All articles from Mark Sappenfield
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MLS deal with billionaire oil sheikh could be bigger than Beckham
Two global sports titans, Manchester City Football Club and the New York Yankees, will operate New York City FC, an expansion MLS team. It brings to the table an oil sheikh's fortune.
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Kepler epitaph? Eight most intriguing finds of troubled telescope.
Kepler, the space telescope designed to help us find other Earth-like planets, is on the fritz. Scientists hope they will be able to fix it remotely, but if they can't, its brief, brilliant career could be over. Here are eight of its most important discoveries.
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Why IRS investigation is already Obama's Watergate – and Benghazi, too (+video)
Since Watergate, every two-term president has had a second-term scandal. First-term mistakes and hyperpartisanship make probes – like those into Benghazi and the IRS – almost inevitable.
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Pavlof Volcano ash cloud shows Alaska's threat to air travel (+video)
Ash billowing from Pavlof Volcano is not high enough to affect international air travel, but Pavlof is just one of a string of active Alaska volcanoes that sits beneath the flight corridor between the US and Asia.
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David Beckham: What did he do, really, for American soccer? (+video)
David Beckham has announced his retirement. In the US, the David Beckham experiment coincided with a flourishing of soccer, and he was the perfect face for the sport's new swagger.
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Cleveland kidnapping mystery: Where is Michelle Knight?
Michelle Knight, one of the three Cleveland kidnapping victims, was released from the hospital Friday, but not even her mother knows where she is. Her story offers hints as to why she might need more time and space to recover.
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Prince Harry can be 'too much army' at Warrior Games – and not embarass anyone (+video)
Britain's Prince Harry lent his considerable clout to the Warrior Games, a four-year-old international sports competition for wounded veterans. He hopes it could be as big as the Paralympics one day.
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How greenhouse gases might make humongous super-Earths habitable (+video)
On Earth, greenhouse gases are blamed for climate change, but elsewhere in the cosmos, they could help a planet not at all like Earth be habitable, one scientist suggests.
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USA Update Cleveland Volcano explosions put air travel on alert: Who could be affected?
Cleveland Volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands sits under the flight corridor between North America and Asia, but so far, its new ash cloud is not big enough to ground planes.
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Tyler Bray, Marcus Lattimore show opposite emotions of 2013 NFL Draft (+video)
The fortunes of Tyler Bray and Marcus Lattimore showed the ups and downs of what was a historic 2013 NFL Draft for the Southeastern Conference.
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San Diego 2024 Olympics in Tijuana? How a cross-border Games could work.
San Diego 2024 Olympics boosters have included events in Tijuana, Mexico, as a selling point. The USOC is reaching out to potential bid cities, and a cross-border Olympics would be a first.
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Cover Story Boston bombing reveals a new American maturity toward insecurity
The post-9/11 'new normal' has evolved: The tactical and emotional responses to the Boston Marathon bombings show what experts call a national maturity toward terrorism that echoes longer experience with such crises in England, Spain, Russia, Japan, and Israel.
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USA Update Bomb suspect Instagram account offers intriguing insights (+video)
Bomb suspect Instagram account was deleted recently – unlike Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's other social media accounts. The bomb suspect also 'liked' an Instagram photo linked to Chechen terrorism.
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USA Update David Ortiz forgiven by FCC for expletive Boston will never forget (+video)
David Ortiz used an expletive in his defiant (and televised) speech Saturday before the first Red Sox home game since the Boston Marathon bombing. The FCC has already weighed in.
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Argument over NRA T-shirt gets eighth-grader jailed. Dress code run amok?
A student at a West Virginia middle school was suspended and arrested after a confrontation with a teacher over an NRA T-shirt with a picture of a rifle on it. Public schools have some leeway in setting dress codes, the Supreme Court has found.
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Trayvon Martin targets: Fired cop fires back, saying it's a conspiracy (+video)
Trayvon Martin targets were not for target practice but were a 'no-shoot training tool,' says the Florida cop who was fired Friday for showing them to colleagues.
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Super Bowl 2013 live blog: Baltimore Ravens are champs ... really? (+video)
The Baltimore Ravens won Super Bowl XLVII, 34-31, in a wildly entertaining game. After the regular season they had, the Ravens' ride to the title is still a bit of a head-scratcher.
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Robert Griffin III plays like Tim Tebow, only better
Robert Griffin III, aka RG3, gives NFL fans something different by running the triple option offense. But RG3 must continue to evolve his QB skills to survive in the NFL.
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What America needs most
A Christian Science perspective.
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Culture Cafe 'Star Wars: Episode 7' - Were we wrong about George Lucas all along? (+video)
The news that 'Star Wars: Episode 7' is on its way and that Disney has bought the 'Star Wars' franchise from George Lucas raises the prospect that the world is only now beginning to understand his vision for the classic trilogy. Disney buying 'Star Wars' could cause a 'Lord of the Rings'-like universe expansion.
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