Tues | Feb 12 Nothing’s changed.

Wed | Feb 13 Pitching great Roger Clemens testifies before a Congressional committee that he never used steroids or the human growth hormone. Brian McNamee testifies before the same panel—but what does McNamee know? He was just Clemens’ trainer. Clemens and McNamee’s diametrically opposed stories means someone was lying to Congress, and that’s not good, unless of course you’re Karl Rove and then that gets you a gig with Fox News. McNamee seems to have a bit more credibility than Clemens, who clumsily tries to explain that teammate Andy Pettite (who, in a sworn affidavit, said Clemens had talked to him about HGH use) “misheard” him. Clemens also denies McNamee’s claim that he, McNamee, had provided HGH to Clemens’ wife. Then Clemens’ wife, in a sworn affidavit, admits using HGH. Ouch. Clearly it did not go well for the seven-time Cy Young Award winner, generally considered the greatest pitcher of the last 50 years. Clemens acknowledged as much when he told the panel that no matter what happened there, his name will never be fully rehabilitated. True. In fact, it sets up a bizarre scenario to take place five years from now. Consider: In five years, Clemens and Barry Bonds, also accused of steroid use, figure to be eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame—a player becomes eligible for induction five years after retirement. But because of their alleged steroid use each figures not to be elected on the first ballot. That would mean, in five years, though eligible, the Baseball Hall of Fame would not contain baseball’s all-time hit leader (Pete Rose), all-time home run leader (Bonds) and the pitcher with the most Cy Youngs (Clemens.) Ouch.

Thurs | Feb 14 A particularly happy Valentine’s for three Long Beach police officers who are awarded $4.1 million based on their claim that they were retaliated against for reporting some of their colleagues were conducting illegal lobster dives while on duty at the Port of Long Beach. The officers claimed that they were denied promotions while being branded as “snitches.” They also claimed that they’d had their tires punctured, flashlights stolen, bullets removed from their guns and had their locker-room towels smeared with feces. Long Beach Police had defended itself by saying all those things were just jokes that had been misconstrued. Well, all except the towel, which they blamed on bad shrimp.

Fri | Feb 15 Must I apologize for loving Boz Scaggs Silk Degrees?

Sat | Feb 16 In last week’s column, I ran an item about a push to get a proposition called the Marriage Protection Act on the November ballot. I had a little fun with the measure that seeks to limit marriage to heterosexuals, wondering why the prop was needed when voters had approved a similar measure eight years ago. Of course, I knew why and it has nothing to do with opposition to gay marriage. On Super Tuesday, which included the California primary, nearly twice as many Democrats voted as Republicans—15 million to 8 million. Republicans, usually a pretty motivated bunch, are decidedly ambivalent about their presumptive candidate John McCain, so folks in the party need to give them a reason to vote in November. See, it’s all just sports . . . until someone gets killed. Today, a 14-year-old Oxnard boy was charged with the shooting death of a classmate. Prosecutors say the shooting was a premeditated attack because the shooter hated the 15-year-old victim because the victim had announced he was gay. See, this is how it goes: Anytime a government officially limits the rights of any group, whether its restricting women from voting, African-Americans going to public school or gays from marrying it sends a message that they are less than human. Things tend to happen to people deemed less than human. They happened in Oxnard.

Sun | Feb 17 The next time you’re complaining about the cancer you may be getting from the Port, just think about this: it could be worse. You could live in Orange County. Our neighbors to the south have a funked up county. You think you have corruption here? Orange County’s recently former sheriff is under indictment. Believe developers here have run amok because they wanna knock down an old building? In Orange County, you’ve got developers who not only knock down old buildings but go after stuff like old oceans—say, the Pacific—which they keep trying to build a freeway through. Now, the LA Times reports that Wiley Drake, an OC pastor, has asked his flock to pray for the misfortune, perhaps death, of a group that seeks to keep church and state separate. This isn’t unusual, of course—preachers across the country are always doing and saying weird, hateful things, but they’re usually outside the mainstream. Drake was a member of the Soviet-sounding Republican Central Committee. He eventually left the committee, but only because he found the other Republicans to be out of control and morally reprehensible.

Mon | Feb 18 Nothing as I can see, so I’ll leave you with this. My daughter is in Las Vegas playing in a volleyball tournament and she just texted me this: “We just passed by this strip club that was meant to look like a coffee shop and it was called Sexpresso. I thought you would appreciate that.” They grow up so fast.

Tags: "Lobstergate, Barry Bonds, killing, Long Beach, oxnard, Roger Clemens, sexpresso, steroids, wiley drake