HANK AARON SAYS BASEBALL WILL BOUNCE BACK

Baseball's former home run king "Hammerin'" Hank Aaron says he has no opinion on whether or not Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, but he firmly believes that the sport will eventually move past the current Steroids Era.

"I think baseball is trying to clean up its act," Aaron said, sitting in the Atlanta Braves' dugout during batting practice Tuesday. "It's unfortunate for baseball, but baseball has been through some tough times. It went through the White Sox scandal and survived. It went through a lot of things and survived. It's going to survive this, too."

Aaron, in the ATL for Braves executive meetings, said he tuned in to watch Clemens testify before Congress last week and deny using human growth hormone as alleged by his former trainer. Aaron says it was good that the testimony took place before the regular season gets underway.

"I'm glad it happened, and I'm glad it happened before spring training, before the season started," Aaron said. "We can get it over and done with. You'll see. When the season starts, we'll again be drawing fans. People will come out to watch these kids play."

The former Braves slugger declined to say whether he found Clemens' testimony believable, taking the same tact he consistently followed when similar charges were leveled against Barry Bonds, the guy who broke the Hammer's home run record last season.

"Only Roger can answer to that," Aaron said. "I can't answer to that. I can't say what happened."

UPI VIDEO NEWS 02.14.08

Obama wins three more primaries.

Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama is now the winner of eight consecutive nominating contests. That's after he swept the Mid-Atlantic primaries yesterday, winning Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC. The Illinois senator's success has reportedly put him ahead of his rival, Senator Hillary Clinton in the number of delegates earned. Obama apparently has 1,215 delegates and Clinton has 1,190. A candidate must receive 2,025 delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination.

And Republican White House hopeful John McCain has beat out former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee in all three of yesterday's GOP primaries. The former governor is vowing to stay in the race, pledging to be a solid, conservative, pro-life candidate as an alternative to McCain.

A man who's suspected in some of the deadliest terror attacks around the world and is now dead. Imad Mughniyeh reportedly died in an explosion in Syria earlier today. Mughniyeh was a Hezbollah commander who was considered to be a role model for Osama bin Laden. Hezbollah is blaming Israel for the man's death, but Israeli officials are denying involvement. Mughniyeh was suspected in the 1983 bombing on the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon and the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847.

Pro-baseball pitcher Roger Clemens is facing his accusers today at a congressional panel who've accused him of using steroids. That panel is examining performance-enhancing drug-use in baseball. Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee will be there along with Charlie Scheeler, an investigator for that eye-opening report that alleged dozens of players had used the drugs. McNamee says he injected Clemens with performance enhancers.

BLIGE, 50 CENT, PERRY, WYCLEF IN STEROID PROBE

Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Wyclef Jean, Timbaland and Tyler Perry have been named in a steroid trafficking investigation that has exposed just how far its use has traveled beyond the world of sports.


Citing confidential sources, the Albany Times Union claims the artists are among tens of thousands of people found to have either used or received prescribed shipments of steroids and injectable human growth hormone (HGH) in recent years.


Authorities, however, say there is not enough evidence to accuse any of the singers, rappers and other customers of breaking any laws. Instead, the probe is an effort to shut down the flow of drugs by doctors, pharmacists and anti-aging clinics that made the drugs accessible to their famous clients.


The Times Union says it gained access to records from several unnamed cooperating witnesses on Long Island, New York, that reportedly indicate that human growth hormone or steroids were shipped to Blige and the others — sometimes under fictitious names — at hotels, production studios, private residences, an upscale Manhattan fitness club and through the Long Island office of chiropractor Michael Diamond.

Diamond, who has not been identified as a target in the case or accused of breaking any laws, helps run an anti-aging program at Clay Gym in Manhattan.


The New York Daily News contacted Blige's camp for comment and was told by her rep that the allegations are false.

"Mary J. Blige has never taken any performance-enhancing illegal steroids," spokeswoman Karynne Tencer told the Daily News.

THE MITCHELL REPORT

Report

BARRY BONDS INDICTMENT

Read the entire indictment here.

BREAKING NEWS: BARRY BONDS INDICTED

SAN FRANCISCO -- Baseball superstar Barry Bonds was charged Thursday with perjury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying when he said he did not use performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday by federal prosecutors in San Francisco, is the culmination of a four-year federal probe into whether he lied under oath to a grand jury investigating steroid use by elite athletes.

The indictment comes three months after the 43-year-old Bonds, one of the biggest names in professional sports, passed Hank Aaron to become baseball's career home run leader, his sport's most hallowed record. Bonds, who parted ways with the San Francisco Giants at the end of last season and has yet to sign with another team, also holds the game's single-season home run record of 73.

