Texas

Stacy Stephens made a short fadeaway to seal the game with 35 seconds left, and second-ranked Texas (28-3) beat No. 14 Baylor (24-8) by 63-59 last night in Dallas to earn a second straight appearance in the Big Twelve Conference tournament championship game. Stephens finished with 16 points for the Longhorns. She got into foul trouble early in the second half and took just two shots after the break, but the last one, a twisting shot in the paint, put Texas up, 61-57. Texas also got 19 points from Nina Norman, who was 8 for 12 from the field.

Chance Wheeless homered leading off the bottom of the ninth inning to give Texas a 4-3 victory over Baylor last night and send the Longhorns into the championship round of the College World Series, which begins Saturday. Wheeless, who had made an error that helped Baylor take a 3-2 lead in the seventh, sent a long drive to right off reliever Ryan LaMotta. The Longhorns, unbeaten in three CWS games, tied the game at 3-all in the eighth when Nick Peoples ran over Baylor catcher Josh Ford in a violent collision at the plate to score on a sacrifice fly. J. Brent Cox was the winner in relief for Texas, which is in the CWS for the 32nd time, a record.

ARLINGTON, Texas - Less than 24 hours after a disheartening defeat in which Texas squandered a five-run lead, the Rangers made a statement that the American League Championship Series may be competitive after all. Jumping to a 5-0 advantage for the second straight game, Texas evened the best-of-seven ALCS with a 7-2 win Saturday over the Yankees at Rangers Ballpark here. The Rangers now head to New York for Game 3 on Monday with their pitching ace - former Phillies lefthander Cliff Lee - taking the mound.

Last year, it was the Villanova men's basketball team that performed magic here at Rupp Arena. Yesterday, the artistry belonged to the University of Texas women. Unlike the Wildcats, the new NCAA champions are no miracle bunch. You simply do not say that about a team that was ranked No. 1 ever since the first preseason story was written. But the Longhorns, who completed a perfect 34-0 season with a 97-81 victory over No. 3 Southern California (31-5), still must be called special.

I LOVED Signe Wilkinson's "Red Square 2008" cartoon about the bailout turning us all into Marxists. I double extra loved it - like I often do with your cartoons. Thank you for all the scribbling and coloring you do. Your life has meaning if it's measured in how many people say, "Oh, that's it, that's so good!" when they see your cartoons. My dad always looks at your cartoons every day or so on GoComics.com. This campaign year seems to be following the storyline of Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles.

Leave it to Ann Richards, the treasurer of the state of Texas, to cut to the core of the matter when asked what she thinks about being asked to speak to countless millions on prime-time television on the first day of the Democratic National Convention. "I think about the time I threw up at my first dance," she said. When, at a little bit before 9:30 tonight, Americans tune in for the keynote address - traditionally the image-setting act of a national convention - they will meet a drawling "good ol' gal" from Waco, Texas, with the wit of a stand-up comic and, depending on the side she wants to show, the bite of an adder or a heart as big as her native state.

Ennis seems for all the world like your typical small Texas town. It has a one-story shopping district full of old brick storefronts, a smattering of pit-cooked barbecue places and fast-food outlets, and homey grocery stores where the locals linger to chat while buying the fixings for that night's chicken-fried steak. But on the first weekend of every May, Ennis throws off its Texas camouflage to reveal its true soul. Country-and-western is out, and Main Street throbs with loud oom-pah-pahs from polka bands.

Texas has been hitting all season. Now the Rangers are getting some pitching, too. Rusty Greer, Kevin Elster and Ivan Rodriguez homered to back seven strong innings from Bobby Witt, and the Rangers beat the visiting Boston Red Sox, 8-2, last night for their fourth straight victory. Pitching on his 34th birthday, Witt overcame a two-run first and allowed only five hits. In his previous start against the New York Yankees, he gave up seven runs and four hits in 1 1/3 innings.

It's still early, but the widely held perception is that this season's national championship race will be decided among a four-team field of Florida, Nebraska, Florida State and Penn State. Lesser teams need not apply. But try telling that to No. 5 Colorado (3-0), which has a look of destiny about it after shocking Michigan, 27-26, in Ann Arbor on a final-play, 64-yard scoring pass from Kordell Stewart to Michael Westbrook, via Blake Anderson. The general idea was that Westbrook would tip the ball to Anderson or Ray Carruth, but, hey, destiny does not always go according to script.

No writer for the screen has seen deeper into the heart of Texas than Horton Foote. Any time he returns to his roots, there's almost a guarantee that the trip will be bountiful. Foote's eloquent and precise script for The Trip to Bountiful proved a worthy vehicle for Geraldine Page last year, and she rode it triumphantly to a long-overdue Oscar as best actress. One advantage of Page's victory over the prestige studio entries was that it made a wider audience aware of Foote's skills.

