bourbon | Jayhawks’ Bourbon ready to perform

J. BRADY McCOLLOUGH The Wichita Eagle LAWRENCE — One of the biggest victories of Turner Gill's first year at Kansas came on January 31, 2010, when Potosi (Mo.) running back Brandon Bourbon switched his commitment from Stanford to KU just days before Signing Day. Bourbon, rated a four-star prospect and the No. 6 player in Missouri by Rivals.com, chose the Jayhawks over Missouri, Kansas State and Notre Dame, among others — a positive sign that Gill and his staff knew what they were doing on the recruiting trail. Given the type of programs that were pursuing Bourbon, a bigger back at 6-foot-1 and 208 pounds, it wasn't a very big jump to expect him to contribute right away at Kansas. But, ever since Bourbon arrived in Lawrence, his coaches and teammates have had to wait patiently to see what he can do. Bourbon, who had to adjust to the transition from a Class 3A high school to a Big 12 program, redshirted last season. Then he suffered a lower leg injury in the spring that stripped him of a valuable learning opportunity. Bourbon returned for fall camp but still was being hampered by minor injuries. So to see him putting on a show during Saturday's scrimmage at Memorial Stadium, rushing for two touchdowns, was an exciting moment for the Jayhawks. "That was his best day that I've ever seen," Gill said. "He ran hard. He ran with a purpose. He ran to hit somebody. He also made people miss, showed some good acceleration in the hole and some power. It was good to see that. We really didn't know. It was a question mark. We thought he had some skills, but he's always been banged up." For Bourbon, a quiet kid from a town of 2,700 people, his breakout performance in the scrimmage was more than a year in the making. "I just knew all along I could do it," Bourbon said. "It was just something that I finally got to show my teammates that I can come out and play at this level. It made me feel really good." Bourbon is competing for playing time with sophomore James Sims and true freshmen Darrian Miller and Anthony Pierson. Bourbon says the coaches told the group on Tuesday that the starting job was still up for grabs, and KU offensive coordinator Chuck Long says Bourbon is in the thick of what will probably be running back by committee to start the season. "We've been challenging Brandon the whole camp, and he's been off and on injured," Long said. "We really came away with a great feeling about him at the scrimmage. We'd like to get him some carries in a football game." Perhaps the most impressive thing about Bourbon is the way he's overcome injuries during the last four months. "I'm surprised just how quick he came back from his injury and how he's pushing through it," KU linebacker Steven Johnson said. "He works hard. Doesn't talk a lot, but he produces on the field." Bourbon is excited for the practices leading up to KU's opener against McNeese State on Sept. 3. "It's extremely important," Bourbon said. "I feel like I've kind of got some guys' attention. I need to come out and be consistent and make sure everyone knows I'm going to do the same things when the games start." Check J. Brady McCollough's KU blog at blogs.kansas.com/jayhawk. Reach him at .

Barry Bonds' conviction upheld by judge

Barry Bonds' obstruction of justice conviction has been upheld by a federal judge, who denied the home run king's motion for a new trial or acquittal on the charge.

More than four months after the verdict and one day after hearing oral arguments, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco issued a 20-page order Friday refusing to overturn the only unanimous decision reached by the jury.

Jurors failed to reach a verdict on three counts charging the seven-time NL MVP with making false statements to a grand jury in 2003 when he denied receiving steroids and human growth hormone from trainer Greg Anderson, and when he said he allowed only doctors to inject him. Bonds was convicted of giving an evasive, rambling reply when asked whether he received drugs that required a syringe.

"Viewed in the light most favorable to the government, the record supports a finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the question was material to the grand jury's investigation of BALCO and Greg Anderson for unlawfully distributing performance enhancing drugs, and that defendant endeavored to obstruct the grand jury by not answering it when it was first asked," Illston wrote. "The conviction can be upheld if (the) defendant endeavored to obstruct justice, even if he did not succeed."

Bonds is likely to appeal Illston's decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prosecutors have not yet said whether they plan to retry him on the three deadlocked counts. Josh Eaton, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag in San Francisco, declined comment on the decision.

"I haven't spoken to Barry yet and therefore won't have any reaction statement tonight," Bonds' lead lawyer, Allen Ruby, said in an email to The Associated Press.

Illston's ruling marked a victory for federal prosecutors, who have been involved in two cases this year against former baseball stars accused of lying about the use of performance-enhancing drugs. In a Washington, D.C., court room in July, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton ordered a mistrial in the case against Roger Clemens, saying prosecutors introduced evidence he had banned as prejudicial.

