REHAB

This comes from ESPN on line:

MALIBU, Calif. -- Floyd Landis' former manager was set to enter rehab Monday, a revelation made in the hours before the Tour de France champion was to take the witness stand for what promised to be a hostile cross-examination.

In a letter written by Brent Kay, Landis' new manager, and posted on the "Trust But Verify" blog, Kay acknowledged Will Geoghegan is "entering a rehabilitation program today in an effort to address his problems."

Geoghegan called Greg LeMond last Wednesday night and, posing as LeMond's uncle, threatened to reveal the secret that LeMond had been sexually abused as a child if LeMond showed up to testify.

Moments after LeMond told that story Thursday, Geoghegan was fired. When he testified Saturday, Landis said he had no idea Geoghegan was making those phone calls.

"I knew there was a problem," Landis said of his reaction upon realizing Geoghegan had made the call. "I was traumatized having him tell me that story in the first place. There are very few things I can imagine would happen to a person that are worse than that. To make light of that, I can't even put words to it."

Kay's letter reiterated Landis' feelings.

"The past few months have been remarkably stressful for Will and his decompensation resulted in the unfortunate and embarrassing incident last Wednesday," Kay wrote. "While Floyd and the entire team find Will's actions regrettable and abhorrent, he is still a friend and we wish him the best in his recovery."

The plot thickens.

Landis takes the stand

Though he's convinced his reputation is ruined, Floyd Landis still had to give it his best shot.

He took to the witness stand at his arbitration hearing Saturday for his much-awaited testimony and found 50 different ways to say he didn't cheat.

"It's a matter of who I am," last year's Tour de France champion testified. "It wouldn't serve any purpose for me to cheat and win the Tour, because I wouldn't be proud of it. That wasn't the goal to begin with."

Wearing that familiar yellow tie, a gray suit and blue shirt, Landis spoke clearly and kept on point during a 75-minute dissection of his career, which was thrown wildly off track when he tested positive after Stage 17 of the 2006 Tour.

Eddie's blog post

Coda on online free speech battle

Some have said that we are paying a bit too much attention to the spat between the city of Pomona and local blog Foothill Cities.
The Daily Bulletin looked into the accusations about the possible reasons the city manager resigned, but couldn't substantiate them. Does that mean Foothill Cities should not have aired the comments? I don't know.

http://www.insidesocal.com/editors/2007/05/coda_on_online_free_speech_bat.html

follow floyd's trial on line

From floydlandis.com

" As part of Floyd's unprecedented campaign to mount a public defense in his efforts to retain his 2006 Tour de France title and exercise his right to a public hearing, the proceedings will be streamed online via Courtroom View Network can be accessed from the following web address:

www.floydfairnessfund.org

or

www.floydlandis.com

Additionally, the entire case documentation will be posted to the public domain at the following web address:

www.usocpressbox.org

Go to "News" and then click on "Floyd Landis Hearing" link."

Floyd's hearing continues

MALIBU, Calif. -- Attorneys for Floyd Landis began trying to paint a picture Tuesday of incompetence at the French lab where the cyclist's urine was tested.

AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian

The second day of the nine-day hearing began with attorneys for Landis (pictured) attacking the tests' accuracy.

Using computer logs from the lab, Landis' attorneys tried to prove lab workers manipulated the calibration of the machine that performed tests on the cyclist's backup samples -- and claimed a U.S. Anti-Doping Agency scientist tried to prevent the Landis camp from seeing the logs.

"Because without these log files, we wouldn't know about the data that was deleted," Landis attorney Maurice Suh said.

Suh showed instances where calibration tests were performed and then rerun, and the first records of those tests were erased by the new results.

Landis is accused of using banned synthetic testosterone during his Tour de France victory last year. He appeared for the second straight day at his arbitration hearing in a yellow tie, one that matches the color of the jersey he won. A three-man panel will decide whether to uphold his positive doping test. If it does, Landis could face a two-year ban from cycling and become the first person in the 104-year history of the race to have his title stripped.

A trackback on Roger Hernandez, who won't talk to me right now.

Top ten signs your newspaper is in trouble:
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/index/php/20070430.phtml

More Paris Hilton
http://www.insidesocal.com/MT/mt-tb.cgi/11147
or here:

As you can see, I'm back working for the San Gabriel Valley Tribune after a long hiatus. I'm going to link to my stories on the right sidebar, and start linking to interesting sites I find as stories come in. I'll try to give a more personal take on some stories, but as always will remain unbiased in my approach.
Thanks for reading . . .