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Jesus Cibrian wants you to love your next meal at the Phoenix Convention Center.

That's why Cibrian, the convention center's new executive chef, has been fine-tuning the catering menu: The staff has added more gourmet flourishes to each dish and improved food presentation, he says.

"We have raised the bar with regard to the menu ," Cibrian told city council members Michael Johnson, Peggy Neely,  Michael Nowakowski and Theda Williams at a subcommittee meeting last week. 

Cibrian came to the convention center around December 2007, said Lexie Van Haren, spokeswoman for facility.

The chef's career spans more than 25 years and includes stints at the Las Vegas convention center, the Olympic Village in Athens, Greece and an exclusive San Francisco-area restaurant.

Improving the convention center's food is a high priority for city leaders. Food service giant Aramark has had the concessions contract since 1972, but came close to losing it recently. During the concessions talks, several council members pressed the company to upgrade its menu.

That's where Cibrian comes in.   

Instead of  ho-hum salads, Cibrian's "signature menu" offers salads like "Sonoran citrus."

"Red oak lettuce, romaine, segments of Arizona-grown oranges, sun-dried cranberries, Cotija citrus honey herb vinaigrette," the description reads.

Tired of the familiar chicken entrée served at banquets? How about galantine? It's  "champagne-poached free-range chicken galantine, finished with sun dried-tomato sauce, wilted spinach, herb-crusted broiled zucchini, roasted fingerling potatoes with aged stilton," a menu says.  

 "I am really hoping that we have pushed this to the next level," Neely said told the chef.

"When I sit down with people (and eat at the convention center) I want them to go out and tell 20 people that they had a great meal," she added.

Downtown Phoenix is going through a transformation, supporters say, so it's time to change its eight- year-old handle, Copper Square.

Copper Square is a 90-block district of shops, offices, hotels and restaurants. Its borders are roughly Fillmore Street, Harrison Street, Third Avenue and Seventh Street.

This week, the business group that promotes that area, the Downtown Phoenix Partnership, voted to move forward with a new marketing campaign that's being shaped by Scottsdale's SHR Perceptual Management.

The effort is still in the early stages, but it will focus on themes that highlight downtown Phoenix as "Arizona's cosmopolitan heart,"  said Cheryl Leas of SHR. 

The partnership decided to re-examine the Copper Square campaign because the group wants a brand that reflects all of the new projects and businesses that are sprouting downtown. That list includes Arizona State University's expanding downtown Phoenix campus, the 1,000-room Sheraton hotel, the 20-mile light rail line and $900 million CityScape project under construction.

The Copper Square name won't disappear right away, but its days appear to be numbered.

When the new marketing campaign is rolled out -- some members would like to see it in place before the Feb. 2009 NBA All-Star game -- all of the organization's marketing efforts will shift toward promoting it, said R. Neil Irwin, a Bryan Cave LLP partner who serves as the partnership's board chairman.

The news isn't a huge surprise. While the partnership supported the moniker for several years, many, including Mayor Phil Gordon, have called on the group to get rid of it. 

Limelight Networks Inc. content delivery business is safe for now.

The Tempe-based company had a hearing today in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts regarding the patent infringement lawsuits its competitor, Akamai Technologies Inc., filed against it.

Judge Rya Zobel heard arguments regarding several post-trial motions the two online content-delivery network providers filed, including a motion for a permanent injunction against Limelight that Akamai filed and Limelight's motion for a new trial.

Both Limelight and Akamai sell content delivery services that allow businesses to relay music, videos and other multimedia to people on the Internet.

Akamai filed its motion for an injunction after a jury ordered Limelight to pay $45.5 million in damages for infringing patents that Akamai licenses from MIT.

Zobel did not make any decisions today regarding the motions, but did say that Akamai's "motion for injunction is kind of premature," according to this Reuters story.

The injunction could be a big blow for Limelight. The company estimates that the portion of its business that pertains to the patents in question account for half of its revenue. Limelight says it has plans in place for how it shift focus in the event that a judge did grant the motion.

Analysts are skeptical though that Limelight could stay afloat if that were to happen.

I'm starting to hear a few anecdotes to suggest Ponzi schemes  are becoming more active now in Arizona. If so, that means a lot of people will get burned.

