ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) Vikings fans decked out in purple and gold roamed Minnesota ‘s Capitol on Saturday hoping to see the state House vote on a $1 billion stadium bill , but it was delayed even as the planned end of the legislative session drew closer and despite an urgent plea from stadium supporter Gov

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Vikings fans hit Capitol, but no stadium vote (Yahoo! Sports)

Auto Racing Glance: NASCAR Sprint Cup-STP 400 results (Start position in parentheses) 1. (4) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 267 laps, 128.6 rating, 47 points, $248,691. 2.

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Auto Racing Capsules: Hamlin holds off Truex to win at Kansas Speedway

SALUDA — Facelift begins for Kansas track No sooner had Denny Hamlin pulled off the track and into victory lane at Kansas Speedway on Sunday did a tank and an earth mover from the National Guard rumble back onto the asphalt. It was the ceremonial start to a repaving and reconfiguring of the 11/2-mile oval, where large chunks of pavement had come loose over the weekend. Brad Keselowski waved a green flag from the M1A1 Abrams tank to start the project, which will be completed in time for tire testing in September and the Chase race in October

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Auto racing notes: Kansas track's facelift begins

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Indianapolis’ traditional 33-car starting grid seems safe, for now. There could even be some bumping on qualifying weekend. On Thursday, last year’s 500 runner-up, JR Hildebrand, drove up in a Hummer to personally deliver the 34-car entry list — one more than necessary — to speedway CEO Jeff Belskus just inside the track’s main gate.

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Auto Racing Capsules: Indianapolis 500 will start with 34 cars entered

Auto Racing Glance: The Associated Press All Times EDT NASCAR SPRINT CUP STP 400 Site: Kansas City, Kan. Schedule: Friday, practice (Speed, 1:30-3 p.m., 4:30-6 p.m.); Saturday, qualifying (Speed, noon-1:30 p.m.); Sunday, race, 1 p.m. (FOX, 12:30-4 p.m.).

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Auto Racing Capsules: Biffle re-energized, on top early in NASCAR season

Commentary Updated: April 5, 2012, 3:18 PM ET By Ed Hinton | ESPN.com So why don’t drivers “cross over” anymore, the way Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt did?

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Hinton: Crossover era was golden

By KEN THOMAS | Associated Press  –  WASHINGTON (AP) — Basketball fan-in-chief President Barack Obama is giving British Prime Minister David Cameron a front-row seat to March Madness, taking his European partner to an NCAA tournament basketball game in Ohio , an election swing state. Obama and Cameron are attending a “First Four” matchup in Dayton, Ohio, between Mississippi Valley State and Western Kentucky on Tuesday night, a gesture of goodwill during Cameron’s official visit to the United States and a way for an incumbent president to reach sports fans in an election year. The White House said the trip to the NCAA tournament game was intended to showcase the special relationship between the two key allies during Cameron’s three-day visit

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Obama, Cameron to attend NCAA tournament game

By Michael Simzak | National Constitution Center  –  Baseball Ah, Pitchers and Catchers Report: those four simple but beautiful words that alert us to the oncoming baseball season and bring with them thoughts of warm, lazy days spent at the ballpark. This year is also the 225th anniversary of the Constitution. In celebration of this most wonderful time of the year and most wonderful anniversary, the Constitution Daily sports desk assembled a crack team of historians, analysts, scholars, writers, statisticians and pundits to answer a question that has vexed constitutional historians and baseball fans for generations: If the framers of the Constitution were a baseball team, who would they be and what position would they play

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Pitchers, catchers…and signers report: a Founding Fathers baseball dream team

By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN Published: January 24, 2012 Bill Mardo, a sportswriter for the Communist Party newspaper The Daily Worker who fought major league baseball’s color barrier in the 1940s when the mainstream American news media was largely silent on the subject, died Friday in Manhattan. He was 88

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Bill Mardo, Writer Who Pushed Baseball to Integrate, Dies at 88

SHANGHAI (AP)—Retired NBA star Yao Ming has added another line to his post-basketball resume—politician—becoming a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature. Since the 31-year-old Yao announced last July that injuries had ended his career with the Houston Rockets, he has become a university student and set up a wine business to go with owning a professional basketball team in China

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Ex-Rockets C Yao enters Chinese politics (AP)