The decision was far from the San Francisco Giants' minds, with players more concerned about the pennant race than the team's former star.

"I don't know anything about anything," pitcher Matt Cain said. "I haven't paid attention, and I don't know what half the words mean."

Bonds was among the biggest stars convicted as a result of an investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroids ring, a probe headed by federal agent Jeff Novitzky. Novitzky also is at the forefront of a different grand jury investigation into whether seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong used drugs to get an illicit boost in his victories.

Following a 12-day trial and on the fourth day of deliberations, the Bonds jury unanimously voted that the slugger gave the grand jury an evasive answer under oath. Rather than say "yes" or "no" to the question about receiving drugs that required a syringe, Bonds responded, in part, "I became a celebrity child with a famous father."

Bonds' lawyers argued that the answer wasn't relevant to the grand jury, and that in any case he answered a question that was essentially the same later during that session.

Illston did not agree.

"(The) defendant repeatedly provided nonresponsive answers to questions about whether Anderson had ever provided him with injectables, resulting in the prosecuting attorneys asking clarifying question after clarifying question, and even once resulting in one prosecutor interrupting another who was about to move on to a new topic in order to clarify defendant's mixed responses," she wrote in her decision, issued late Friday night. "An evasive answer about an issue material to the grand jury is not necessarily rendered immaterial by the later provision of a direct answer, even if that direct answer is true."

Illston said Bonds' answer to questions later in his testimony did not make up for his initial evasion, especially because there he was asked about being injected by Anderson.

Illston did not address Bonds' lawyers argument that his conviction was barred by a 1973 U.S. Supreme Court case, U.S. v. Bronston, that declared in a perjury case "a jury should not be permitted to engage in conjecture whether an unresponsive answer, true and complete on its face, was intended to mislead or divert."

Bonds has not been sentenced, with Illston preferring to first rule on the motions to throw out the verdict.

His conviction carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison, yet federal guidelines call for 15-21 months. For similar offenses in the BALCO steroids ring case, Illston sentenced cyclist Tammy Thomas to six months of home confinement and track coach Trevor Graham to one year of home confinement.

Jurors said their final votes were 8-4 to acquit Bonds of lying about steroids and 9-3 to acquit him on lying about HGH use. The panel voted 11-1 to convict him of lying when he denied receiving an injection from someone other than his doctor.

Now 47, Bonds holds baseball's season (73) and career (762) records for home runs. He testified before a grand jury that Anderson told him the substances he was giving Bonds were flaxseed oil and arthritic balm, and that Bonds didn't know they were designer steroids.

"Did Greg ever give you anything that required a syringe to inject yourself with?" Bonds was asked.

"That's what keeps our friendship," Bonds said in the part of his answer the government charged was a crime. "You know, I am sorry, but that — you know, that — I was a celebrity child, not just in baseball by my own instincts. I became a celebrity child with a famous father. I just don't get into other people's business because of my father's situation, you see."

The jury instructions said that for Bonds to be convicted, jurors had to find Bonds' answer "obstructed, influenced or impeded, or endeavored to obstruct, influence, or impede" the grand jury "by knowingly giving material testimony that was intentionally evasive, false or misleading."

New award proving popular at VMAs

NEW YORK (AP) — When Chicago-based rock act Rise Against began writing a song about suicide among gay teens, the band's lead singer tried to block out the event that inspired the tune — the death of a gay friend.

"His loss was something big to me," said Tim McIlrath.

But the band members wanted to get out the message, so they made a gripping video for "Make It Stop (September's Children)" featuring three teens bullied and at the brink of suicide.

Now the video is competing in a new category at the MTV Video Music Awards: the best video with a message award. It highlights music videos sending messages of positivity and self-empowerment and raising awareness about social issues that affect today's youth.

"I hope that category sticks around and I hope it gives artists something to aim for," said McIlrath, who teamed with the It Gets Better Project for the music video.

MTV President Stephen Friedman says the new category is proving popular among voters this year.

"I have to tell you in the voting, this category catapulted. It was among the top three or four categories — millions and millions of people voted on this," Friedman said. "It shows not only an interest from the artist, but also more importantly for the audience."

Other nominees in the category include Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," Taylor Swift's "Mean," Katy Perry's "Firework," Pink's "(Expletive) Perfect," and Eminem and Rihanna's "Love the Way You Lie."