Ponzi frauds are get-rich investment schemes - and I use the investment term loosely - whereby organizers promise participants high returns over short periods. Basically, money collected by new investors is used to pay off early investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission describes them as robbing Peter to pay Paul.

The problem is that more and more participants are needed to pay off a growing list of early investors. You could think of them as a pyramid on which you'd need to build a bigger and bigger foundation as you move down from the base, paying more and more participants along the way.

Invariably, Ponzi schemes collapse, leaving a few people enriched but most poorer - and a lot of embarrassed individuals. Basically, Ponzi frauds are money-transfer deals without any underlying economic assets or rationale behind them.

How can you tell if you're being lured into a Ponzi scheme? Here are some telltale signs:

' The marketing pitch likely will be by word of mouth, possibly related by your friends, neighbors or members of your religious group. The person who approaches you might be a potential victim too - and might not realize it.

' There's a dearth of written literature describing the supposed investment.

' The people behind the scheme promise high returns. One pitch I heard recently from a reader described a promised return of 2 percent a month or 9 percent a quarter.

' The endeavor is described as a quick-hit way to make money rather than as the drawn-out process that characterizes legitimate investing.

' The con artist often professes some type of inside knowledge or special celebrity connection. The scam I heard about supposedly touted a special connection to the Rockefellers.

' References and referrals, if any, may be fabricated. If someone tells you they earned a high return, ask for evidence.

Ponzi schemes raise many red flags. For instance, you should be wondering why the organizers are willing to share their good fortune. If a particular money-making deal is so lucrative, why are you being offered a piece of the action?

Thanks to the high price of gasoline, don't be surprised to see more bicycle-sharing programs in coming months and years.

Following in the path of successful programs in Europe, Washington, D.C., is poised to unveil its own system in coming weeks. Commuters in the nation's capital will pay a $40 yearly membership fee and get access to bikes stationed at racks in the downtown area, said Jeff Peel, a specialist on bike-share programs for the League of American Bicyclists.

In an interview today, he also said several other cities, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Chicago, Portland, Ore., and Albuquerque, N.M., are showing an interest, not to mention several universities and even some big corporate campuses.

Could bike-sharing work in Phoenix? Possibly. Aside from funding, Peel said key ingredients for success include a fairly compact urban core, a good network of bike lanes already in place and public-transit systems that let commuters complement their bike rides by getting on a bus or rail line. He also said it's important that bike rental/return stations be located fairly close to one another - they're within a half mile of one another in DC.

With the advent of the light rail system, it seems Valley cities  along the route have a great opportunity to implement a program. Commuters will need some way to get to the rail line. A bike-share program would represent an opportunity to connect a high-tech, high-cost public transit system with a low-tech,  low-cost bicycle supplement.

Wouldn't that add a nice ironic twist?

Traders in the futures market have pushed oil prices to near $140 a barrel in recent days, but investors in the stock market don't think it's worth nearly so much.

Stock investors are pricing oil closer to $80 a barrel, based on the valuations they are giving to the shares of big oil  companies such as Exxonmobil, Chevron and BP. So says James Swanson, a former oil analyst who's now chief investment officer at MFS Investment Management in Boston.

Oil analysts, he said, often take a company's market valuation or stock-market worth and subtract out the value of refineries, equipment and other assets until all that's left are the oil reserves. Based on that analysis, "The stock market is telling us oil is closer to $80 a barrel," he said during a press conference today. "If  the market believed crude will stay at $130 a barrel, it would be pricing these companies almost double where they're at today."

Swanson thinks oil prices will drop in coming months, partly because current lofty prices are encouraging more output by producers as well as more conservation by users. But if they don't start to ease fairly soon, Swanson thinks the pressure could be enough to push the nation into a recession.

The housing market continues to search for a bottom as foreclosures continue to climb across metropolitan Phoenix.

In May, 3,402 homes across Maricopa County went into foreclosure, according to the Information Market. Almost all of those homes went back to the lender. May's foreclosure rate is up from the 2,969 foreclosures, or trustee deed sales, filed in April.

Don't expect foreclosures to slow next month either because the number of pre-foreclosures, or notice of trustee sales, filed also climbed in May. Last month, there were 6,384 pre-foreclosures filed in Maricopa, compared to 6,143 in April.

