Ohio

P HIL MICKELSON withdrew from the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio, after a 79 on Thursday because of mental fatigue. Mickelson said it was more important for him to be rested for the U.S. Open in 2 weeks than to finish Jack Nicklaus' tournament. He attributed the fatigue to playing 3 straight weeks, and then going to Europe to celebrate his wife's 40th birthday. He returned home to play a corporate outing Tuesday in New York, flew to Ohio for the pro-am and found his head wasn't in the game.

The College of New Jersey's Steven D'Aiutolo (Cinnaminson) took top honors in the triple jump Saturday at the New York University Challenge at the Armory in New York City. D'Aiutolo's leap of 47 feet, 2 inches qualified him for the ECAC Championships. He was also part of the 4x400 relay team that placed third. The Golden Lions' Emily Kulcyk (Cherokee) was a member of the women's 4x400 relay team that finished fourth. She also placed fifth in the 500. Liz Johnson (Rancocas Valley)

OHIO IS happy to make room for anyone who wants to jump on the bandwagon. Just don't expect the Bobcats (29-7) to buy into that whole lovable underdog thing. Yes, they realize they're the 13th seed, the only "little guy" left in a tournament that now looks like a who's who of college basketball. They're well aware it would take them another century or two to match top-seeded North Carolina's tradition - they're in the regional semifinals for the second time, while the Tar Heels have lost count of how many times they've been here.

STATE COLLEGE - It was a hell of a bus ride. Coach Bill O'Brien's new era of Penn State football might have gotten off on the wrong foot with a 24-14 loss to Ohio on Saturday, but the atmosphere surrounding the Nittany Lions' 2012 season opener was a special one - from the hopeful beginning to the undesirable ending. "That was, I guess you would say, the best bus ride we've had since I've been here," said senior defensive tackle Jordan Hill. "We had so much support starting from the beginning of the route, it was crazy . . . I knew it was gonna be crazy but I didn't think it would be that crazy.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - As one of Penn State's most vocal and visible leaders, Michael Mauti has sent along the right messages this week to his teammates: Forget about the loss to Ohio, learn from the mistakes that were made, and be focused on the road at Virginia. But when he goes on the field Saturday at Scott Stadium for the first time, the fifth-year senior linebacker will take with him the sour memory of how easily and thoroughly the Bobcats moved the ball against a defense that has built a reputation for stinginess during his time with the Nittany Lions.

CLEVELAND - The man accused of holding three women captive for a decade in his home terrorized the mother of his children, frequently beating her, playing twisted psychological games, and locking her indoors, her relatives say. Several relatives of Grimilda Figueroa, who left Ariel Castro years ago and died last year after a long illness, painted a nightmarish portrait of life with Castro. In interviews with the Associated Press, the relatives described Castro as a "monster" who abused his wife and locked his family inside their own home.

A big yard with a fence, an overstuffed bed, new collars, and a feline companion await Brooke, the aging black Labrador mix whose plight went viral after a Bristol Township couple found her tied to to a rock in a rising Neshaminy Creek. After sorting through 65 adoption applications that came from dog lovers across the county - including ones from Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Washington State - Bucks County SPCA officials decided Brooke will be headed south to Annapolis, Md., on Saturday to spend her days with her new owner, Diane Bartkovich.

She was a punk party-goer, a magazine magnate, a porn model, a junkie. She dyed her hair purple and helped run one of the country's most explicit porn publication. She posed for pictures wearing stockings, a hat and nothing in between. She procured women for her husband and became addicted to drugs rather than let him do it alone. Her beginnings were sordid and sad (she said she was orphaned at 8 when her father murdered her mother, grandfather and mother's friend) and her end last month at age 33 - in a bathtub in Los Angeles - even sadder.

With a single, quick, surprise move earlier this month, a Philadelphia-area trucking company put itself in position to become the nation's biggest revenue producer in its highly specialized business. If Chemical Leaman Corp., based in Lionville, Chester County, does take over the number-one position in the bulk-commodity hauling industry, it would do so by taking over the equipment and facilities of a failed Ohio trucking company. The move could enable Chemical Leaman to displace another area company, Matlack Inc., a division of RLC Corp.

At lunchtime on May 15, 2001, CSX Locomotive No. 8888 eased down tracks in a rail yard outside Toledo, Ohio. The engine known as "Crazy Eights" picked up speed as it pulled 47 freight cars, two of them loaded with toxic chemicals, south toward Columbus. Only no one was on board. Jon Hosfeld, a native of Mechanicsburg, Pa., was in the rail yard eating his lunch. He wasn't supposed to be there that day. Hosfeld, 52, ran a CSX yard 67 miles south in Kenton; he'd come north to deposit a carload of children and Ohio's lieutenant governor in Toledo for a program aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of rail crossings.