Friedman says he hopes "this will be an ongoing category from here on out."

McIlrath said he thought about writing "Make It Stop" when a gay fan told him she wasn't sure where the band stood on gay rights.

McIlrath says the song — and the MTV nomination — is helping raise their profile.

"We're not a band who really aims for the VMAs, I'll be honest. Like, we're not really a band that traffics on the Billboard chart and MTV and VMAs and that kind of thing, we never really relied on that," he said. "When the video came out, CNN called me and Fox had me on, NBC had me on, like these little news blips, and I've never even done that type of stuff before."

Dave Meyers, the music video director of the Pink and Perry videos nominated in the new category, said making a video with a message can be difficult.

"What's challenging for me is I don't want to seem like I'm talking down to the audience — that I'm not preaching the message, that I'm asking them to come on a ride that is not one-dimensional," he said. "Sometimes I think message-y videos can be too message-y."

Meyers, who has directed videos for Missy Elliott, Dave Matthews Band and Britney Spears, says taking home the moon man for the message award would be more gratifying than some of his other wins.

"After 15 years of nominations and countless wins, this actually has a lot of meaning to me," Meyers said. "This is MTV saying, 'We as an organization think these videos deserve special acknowledgment' versus a popularity contest, which is what a lot of the other categories tend to be."

The Perry, Eminem and Lady Gaga videos nominated for best video with a message are also up for other awards. Perry leads the pack with 10 nominations at Sunday's show, which will be held in Los Angeles.

Mel Gibson and ex-girlfriend reach settlement

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mel Gibson and his Russian ex-girlfriend have reached a financial and custody settlement of a bitter dispute that spawned a criminal case and left the Academy Award winner's reputation damaged.

Los Angeles Superior Court officials said in a statement late Friday that Gibson and musician Oksana Grigorieva had reached an agreement after days of negotiation. Terms and conditions of the settlement were not announced, but a hearing Wednesday will be held to discuss the financial terms.

The equally contentious issue of custody of the couple's infant daughter will be handled in closed session, the court announced.

Gibson's spokesman Alan Nierob confirmed the settlement and said the actor-director appreciated the judge's help in mediating the case.

Grigorieva spokesman Stephen Jaffe declined comment.

The former couple have sparred for more than a year over custody and financial issues in a mostly-secret court proceeding in Los Angeles. In June 2010, Gibson's attorney Stephen Kolodny said that his client had provided his ex-girlfriend with a four-bedroom, multimillion dollar home, vehicle and tens of thousands of dollars a month.

It is unclear exactly how much Grigorieva has been receiving since then.

The "Braveheart" star was charged with misdemeanor domestic battery as a result of a January 2010 fight with Grigorieva and pleaded no contest earlier this year. The actor-director entered his plea in a way in which he admitted no guilt, and Grigorieva cannot use the outcome in a civil case.

He was ordered to undergo counseling and recently completed his community service by volunteering with a children's charity in Guatemala.

The case became an international story after recordings of racist and sexist rants by Gibson were leaked to the celebrity website RadarOnline.com. Sheriff's officials took possession of the recordings as part of their criminal investigation, but Grigorieva's attorney announced in May that he would no longer seek to use them against the former Hollywood superstar in the custody case.

The coming days could prove crucial for Gibson to resolve some of the messiness of his personal life in recent years.

Gibson, 55, recently reached a divorce settlement with his estranged wife, Robyn, and his attorney announced in June that the case should be finalized by Tuesday.

Robyn Gibson filed to end her nearly 28-year marriage in April 2009, just months before Grigorieva gave birth. The divorce has been a mostly private affair, in sharp contrast to Gibson's fight with Grigorieva.

Gibson announced Grigorieva's pregnancy to Jay Leno on "The Tonight Show," but their relationship sputtered after the girl's birth.

In recent months, both have appeared multiple times in court for hearings and meetings with a judge handling their case. Gibson has not publicly spoken about the case.

The leaked conversations recorded by Grigorieva were the latest scandal for Gibson, who was arrested in 2006 for drunken driving; a deputy's report revealed he made a series of anti-Semitic and sexist slurs while in custody.

Despite positive reviews for his performance as a deeply depressed man who can only communicate through a puppet, Gibson's return to the big screen in "The Beaver" earlier this year failed to catch on with audiences.

