed he has. The 76ers point guard is taking the first steps in what he hopes will someday get him where teammate Andre Iguodala currently finds himself — on the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team. "It's amazing," Holiday said after his Select team scrimmaged with Team USA over the weekend.

Sharpton honors Rodney King LOS ANGELES - Rodney King was remembered in Los Angeles on Saturday as a forgiving man who bore the scars of his infamous beating with dignity. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who delivered the eulogy at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills, said before the funeral that King never showed bitterness to the officers who beat him. "He became a symbol of forgiveness," Sharpton said. The funeral came nearly two weeks after King, 47, was found dead at the bottom of the swimming pool at his Rialto, Calif.

NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. - There are no signs of rioters, wind-damaged homes, or flooding. The brand new city hall features gleaming marble floors and the public recreation centers offer Zumba, karate, and Pilates classes. Despite all of its suburban trimmings, North Las Vegas is officially a disaster area. After five years of declining property taxes, massive layoffs, and questionable spending, leaders of the blue-collar, family-oriented city outside Las Vegas have declared a state of emergency, invoking a rarely used state law crafted for unforeseen disasters.

Wearing a pair of dark-rimmed glasses and a backward snapback hat, Teon Kennedy strolled into Joe Hand's Gym on Tuesday afternoon wheeling his equipment bag at his side. Just 25 years old and 5 feet, 5 inches tall, Kennedy's youthful appearance might fool you. But in the ring, the North Philly boxer stakes his claim with an aggressive style that often turns fights into brawls. By the final rounds of a fight last year in Atlantic City, his eyes were swollen shut but he still battled.

Those neon lights in Las Vegas lure more than 30 million visitors every year. But the members of the Gloucester Catholic baseball team aren't typical tourists. The Rams won't travel to the desert in Nevada this week seeking casino entertainment, gambling action, or all-you-can-eat buffets. South Jersey's No. 1 baseball team will be looking for manicured fields, top-level competition, and validation of its lofty national ranking. "We can't wait to get there," Gloucester Catholic senior first baseman John Brue said after his team's 19-0 victory over Deptford on Monday in a Tri-County Diamond Division game.

Those neon lights in Las Vegas lure more than 30 million visitors every year. But the members of the Gloucester Catholic baseball team aren't typical tourists. The Rams won't travel to the desert in Nevada this week seeking casino entertainment, gambling action, or all-you-can-eat buffets. South Jersey's No. 1 baseball team will be looking for manicured fields, top-level competition, and validation of its lofty national ranking. "We can't wait to get there," Gloucester Catholic senior first baseman John Brue said after his team's 19-0 victory over Deptford on Monday in a Tri-County Diamond Division game.

DEAR ABBY: "Darrel" and I have been married 28 years. I thought we had an easy, comfortable relationship. We have no children; it's just the two of us with a large family of furry animals. We don't take vacations together because one of us has to be home to care for the animals. Last year Darrel took four trips to Las Vegas - two for business and two for special sporting events. I'm beginning to get little nagging signals that he may not have been on these trips alone. He shuts his phone off for hours at a time and changed the password on his computer after I had to get on it for a security update.

ATLANTIC CITY - This town isn't Las Vegas, but the $2.4 billion Revel Casino wants to take visitors there with A-list entertainment, posh rooms, and celebrity-chef restaurants in a luxurious setting where the champagne and water in 10 swimming pools are always flowing. The 20-acre resort - draped in silvery-blue reflective glass - literally curls to and fro like the ocean it embraces. Many see Revel as the lifeline for this down-on-its-luck gambling mecca in need of a revival.

LAS VEGAS - Defending Nationwide champion Ricky Stenhouse Jr. led the final 54 laps at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Saturday for his first victory of the season. Stenhouse had a strong car all day and dominated the end of the 200-mile race, pulling away from Mark Martin on a pair restarts on the 1.5-mile tri-oval in the desert. Martin, who had won four of his previous six Nationwide starts at Las Vegas, finished second in his first Nationwide race for Joe Gibbs Racing. Polesitter Elliott Sadler rallied to finish third after a lengthy midrace pit stop to fix a vibration.