While Bonds was chasing Aaron amid the adulation of San Franciscans and the scorn of baseball fans almost everywhere else, due to his notoriously prickly personality and nagging steroid allegations, a grand jury quietly worked behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on the long-rumored indictment.

"I'm surprised," said John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."

Burris did not know of the indictment before being alerted by The Associated Press. He said he would immediately call Bonds to notify him.

The indictment charges Bonds with lying when he said that he didn't knowingly take steroids given to him by his personal trainer Greg Anderson. He also denied taking steroids at anytime in 2001 when he was pursuing the single season home-run record.

"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes," the indictment reads.

He is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.

"Greg wouldn't do that," Bonds testified in December 2003 when asked if Anderson ever gave him any drugs that needed to be injected. "He knows I'm against that stuff."

Bonds is by far the highest-profile figure caught up in the wide-ranging government steroids investigation launched in 2002 with the raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative -- now infamously known as BALCO -- the Burlingame-based supplements lab at the center of a large steroids distribution ring.

Allegations of steroid use long have dogged Bonds, the son of an ex-Major Leaguer who broke into baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1986 as a lithe, base-stealing outfielder. By the late 1990s he'd grown to more than 240 pounds, with his head, in particular, becoming noticeably bigger.

Bonds' physical growth was accompanied by a remarkable power surge. During the 2001 season he broke Mark McGwire's single-season home run crown, and by 2006, he'd passed Babe Ruth to move into second-place among the sport's most prolific power hitters. He will soon in all likelihood surpass Aaron's career mark of 755 homers.

Speculation of his impending indictment had mounted for more than a year. In July 2006, the U.S. attorney in San Francisco, who led the investigation, took the unusual step of going public with the probe by announcing he was handing it off to a new grand jury when the previous panel's 18-month term expired. Prosecutors are typically secretive about grand jury proceedings.

At the center of the investigation is Bonds' childhood friend and personal trainer, Greg Anderson, who spent most of the past year in a federal detention center for refusing to testify to the grand jury investigating Bonds' alleged perjury.

According to testimony obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds testified in 2003 that he took two substances given to him by Anderson -- which he called "the cream" and "the clear" -- to soothe aches and pains and help him better recover from injuries.

The substances fit the description of steroids peddled by BALCO founder Victor Conte. But when questioned under oath by investigators, Bonds famously said he believed Anderson had given him flaxseed oil and an arthritic balm.

Investigators and the public had their doubts.

Aiming to prove Bonds a liar, prosecutors tried to compel Anderson to testify. When he refused, they jailed him for contempt.

Bonds joins a parade of defendants tied to the BALCO investigation, including Anderson, who served three months in prison and three months of home detention after pleading guilty to steroid distribution and money laundering.

Conte also served three months in prison after he pleaded guilty to steroids distribution.

Patrick Arnold, the rogue chemist who created the designer steroid THG, BALCO vice president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny also all also pleaded guilty. Korchemny and Valente were sentenced to probation and Arnold sent to prison for four months.

Kirk Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse attendant, pleaded guilty April 27 to drug and money laundering charges after federal officials said he became Major League Baseball's biggest steroids dealer after BALCO shut down.

Elite cyclist Tammy Thomas and track coach Trevor Graham have each pleaded not guilty to lying to a grand jury and federal investigators about their involvement with steroids.

Troy Ellerman, a defense attorney who represented two of the BALCO figures, pleaded guilty to leaking confidential grand jury transcripts to the San Francisco Chronicle and then denying he was the leak in court documents filed under penalty of perjury.

Dozens of other prominent athletes have been connected to BALCO, including New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi who told the grand jury he injected steroids purchased at BALCO and Detroit Tigers outfielder Gary Sheffield who testified that Bonds introduced him to BALCO.

MARION JONES "ONE OF BIGGEST FRAUDS" IN SPORT

By Gene Cherry

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) - Disgraced Olympic champion Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history, the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said on Saturday.

"It is a tragedy," Lamine Diack said in a statement to Reuters.

After years of denial, triple Olympic champion Jones admitted on Friday she had used steroids and pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to lying to federal investigators.

Diack said the admission, which could cost Jones the five medals she won at the 2000 Games, tarnished not only the sprinter but the image of the sport worldwide.

"I am deeply disappointed that an athlete with Marion Jones's immense natural ability gave in to the corrupt, 'get rich quick' spin of a dope dealer like Victor Conte," Diack said.

"If she had trusted to her own natural gifts and allied them to self sacrifice and hard work, I sincerely believe that she could have been an honest champion at the Sydney Games," Diack said of Jones, who won three gold and two bronze medals in Sydney.

