U.S. wins fifth Algarve Cup in six years
VILA REAL DE SANTO ANTONIO, Portugal, March 12 (UPI) -- Natasha Kai and Abby Wambach scored goals Wednesday giving the U.S. women's soccer team a 2-1 win over Denmark in the championship game of the Algarve Cup.
Wambach's goal in the game's 50th minute broke a 1-1 tie and enabled the United States to secure its second straight Algarve title and fifth cup championship in six years.
Kai opened the game's scoring, but Denmark, which lost to the United States in the 2007 Algarve Cup final, answered with a goal from Catherine Sorsenson in the 30th minute. That was the only goal U.S. goaltender Hope solo allowed in the tournament.
Norway defeated Germany 2-0 to win the third-place game.
Lance Mackey takes 2nd straight Iditarod
NOME, Alaska, March 12 (UPI) -- Lance Mackey overcame the odds to steal rival Jeff King's fifth victory and win his second consecutive Iditarod dog sled race Wednesday in Alaska.
Mackey took his dogs 1,100 miles in the bone-numbing 40-degree-below-zero temperatures across the Yukon, taking the race for the second time running.
King and his 16-dog sled team swapped leads with Mackey, who lost one of his dogs early on, with another hobbling along on an infected foot. Mackey at one point was 90 minutes behind King. But he cut that to 57 minutes and then to 44 at various checkpoints.
Mackey took some risky moves, pushing his dogs to the brink and skipping much-needed rest himself but he blew past King to trot to the finish line on Nome's Front Street to take the Iditarod at 2:46 a.m. Wednesday. His official time was nine days, 11 hours, 46 minutes and 48 seconds. King was second, reaching the finish at 4:05 a.m.
For over a week of mushing in sub-zero temperatures, Mackey takes home $69,000 and a new truck.
Mackey is the first back-to-back winner since Doug Swingley captured three straight from 1999-2001. The Mackey family has won four Iditarod races. Lance Mackey's father, Dick, won it in 1978 and his older brother, Rick, captured the 1983 race.
Ball players allegedly got illegal scripts
SACRAMENTO, March 12 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors in California are investigating whether a doctor illegally wrote prescriptions for patients, including major league baseball players.
Dr. Ramon Scruggs was linked to prescribing steroids in 2003 and 2004 to two major league players -- Troy Glaus and Scott Schoeneweis, The New York Times reported.
The information about Scruggs arose from an investigation into an Internet ring of pharmacies and anti-aging clinics conducted by the Albany County, N.Y., district attorney's office and by the authorities in Florida and Alabama. The federal prosecutors in California weren't involved in the Internet case, but now looking more closely at Scruggs, lawyers told the Times.
One lawyer said the investigation uncovered names of other major league players who received prescriptions from Scruggs.
"It's not as big as Radomski, but certainly is something significant," one lawyer said of the investigation, referring to the probe of the former New York Mets clubhouse attendant Kirk Radomski.
As part of a plea agreement, Radomski named dozens of current and former players for the report on performance-enhancing drug use in baseball released in December by former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell, D-Maine.
NHL's Penguins to play top Finnish team
PITTSBURGH, March 12 (UPI) -- The Pittsburgh Penguins have scheduled an exhibition with a Finnish professional hockey team while the U.S. team is in Europe in October.
The Penguins were scheduled by the NHL to open the 2008-09 season in Stockholm, Sweden, for games Oct. 4-5 with the Ottawa Senators. On Wednesday, the team announced that on Oct. 2 in Helsinki it would play Jokerit of the top hockey league in Finland.
Besides the NHL regular-season games between the Senators and Penguins, Oct. 4-5 will see NHL games in the Czech Republic between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Former NBA star running for mayor
SACRAMENTO, March 12 (UPI) -- Former NBA star Kevin Johnson is running for mayor in Sacramento, his home town.
Since he retired from the Phoenix Suns in 1998, the 42-year-old Johnson, a graduate of Cal-Berkeley, has had a hand in several ventures, including public service and business.
He founded Saint Hope, a non-profit organization that runs Sacramento Charter High School, and owns several properties in the city's Oak Park section.
"As I went out the last month and talked to people around the city, folks have said to me they believe city government is non-responsive, tired, uninspired and bureaucratic," he said when he announced his candidacy in the Democratic primary on June 3. They want something different in Sacramento. Sacramento seems like a city that is against everything and for nothing."
Johnson is one of five announced challengers to four-time incumbent Mayor Heather Fargo, who again is running for re-election.
A California State University study concluded the race will be "wide open."