Judge allows Loughner's forcible medication

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge ruled Friday that prison doctors may continue to forcibly medicate the man accused in the deadly Arizona shooting rampage, saying he refused to second-guess medical experts who concluded that the suspect's condition deteriorated.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said Jared Lee Loughner kept himself awake for 50 hours straight after an appeals court stopped the forced medication on July 1. Loughner walked in circles until he developed sores and then declined antibiotics to treat an infected foot. Already thin, he stopped eating and shed nine pounds.

The prison's decision to resume medication on July 18 "seems entirely appropriate and reasonable to me," Burns said.

Loughner's attorneys argued unsuccessfully that a court should review whether the forcible medications could resume.

The ruling came in a three-hour pretrial hearing that offered insights into Loughner's fragile condition at federal prison in Springfield, Mo., where he is on suicide watch.

Christina Pietz, a psychologist who is treating him at the prison, testified by phone that Loughner is "less psychotic" than in the past and that she is now more concerned about depression.

She worried that videotaping her sessions with him — as Loughner's lawyers requested — would only exacerbate his ills. She said he turned "almost defeated" and withdrawn when she broached the idea on Wednesday.

"He feels as though he has no control about what's going on around him, and this is just one more element," she said.

Pietz said Loughner sobs uncontrollably at times and steps aside during their meetings to cover his face.

Burns reaffirmed his earlier ruling to prohibit the videotaping, even after Loughner's attorneys agreed to limit their request. He said it would add to Loughner's stress and impair the psychological evaluation.

Loughner has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges in the Jan. 8 shooting that killed six people and wounded 13 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, at a meet-and-greet event held by the congresswoman outside a Tucson grocery store.

Loughner has been at the Missouri prison since late May after mental health experts determined he suffers from schizophrenia. Burns ruled him mentally unfit to stand trial.

He was forcibly medicated between June 21 and July 1 after prison doctors found he was a danger to others. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals halted the medications while it considered an appeal of Burns' decision to allow the drugs. The appeals court has scheduled a hearing in San Francisco on Tuesday.

The prison decided to resume the forced medications July 18 after doctors found Loughner's condition has significantly worsened and that he was a danger to himself. Defense attorneys argued that the prison was violating the 9th Circuit's order but the appeals court refused to step in.

Friday's hearing was held in San Diego, where Burns is based. He was appointed to the case after all federal judges in Arizona recused themselves. John Roll, the chief federal judge for Arizona, died in the January rampage.

Burns disagreed with prosecutors that Loughner's attorneys broke court rules by issuing a subpoena on a Tucson apartment complex in a bid to get a lease agreement for someone who lived there.

Nation's biggest subway system to stop for Irene

NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's largest subway system and arriving flights at the five main New York City-area airports were preparing to shut down Saturday as Hurricane Irene spun its way up the Eastern Seaboard, forcing more than 300,000 evacuations and dimming lights at Citi Field and on Broadway.

By deciding to shut down the transit system by noon, millions of carless New Yorkers from the Bronx's most distant reaches down through Manhattan and out to the beaches of Brooklyn and Queens will be faced with the question of where to go and how to get there.

They include New Yorkers like 82-year-old Abe Feinstein, who has lived since the early 1960s on the eighth floor of a building that overlooks the famed boardwalk of Coney Island, which is in the evacuation zone and was alive with giddy visitors Friday.

"How can I get out of Coney Island? What am I going to do? Run with this walker?" he said.

But Feinstein also wasn't too worried.

He recalled watching a hurricane in 1985 from an apartment down the street from where he lives now.

"I think I have nothing to worry about," Feinstein said. "I've been through bad weather before. It's just not going to be a problem for us."

Bridges and tunnels also could be closed as the storm approaches, clogging traffic in an already congested city.

The five main New York City-area airports were scheduled to close at noon Saturday for arriving domestic and international flights. Three of them, John F. Kennedy International Airport, LaGuardia International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport, are among the nation's busiest airports.

Officials hoped most residents would stay with family and friends, and for the rest the city opened nearly 100 shelters with a capacity of 71,000 people.

Irene was expected to make landfall in North Carolina on Saturday, then roll up the Interstate 95 corridor reaching New York on Sunday. A hurricane warning was issued for the city Friday afternoon, the first time that's happened since Gloria in 1985.

If the storm stays on its current path, skyscraper windows could shatter, tree limbs would fall and debris would be tossed around. Streets in the southern tip of the city could be under a few feet of water, and police readied rescue boats but said they wouldn't go out if conditions were poor.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was confident people would get out of the storm's way.