Former Philadelphia high school basketball star Jaylen Bond is transferring to Temple. The former Texas forward informed the Owls on Friday. He ultimately chose Temple over Penn State. Bond informed Longhorns coach Rick Barnes of his decision to leave Texas in March and was granted his release. According to NCAA rules, the 6-foot-7, 225-pounder will have to sit out next season before having two seasons of eligibility with the Owls. He will, however, be allowed to practice with Temple next season.

Senior Brooke Coloma is looking to add to Penn's historic season on the softball field. The four-time all-Ivy League outfielder and California native leads Penn with 35 RBIs this season and has 123 in her career. She is hitting .343. Behind Coloma, sophomore pitcher Alexis Borden (17-10, 2.38 ERA) and senior second baseman Samantha Erosa (.344), the Quakers qualified for the regional round of the NCAA Division I softball College World Series for the first time in school history. They are scheduled to play in College Station, Texas, against 16th-seeded Texas A&M on Friday at 8 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN2.

GRANBURY, Texas - Ten tornadoes touched down in several small communities in North Texas overnight, leaving at least six people dead, dozens injured and hundreds homeless. Emergency responders were still searching for missing people Thursday afternoon. The National Weather Service gave a preliminary estimate of Wednesday night's violent system, saying a tornado in Granbury had wind speeds between 166 m.p.h. and 200 m.p.h. Other tornadoes damaged nearby Cleburne and Millsap. Granbury, about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth, bore the brunt of the damage, as the exceptionally powerful tornado tore through two neighborhoods Wednesday evening.

WACO, Texas - Texas law enforcement officials on Friday launched a criminal investigation into the massive fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people last month, after weeks of largely treating the blast as an industrial accident. The announcement came the same day federal agents said they found bomb-making materials belonging to a paramedic who helped evacuate residents the night of the explosion. Bryce Reed was arrested early Friday on a charge of possessing a destructive device, but law enforcement officials said they had not linked the charge to the April 17 fire and blast at West Fertilizer Co. "It is important to emphasize that at this point, no evidence has been uncovered to indicate any connection to the events surrounding the fire and subsequent explosion ... and the arrest of Bryce Reed by the ATF," a McLennan County Sheriff's Office statement said.

Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. on Monday announced it is moving ahead with a pipeline project to export natural gas liquids like propane and butane from its ocean terminal in Nederland, Texas, after receiving commitments from shippers. The Mariner South project would carry the fuels in an existing Sunoco Logistics pipeline to Nederland from Mont Belvieu, Texas, where Lone Star NGL L.L.C. operates a storage and processing complex. Lone Star is a joint venture involving Energy Transfer Partners L.P., which is also the general partner of Sunoco Logistics.

WACO, Texas - President Obama consoled a rural Texas community rocked by a deadly fertilizer-plant explosion, telling mourners Thursday that they would have the nation's support to rebuild. "This small town's family is bigger now," Obama said during a memorial service at Baylor University for victims of last week's explosion in nearby West, Texas, that killed 14 and injured 200. Nearly 10,000 gathered to remember the first responders killed in the blast, a crowd more than triple the size of West's population of 2,700.

WEST, Texas - From money, food and clothing to new appliances and crews armed with chain saws, help is pouring into the tiny Texas town where a fertilizer plant exploded. As the donations come in, how long and how much it will take for West to come back aren't yet known. Residents have just started burying the 14 people who died in last week's blast and some don't yet know what happened to their homes. They're struggling to replace missing medications and documents. Others are just starting to work with insurance companies to figure out how much money they'll get for repairs.

WEST, Texas - After days of waiting, the first group of residents who fled their homes when a fertilizer plant exploded in a fireball were allowed to go home Saturday to find out what remained. The news came after a nervous day during which officials told residents packed in a hotel waiting for updates about their neighborhood that leaking gas tanks were causing small fires near the blast site, keeping authorities from lifting blockades. But officials emphasized that the fires were contained and said the town was safe.

WEST, Texas - Buck Uptmor didn't have to go to West Fertilizer Co. when the fire started. He wasn't a firefighter like his brother and cousin, who raced toward the plant. But a ranch of horses next to the flames needed to be moved to safety. "He went to help a friend," said Joyce Marek, Uptmor's aunt. "And then it blew. " Two days after the fertilizer facility exploded in a blinding fireball, authorities announced Friday that they had recovered 14 bodies, confirming for the first time an exact number of people killed.