Everyone tracking the Valley's housing sector is looking for that key indicator that will show the first sign of a market rebound or at least an end to the downturn. When pre-foreclosures fall, foreclosures will follow.

Fewer foreclosures mean fewer bank-owned properties selling for below market prices at auctions. It also means fewer listings that people trying to sell their homes have to compete with, and hopefully, fewer people just struggling to hold on.

More real estate talk

If you are near the Biltmore Fashion Square in Phoenix today (Sunday) and want to chat about the real estate market, please stop by Borders at 1 p.m. I will be there to discuss the big issues facing the Valley's housing market and more signs to look for to track its recovery.

This morning, the FBI announced  it has arrested about 300 people during the past three months as part of a crackdown on mortgage fraud.

Estimates put losses due to mortgage fraud at more than $1 billion.

Later today, The Justice Department and FBI plan to announce  recent arrests and indictments in Phoenix as well as  other cities including Chicago, Atlanta and Miami.

Less than 1 percent of U.S. mortgages given to undocumented workers, who have an taxpayer identification number, are in foreclosure, reports the Hispanic National Mortgage Association.

Bank-owned properties are making up a chunk of metro Phoenix's home sales, according to housing analyst RL Brown's report released this morning.

There is a certain natural order to the world, things you come to expect and rely on.

That the sun will rise. That Republicans and Democrats will approach any issue as an opportunity to bash each other's brains out.

That people like me will delight in taking potshots at the shenanigans and silliness that abound at the Arizona Legislature (think: fish in a barrel).

It's the way of things. Interrupt the natural order, it's said, and chaos will reign.

So you can imagine how the ground rumbled Thursday when our leaders did the unthinkable. In overwhelming numbers, they joined together, R's and D's, to do something for the most vulnerable people in the state: children.

It was 13 months ago that we began asking questions. Did the state of Arizona do everything it could to try to save 4-year-old Ariana Payne and her 5-year-old brother, Tyler. Did we fail Brandon Williams, a 5-year-old autistic child who carried the scars of abuse to his grave?

This newspaper and the Arizona Daily Star sued to find out. Meanwhile, a pair of Republican legislators vowed to get to bottom of how these children died when Child Protective Services was supposed to be watching.

The result: a package of bills aimed at mending the holes that allowed these children to do a header through the state's safety net and opening records so that CPS can no longer hide its shortcomings, so that errors are corrected.

In the hope that never again will CPS defy a custody order and leave children in the hands of a man who would later be charged with murdering them, as it did with Tyler and Ariana.

In the hope that never again will caseworkers lose track of a boy they fear could be in danger but never notify police, as happened with Brandon. A Pima County sheriff's deputy saw the boy just a day or so before he was beaten to death but had no idea that CPS was looking for him.

In the hope that never again will a child be ignored when she tells a CPS caseworker-turned-daddy's-girlfriend that daddy still beats her. Or at least if it does happen, this time we'll be able to see if CPS did anything about it.

“We are no under no illusions,” said Rep. Jonathan Paton of Tucson, who with Rep. Kirk Adams of Mesa drove the CPS reforms. “Children will continue to die as long as parents put meth, alcohol and their own selfishness before their families. No government can legislate the wickedness in the human heart. The difference is this: we have turned on a light in a terrible darkness which stopped us from seeing what was wrong.”

The final four of the seven bills passed out of the Legislature on Thursday. In the end, even Rep. Linda Lopez, D-Tucson, a CPS insider who had earlier tried to gut the bill opening CPS records, voted to lift the shroud of secrecy.

It is, however, not the end of the fight for these children. First, there is the matter of the governor's signature.

Then, there is the fact that CPS is woefully underfunded. Caseworkers who are trying their damnest to make a difference tell me they are overburdened not just by inept managers or over-the-top paperwork but by having simply too many children to watch.

Republicans were right to demand openness and the accountability that springs from it. Democrats were right to set aside their own agendas and unite with their GOP colleagues.

And now?

I believe Rep. Ed Ableser, D-Tempe, said it best.

“If we do truly want to save children's lives …,” he said, “we will put our money where our mouth is and we will invest in CPS.”

From his mouth to Republicans' ears.