"Now, instead, Marion Jones will be remembered as one of the biggest frauds in sporting history," Diack added.

'THE CLEAR'

Jones, told a federal judge in New York she swallowed the previously undetectable steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) also known as "the clear," which she said had been given to her by former coach Trevor Graham.

She said Graham had received "the clear" from BALCO head Conte, one of five men previously convicted for their roles in distributing steroids.

The 31-year-old American faces up to six months in jail and will be sentenced on January 11.

Diack praised the progress made by the combined efforts of the IAAF, International Olympic Committee (IOC), World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and national agencies such as the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

"Together we will stamp out doping wherever it rears its ugly head," he said.

However, Diack acknowledged that the admissions by Jones had harmed an already troubled sport.

"A lot of people believed in the achievements of Marion Jones and this confession leaves a bitter taste and tarnishes the image of a sport in which a majority of athletes are honest and clean," he said.

"But as well as sadness, there is a feeling of satisfaction because this case shows that it doesn't matter how big a name you are, or when the offence was committed, if you are doping, we will get you in the end."

The IOC is expected to strip Jones, once the biggest female name in athletics, of her five Sydney Olympic medals later this year.

MARION JONES ADMITS TO STEROID USE

By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer

Track star Marion Jones has acknowledged using steroids as she prepared for the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney and plans to plead guilty tomorrow in New York to two counts of lying to federal agents about her drug use and an unrelated financial matter, according to a letter Jones sent to close family and friends.

Jones, who won five medals at the Sydney Olympics, said she took the steroid known as "the clear" for two years beginning in 1999, according to the letter, which was read to The Washington Post by a person who had been given a copy. A person familiar with Jones's legal situation who requested anonymity confirmed the relevant facts that were described in the letter.

Jones said her former coach, Trevor Graham, gave her the substance, telling her it was the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and saying she should take it by putting two drops under her tongue. Graham, contacted by telephone today, said he had no comment.

Jones's admissions could cost her the three gold and two bronze medals she won in Sydney. In December 2004, the International Olympic Committee opened an investigation into allegations surrounding performance-enhancing drug use by Jones, once considered the greatest female athlete in the world.

In the past, Jones has vehemently denied using steroids or any performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones said she "trusted [Graham] and never thought for one second" she was using a performance-enhancing drug until after she left Graham's Raleigh, N.C.-based training camp at the end of 2002. "Red flags should have been raised when he told me not to tell anyone about" the supplement program, she said in the letter. She also said she noticed changes in how her body felt and how she was able to recover from workouts.

The clear, also known as THG, is a powerful steroid that was found to be at the center of the performance-enhancing drugs scandal known as Balco. More than a dozen track and field athletes have faced punishments for their use of the clear, which drug-testing authorities could not detect until Graham sent a sample of it to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in 2003.

Baseball players Gary Sheffield and Jason Giambi admitted during grand jury testimony to using the clear, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Barry Bonds also admitted using a substance that he had been told by his personal trainer was flaxseed oil, the Chronicle reported.

The federal probe surrounding Balco, a nutritional supplements company based in Burlingame, Calif., has resulted in five criminal convictions. Jones's coach, Graham, was indicted last November on three counts of lying to federal agents connected to the investigation. He has pleaded not guilty, and his trial is scheduled for next month.

The head of Balco, Victor Conte, has repeatedly and publicly accused Jones of using drugs.

Jones, who recently married former sprinter Obadele Thompson, said in her letter that she planned to fly from her home in Austin and meet her mother in New York to enter the plea. She said she faced up to six months in jail and would be sentenced in three months. Federal sentencing guidelines call for a maximum of five years in prison for one count of lying to federal agents.

"I want to apologize for all of this," she said, according to the person reading the letter, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

Reached at their Austin home, Thompson declined to comment on the letter, portions of which were read to him, saying "the process has to go through before you can make any comments. . . . I'm sure at the appropriate time, all necessary comments will be made." He did not dispute the contents of the letter.

The letter says that when Jones was questioned in 2003 by federal agents investigating Balco, she lied about using the clear even though agents presented her with a sample and she immediately recognized it as what she had taken at Graham's behest. The letter says she lied because she panicked and wanted to protect herself and her coach.

Jones also said in the letter that she lied about a $25,000 check given to her by track athlete Tim Montgomery, the father of her young son. Montgomery pleaded guilty in New York this year for his part in a multimillion-dollar bank fraud and money-laundering scheme.

Jones said she told investigators she knew nothing about the deposit, even though Montgomery told her it was from the 2005 sale of a refurbished vehicle and was partial payment for $50,000 she had lent him.

"Once again, I panicked," she wrote. "I did not want my name associated with this mess. I wanted to stay as far away as possible."