Warriors

David Lee had 30 points and 15 rebounds, Stephen Curry scored 28 points, and the Golden State Warriors gave coach Mark Jackson a winning return to Brooklyn by beating the Nets, 109-102, on Friday night. Lee scored six straight points to break open a tie game midway through the fourth quarter, and Curry had 21 in the second half for the Warriors, who won for the fifth time in six games. Golden State improved to 2-0 on its season-high, seven-game road trip against Eastern Conference opponents, a game played not far from where Jackson became a New York City star.

Bristol's halftime lead proved futile on Friday night as the Warriors fell to Dunmore, 34-12, in the State Class A quarterfinals at Valley View. Willie Sutton's 1-yard touchdown run put Bristol ahead, 12-7, in the second quarter. It would be the last points the offense could produce as District 2 champion Dunmore rattled off 27 unanswered points. Tight end Tyler Kelly scored Bristol's first touchdown on a 38-yard pass from Trevor Leone to take a 7-6 lead late in the first quarter.

Bristol's halftime lead proved futile on Friday night as the Warriors fell to Dunmore, 34-12, in the State Class A quarterfinals at Valley View. Willie Sutton's 1-yard touchdown run put Bristol ahead, 12-7, in the second quarter. It would be the last points the offense could produce as District 2 champion Dunmore rattled off 27 unanswered points. Tight end Tyler Kelly scored Bristol's first touchdown on a 38-yard pass from Trevor Leone to take a 7-6 lead late in the first quarter.

Four times this season the Bristol football team has held its opponent to single digits. The fewest number of points the Warriors have allowed in a game this season is six, while they gave up seven points in three other wins this year. But holding the other team scoreless had been elusive all season long, even though it was something head coach Leo Plenski and the rest of the Bristol coaching squad preached. The Warriors sure picked the right time to pitch a shutout. In the first round of the Class A state tournament at Souderton, Bristol upset Williams Valley, 20-0, earning the right to play in the quarterfinals next week.

By Kevin Powers Little Brown. 230 pp. $24.99 Reviewed by Héctor Tobar Pvt. John Bartle, the narrator of Kevin Powers' sorrowful war novel The Yellow Birds , is a man of reason caught between the uncontrolled emotions of two men. The first is his sergeant, a severe gunslinger and molder of warriors named Sterling. Sgt. Sterling's discipline and his rage against the enemy are keeping his squad of men alive as they patrol an eerie, death-filled Iraqi landscape. Bartle loves and hates him for this.

When New Egypt boys' soccer coach Sam Palumbo gathered his players in the locker room after Monday's 2-0 loss to South River in the Central Jersey Group 1 Final, he told them to hold their heads high because it had been an amazing season. He wasn't kidding. The top-seeded Warriors won a school-record 19 games and advanced to the sectional final for the first time in school history, winning a league title and going unbeaten in the county on the way. Still, Palumbo knew it would take a nearly perfect effort to beat No. 3 South River.

When he speaks about the men and women who participated in the War of Independence, Scott Stephenson refers to them as the "First Greatest Generation. " What they accomplished in opposing the tyranny of Britain, securing freedom for the colonies, and establishing a new nation based on noble ideals is at least as impressive as the feats of those warriors who protected the United States from the imperial ambitions of Germany and Japan during World War II. Unfortunately, the heroes of the American Revolution are so remote historically, and their achievements have become so mythologized, that figures like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson have become "marbleized" - elevated to near-saintly status, scrubbed of humanity and such mortal characteristics as fear, doubt, frustration, and fatigue.

Whether you thought of him as "Darlin' Arlen" or "Snarlin' Arlen" or not at all, Arlen Specter was the most interesting, complex and complete politician of our time. From an unlikely start in rural Kansas, to Philly DA, to a run for president, from the Warren Commission to a Senate post of power that put people on and kept people off the U.S. Supreme Court, Specter served the city, state and nation in, well, unconventional, ways. There was no one like him. There never will be anyone like him. Though originally and finally a Democrat, he spent his long career as an elected Republican, though his party label never predicted his policies or his views.

IF YOU'RE wondering whether GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney is aware of the Philadelphia kerfuffle surrounding a teenage girl and a pink Romney/Ryan T-shirt, he is. Romney on Wednesday night phoned the home of Samantha Pawlucy, the 16-year-old who wore the shirt and was reportedly ridiculed by geometry teacher Lynette Gaymon. Kate Meriwether, a spokeswoman for the Romney campaign, confirmed the call. Problem was, Samantha was not at home to take the call, according to a source close to the family.

GOLDA Lillian Nichols could be found every morning at 5:30 on her knees, offering up prayers for family, friends and anyone else she thought needed a blessing. It was faith that guided Golda's life and made her a person who was always looking for a way to help those who needed her special brand of compassion and love. "She was a perfect example of caring for others," her family said. "She was an adviser, giver and a great friend. She would lend a helping hand to anyone who was in need.