(Column published June 21, 2008, The Arizona Republic)

At last, after decades of talk, Scottsdale may be getting close to building the city's oldest mirage, the Desert Discovery Center.

OK, well maybe not close, exactly, but at least it's on the front burner of city politics and you know what that means. A strong possibility that we're about to get burned.

For more than 20 years, there has been talk of a Desert Discovery Center. Early on, it was supposed to be at Pinnacle Peak but the city gave up its claim to that land to make more room for Estancia.

So the DDC dream moved to Bell and Thompson Peak, to the gateway of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Meanwhile, the city's tourism honchos got interested, leading to our present dilemma – or one of them, at least.

Should it be a smallish visitor's center, as preservationists had long envisioned, or should it be the Disneyland of the desert, as tourism officials saw it?

Last year, the city did what the city always does. It, together with a committee set up to plan the DDC, hired a consultant to develop a concept for what's supposed to be the $15 million DDC.

Why we would spend $75,000 – half of it city money – to hire a Massachusetts outfit to tell us how to showcase the Sonoran Desert is beyond me. But we did and now the report is out.

After months of study and meetings with all interested parties, the consultant has determined that the DDC could be ….

 … a $28 million smallish visitor's center, as preservationists want, or a $68 million Disneyland of the desert, as tourism folks envision.

Now, wasn't that helpful?

To be fair, they did come up with that hideous walk-in snake and an X-ray ceiling that'll show you what humans look like to a lizard, so the study wasn't money totally wasted.

As if all that Massachusetts enlightenment wasn't enough, comes now the McDowell Sonoran Conservancy, proposing that they take over planning for the DDC. (Actually, they don't like those words “take over”. They say they just want to bankroll it and let others call the shots. Really.)

 According to their proposal, the MSC would “assist in the formation of a broadly based DDC committee” and pay $250,000 to fund and hire a project director to plan the project.

“We do not intend and are not proposing to control this firm in any way, in any way other than holding it accountable to the will and the direction of the DDC committee,” Len Marcisz, MSC's past president, assured the city's Tourism Development Commission on Tuesday.

Some of the key players, however, are skeptical. As John Holdsworth, chairman of the tourism group, put it: “He or she that executes control and signs the checks legally has ultimate control.”

And that really is the point. Taxpayers have sunk a billion dollars into this preserve. Why would we want to relinquish control of the most visible part of it to any group?

MSC officials say they're just trying to move the project forward and pledge to be “transparent” in key decisions. Skeptics recall a decided lack of transparency last year when they pushed out Carla, the former executive director who has done more to make the preserve a reality than any other person in Scottsdale.

It used to be that the MSC was all about the land – preserving it. Is it still? The group will tell you, absolutely yes, and that may be so.

But in the old days, conservancy leaders would have been scrambling to mobilize had anyone suggested that a massive performance venue be built in the preserve. They would have lain down before the bulldozers touched so much as a single taxpayer-purchased saguaro.

This spring, the head of the Scottsdale Cultural Council proposed carving a 2,000-seat amphitheater into the preserve at the DDC.

MSC's position?

“We'd like to hear more about this concept, and others being tossed around, before taking a stand,” Ruthie Carll, MSC's executive director, told me. “We are open to all ideas and feel that open dialog is the only way that the community will get the facility it deserves. We are interested in the DDC being of the highest quality. This means that the scale and amenities would be determined by the purpose of the facility. We don't think that there is community agreement about the purpose of the DDC and therefore have not developed any official positions about its focus, amenities, or scale.”

This, from the group that's supposed to be the guard dog of the land.

She does lead me to a point, though. Wouldn't it be better to figure out what the DDC will be before we decide who should take the reins in planning it? Or operating it?

And in making that decision, wouldn't it be imperative that we remember that this is supposed to be about the land?

Preserving the land, that is.

(Column published June 19, 2008, Scottsdale Republic)

It seems fitting somehow that Gary Kinnaman and a dozen or so other evangelical ministers choose to make their stand in a week when the National Weather Service is warning that things are likely to get hot -- really hot -- around here.

I'm guessing Kinnaman and the others will soon be feeling the fires of earthly damnation given some of the shocking things they've been saying lately.

Stuff about human dignity and compassion and dire warnings from Leviticus about what'll happen if we mistreat strangers in our land. (Apparently, even undocumented ones.)