"We do not have the manpower to go door-to-door and drag people out of their homes," he said. "Nobody's going to get fined. Nobody's going to go to jail. But if you don't follow this, people might die."

Nevertheless, he said for those who don't heed the warnings, police officers would use loudspeakers on patrol vehicles to spread the word about the evacuation Saturday.

Several New York landmarks were under the evacuation order, including the Battery Park City area, where tourists catch ferries to the Statue of Liberty. Construction was stopping throughout the city, and workers at the World Trade Center site were dismantling a crane and securing equipment. Bloomberg said there would be no effect on the Sept. 11 memorial opening the day after the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

But sporting events, concerts and even Broadway were going dark.

New flood gates were put in place outside Citi Field as a precaution, but Major League Baseball took no chances. The Braves-Mets games on Saturday and Sunday were postponed, to be made up as a doubleheader on Sept. 8.

All Broadway musicals and plays were canceled for Saturday and Sunday, as well as "Zarkana" by Cirque du Soleil at Radio City Music Hall and Lincoln Center Theater's "War Horse." It's the first time Broadway has shut down for an emergency since the blackout in 2003.

In lower Manhattan, Milton Melendez and partner Shea Collins were headed uptown to a neighborhood north of Little Italy. Melendez, who survived Hurricane David as a child in the Dominican Republic, was worried about their apartment windows being blown out. Collins was a little more blasé.

"This is the same thing as a snowstorm," she said. "They say there's going to be 10 feet and there's four inches."

Bloomberg weathered criticism after a Dec. 26 storm dumped nearly two feet of snow that seemed to catch officials by surprise. Subway trains, buses and ambulances got stuck in the snow, some for hours, and streets were impassable for days. Bloomberg ultimately called it an "inadequate and unacceptable" response.

This time officials weren't taking any chances. Transit officials said they can't run once sustained winds reach 39 mph, and they need eight hours to move trains and equipment to safety.

The subway system won't reopen until at least Monday, after pumps remove water from flooded stations. Even on a dry day, about 200 pump rooms remove 13 million to 15 million gallons of water that seep into the tunnels deep underground.

About 1.6 million people live in Manhattan, and about 6.8 million live in the city's other four boroughs.

For those with cars, parking was available at the city's evacuation centers. From there, each family will be assigned to a shelter and taken there by bus.

In the Queens community of the Rockaways, more than 111,000 people live on a barrier peninsula connected to the city by two bridges and to Long Island to the west.

The city's public transit system carries about 5 million passengers on an average weekday, and the entire system has never before been halted because of a natural disaster. It was seriously hobbled by an August 2007 rainstorm that disabled or delayed every one of the city's subway lines. And it was shut down after the 9/11 attacks and during a 2005 strike.

In the last 200 years, New York has seen only a few significant hurricanes. In September 1821, a hurricane raised tides by 13 feet in an hour and flooded the southernmost tip of Manhattan in an area that now includes Wall Street and the World Trade Center memorial. In 1938, a storm dubbed the Long Island Express came ashore about 75 miles east of the city on neighboring Long Island and then hit New England, killing 700 people and leaving 63,000 homeless.

And in 1944, Midtown was flooded, where Times Square, Broadway theaters and the Empire State Building are located.

Hazare fast enters 12th day; doctors worried

As Anna Hazare’s fast spilled over to the 12th day, doctors today raised concerns over his health saying they are more worried as the Gandhian’s blood pressure has dipped while heart beat has increased.

More doctors have been stationed at Ramlila Maidan to keep a watch on the health of the 74-year-old Gandhian, whose hunger strike for a strong Lokpal has crossed 260 hours.

Dr. Naresh Trehan, whose team is monitoring Mr. Hazare’s health during the fast, said “We have more concerns than last night. His blood pressure has decreased while heart beats have increased.

“The blood pressure was going steady but it has come down. We have taken blood samples. Due to his weight loss, there is energy loss also,” he said.

He said since blood pressure has decreased, they have doubled the number of doctors at the Maidan to attend to him.

Team Anna sources said doctors were really worried and they fear that his internal organs have started getting affected due to the fast.

Mr. Hazare has lost more than seven kilos since August 16 when he sat on a hunger strike for a strong Lokpal Bill.

Last night, Mr. Trehan said, “There are concerns though his blood pressure and heart beat are okay. He has been asked to take more rest and not to strain himself.”