“As followers of Christ,” said Kinnaman, pastor-at-large at the Word of Grace in Mesa, “we have an obligation to call attention to the moral dimensions of public policy and pursue laws that uphold the human dignity of every person, all of whom are made in the image of God.”

That's not likely to go over well with those who have built their careers on fueling the fires of hysteria over illegal immigration. No doubt they will brand such inflammatory talk as code for “amnesty” and label Kinnaman and his fellow Christians a part of “the open borders crowd.”

Already you can see their disciples holding forth on azcentral.com, reacting to the ministers' Monday press conference.

“Freaking religious nutbags,” wrote one.

“There are laws against aiding criminals,” said another. “Most of these so-called men of God should be in jail for doing so.”

And a third: “We are sick and tired of seeing emergency rooms used as a primary health care source by Illegals. Tired of seeing trashed neighborhoods loaded with graffiti and garbage, looking like Guadalajara North. No pity, mercy or compassion for those who abandon their own country's political and economic troubles and come north with hearts hoping and hands out.”

Me? I had lately begun to wonder whatever happened to the faith leaders in this community. Rarely are they heard from any more on this side of Sunday morning.

It used to be that we had religious leaders who stood upright on firm and unshakeable ground when it came to matters of moral compass. Men like Rabbi Albert Plotkin who for 50 years served this community, fighting against segregation, against poverty, against injustice. 

People of faith have a moral obligation to fulfill their covenant with God by working for justice, Plotkin once said. Like the prophet Isaiah, he said, people of faith need to say to God: “Here I am. Send me.”

Lately, He mostly seems to send the loudmouths.

And so it was nice on Monday to hear a call to dial down the rhetoric in the hope that we can have a rational debate about what's going on in this community and in this country and about what we're going to do to fix it.

We've heard the horror stories. I've written a number of them -- stories of thieves and thugs who sneak into the country and do our citizens harm. But they are not the only stories. Kit Danley, founder of Neighborhood Ministries, can tell you others. For three decades she's worked and lived what some call "the difficult neighborhoods of Phoenix," the inner city.

“Everywhere, she says, “we are hearing stories of desperation.”

She talks of families who have been here for years -- working in our restaurants, cleaning our houses, mowing our lawns. Families that now cower in their homes for fear of what'll happen if they venture outside. She talks of authorities targeting children in order to get to and deport their parents who are here illegally.

She's invited me to come hear the stories. I plan to take her up on that offer and if I write about them I'm sure I'll be derided as soft, as if it is somehow wrong to recognize the full human dimension to illegal immigration.

Truth is, I do have compassion for those here illegally, the ones we turned a blind eye to fo r so long, the ones who mean us no harm. And I have compassion for those who've been victimized by the thugs and the thieves and the murderers who shouldn't be here and wouldn't be here, had our leaders done their jobs and fixed this mess a long time ago.

But they didn't and so here we are, fully engaged in a national shouting match that has gotten us nowhere. Meanwhile, the border remains open and the tone of the debate gets ever nastier. Someone actually sent me a note comparing illegal immigrants to roaches.

Now come a few faith leaders, speaking out on this side of Sunday morning, reminding us that there is law and then there is higher law.

Will anybody hear them? Probably not. But that nobody will hear them is not the issue.

That they, at least, didn't stay silent is.

(Column published June 18, 2008, The Arizona Republic)

In a metro area prone to identity anxiety and an inferiority complex, Mesa may be the most angst-ridden of all.

I don't think NBA officiating is crooked or even biased. I just think it is very bad – so bad and inconsistent that the team that plays best won't necessarily win.

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision regarding Guantanamo Bay detainees is a sweeping arrogation of power contrary to the clear demarcations of the Constitution.

As we enter the weekend, let me empty my head of a few thoughts and my notebook of a few tidbits:

' I thought it was a bit odd this week when I heard that GM Rod Graves was doing so much traveling. This is usually a slow time in the NFL. Turns out Graves is interviewing candidates to replace long-time trainer John Omohundro. From what I hear, Graves was trying to get some bang out of his travel buck. While in Chicago earlier this week, he was hoping to meet with Mark Bartelstein, the agent for quarterback Kurt Warner. I'm not sure if the meeting came off.

Graves and Bartelstein have been exchanging proposals for a while now, but Bartelstein told me earlier this week that a deal isn't imminent.

'Details of Omohundro's departure weren't immediately available, but he will be greatly missed in the NFL. I figure we'll get together at least once more. He owes me a beer after his Wyoming Cowboys didn't cover against my Utah State Aggies last year. But since he's retiring, I'll forgive the debt.

'Graves and Kirk Wood, linebacker Karlos Dansby's agent, have been playing phone tag. The two haven't talked for several weeks, but Graves called Wood this week. They haven't caught up with each other. I'm thinking it's going to take a minor miracle to get a long-term deal done for Dansby, the team's franchise player, before the July 15 deadline.

'It was interesting to see Bengals receiver Chad Johnson back off his threats never to play again for the club. Johnson now says he'll report to camp on time. Cardinals receiver Anquan Boldin recently told Darren Urban of azcardinals.com that he was undecided about reporting. It was a good story but I can't see Q not reporting to camp on time. I can't imagine a day when Johnson would be the good soldier and report to camp on time while Boldin would be the holdout. 

These can be depressing times for sports fans as waves of contract squabbles, steroids investigations, rising prices, point-shaving scandals and the like diminish our love of the games.

But I was blessed with a respite from all that over the past two weeks when events converged to remind me of my roots as a sports fan and to rekindle a little of the passion that had cooled.

The trip

For the past few years, my wife has taken a tour group of high school students to Europe, and I was lucky enough to go along this year.

To most people, spending 12 days in Europe with 30 teenagers sounds worse than a prison sentence, but the kids are great. Really. And given that my main job was delivering the wake-up calls, it was a pretty cushy gig.

(I was tempted to play "the Turk" when knocking on doors, telling kids to pack their stuff and report to the lobby with their playbooks. But I figured I would be the only one to get the joke.)

The vacation happened to coincide with Euro 2008, the European Soccer Championships. Soccer jerseys were on sale everywhere. Newspapers produced special sections on the event. It was the lead story on newscasts, and schedules were adjusted to watch the games.

Our tour started in Spain, where we met our tour director, Enrique, who was not only a huge soccer fan but also a basketball junkie. He grew up a Celtics fan ("Larry Bird," he said when I asked him why), but also was rooting for the Lakers because of Pau Gasol, a Spaniard.

My interest in soccer pretty much ended when my kids stopped playing. I still can't figure why offside is illegal. I grew up playing sports - football and basketball - where the whole idea was to get behind the entire defense.

Anyway, I started to get into the whole soccer thing. A handful of us gathered in hotel lounges to watch, with Enrique providing insight to those of us who needed it.

We happened to be in Italy when the Italians lost to the Netherlands 3-0 in pool play. The next day, outside Pompeii, I jokingly asked a vendor if the Italy jerseys were discounted after the game last night.

He gave me a look like he wanted to pound me into gnocchi.

The tournament

I don't like to miss work to watch sporting events on television. It usually takes an act of God to get me to do it, or at least a friend asking, "Hey, want to meet me for lunch and watch the U.S. Open playoff?"

Entering last week's U.S. Open, I didn't care who won. But watching the final regulation round Sunday, I found myself rooting for Rocco Mediate.

Before the tournament, I knew next to nothing of Mediate. I'd heard of him, knew he had enjoyed some moderate success, but I couldn't tell you how he pronounced his last name.

But I started rooting for him. He seemed to be enjoying the moment, and I figured anyone who could play with pants hiked that high, wear a belt buckle in the shape of a peace sign and smile through all that stress was worthy of my attention.

It was sport at its best, drama so riveting that I found myself emotionally wrapped up in an event that three days earlier had produced only casual interest. (Oh, the U.S. Open is this weekend? It's 110 out, so I'll watch.)

The series

It was impossible to find the NBA Finals on television in many parts of Europe, even on tape delay. So we kept up on the news via the Internet, phone calls to home and Enrique's translation of newspaper headlines and stories.

I grew up a Celtics fan, thanks to my dad, who thinks Bill Russell was the greatest competitor ever. In our house, John Havlicek was revered, and when Bird became a Celtic, the whole world seemed a true and just place.

As a kid, my dad took a transfer to Utah, which, as a buddy of mine assured me, was so far from civilization that they had to pump sunshine there.

But Utah had the Jazz, which meant the Celtics visited once a year. My family tried to go when we could. (I still remember, to my horror, the time Bird was thrown out of the game in the third quarter for fighting with Allan Bristow. My only chance to see him play and he gets in a fight?)

When the Celtics went public, my wife bought me five shares of stock, which I had to turn in when they went private a few years later.

When we returned home from Europe, in the mail was a check for $26 or so, a result some settlement regarding the stock. (The details elude me. I get a check in the mail, I don't ask questions.)

I figured the payment was a good sign that the Celtic would demolish the Lakers in Game 6. At halftime of the 39-point blowout, I called my parents and asked what they were doing.

"Watching the Celtics," my mom said.

As if I didn't know.

Weekend planner

Non-Arizonans laugh at this, but it's true. It doesn't officially get hot here until the temperature hits 110 degrees. Anything below that, we can handle, but 110 and above? It's officially hot.

That's what makes it hard to plan this weekend, provided you are staying in town and not hitting the old home equity line of credit to make a road trip.

It's officially hot and there isn't much on TV. The NBA Finals are over. The U.S. Open, over. Tiger Woods, done for the year.

The Diamondbacks are playing an interleague series in Minnesota against the Twins, so we've got that going for us. Randy Johnson, Micah Owings and Brandon Webb are up in the rotation. Still, a Diamondbacks-Twins series doesn't exactly make the skin tingle, does it?


• The College World Series, which started about three months ago, I think, continues, and that can be a good time. The folks in Omaha, Neb., get all excited, so catching the last four hours of a game might be worth it.


• The Rattlers play Utah on Saturday night at home, and Danny White has the Blaze playing fairly well, at least compared with the team's 0-9 start.


• If you're into soccer, the European Championships continue this weekend. On Sunday, Italy plays Spain in the quarterfinals. If you're not into soccer, watch anyway. It's more interesting than you think. (Pretty good marking slogan, I'd say.) Besides, it's going to be 113 today. It's not like you're going to mow the yard.


Reach The Heat Index at kent.somers@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8335.

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The Cardinals announced their schedule for training camp today.Players are due to report on July 23 and will undergo a conditioning test the next day. The first of 30 training camp practices will be held on July 25, and the last one will be Aug. 21.

There will be eight two-a-day sessions, including two night practices at Lumberjack Stadium.

That's a pretty typical practice schedule in the NFL these days. The days of putting players through a grinding stretch of two-a-days is long past. As you'll notice, the Cardinals never had two consecutive days of two-a-days.

On Aug. 2, the club will hold a “Red & White” outdoor practice from 11:15 AM until 1:35 PM. The practice will be preceded by an autograph session and conclude with a live goal-line session.

All training camp practices are open to the public and there is no charge for admission or parking.

Most practices will be held on the fields east of the J. Lawrence Walkup Skydome. In the event of inclement weather, practice will be conducted indoors.

Practice schedule:

Friday, 7/25/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 3:05-5:15 PM

Saturday, 7/26/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM

Sunday, 7/27/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM
Monday, 7/28/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 3:05-5:15 PM

Tuesday, 7/29/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM

Wednesday, 7/30/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 7:05-9:15 PM (Lumberjack Stadium)

Thursday, 7/31/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM

Friday, 8/1/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 3:05-5:15 PM

Saturday, 8/2/08 @ 11:15 AM-1:35 PM

Monday, 8/4/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 3:05-5:15 PM

Tuesday, 8/5/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM

Wednesday, 8/6/08 @ 9:00-10:00 AM (Walk Thru)

Sunday, 8/10/08 @ 3:45-5:30 PM

Monday, 8/11/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 3:05-5:15 PM
Tuesday, 8/12/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM

Wednesday, 8/13/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 7:05-9:15 PM (Lumberjack Stadium)
Thursday, 8/14/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM
Friday, 8/15/08 @ 9:00-10:00 AM (Walk Thru)
Monday, 8/18/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM
Tuesday, 8/19/08 @ 3:05-5:15 PM
Wednesday, 8/20/08 @ 9:05-10:30 AM and 3:05-5:15 PM
Thursday, 8/21/08 @ 8:15-10:00 AM
 
Note: Practice times are subject to change.