Police say a 2-year-old Florida girl was strangled by a 12-foot pet python on Wednesday. The python escaped from its aquarium and strangled the girl while she was sleeping in her crib.

The snake was the pet of the girl's mother's live-in boyfriend.

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Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins was mired in an 0-for-19 slump last week when manager Charlie Manuel rested the 2007 NL Most Valuable Player for 4 games.


Rollins, at right, was restored to the leadoff spot for Tuesday night's game against the Atlanta Braves and picked up where he left off when he last played in Tampa on June 24. He was hitless in 5 at bats, including two strikeouts. In 2 of the plate appearances, Rollins, now hitting .207, swung at the first pitch.

Much of the struggles for the defending World Champions this season are because of the pitching staff. But Rollins' problems are high on the list.

The Phillies need a lot more from their leadoff hitter. Rollins is 30th in the league with 41 runs scored. When he scores runs, they win. But it's hard to score runs when you can't get on base. Rollins' on-base percentage of .250 is the worst in the league for any regular.

Coming off a title, I expected more from this team than they've showed the first 3 months of the season. They should be running away with the National League East. But until Rollins begins to produce offensively, the Phillies will continue to struggle.

The Philadelphia 76ers announced earlier this week that they were bringing back the team logo they used during the championship seasons of 1966-67 and 1982-83.

The logo is a "76ers basketball" logo with a red, white and blue color scheme.

Now if the 76ers could just come close to achieving the success those teams had a generation ago.

Farrah Fawcett, the pin-up queen of the 1970s and one of the original "Charlie's Angels," died today after a 3-year battle with cancer. She was 62.

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Today, I turn 46.

Ugh. Another year older, hopefully another year wiser.

So now I'm as old as Phillies' left-handed pitcher Jamie Moyer. Like Moyer, I'm left-handed. And also like Moyer, I can't get out major-league hitters, either.

Coming off of a 7-3 road trip, including winning the last 2 games from the hated New York Mets, I thought the Phillies were prime to put a hold on the National League East. I should have known better.

The Phillies have continued their season long road woes throught the first 5 games of a 9-game homestand. They lost 2 of 3 to the Boston Red Sox and lost the first two games of their series with the Toronto Blue Jays, who last weekend were routed in 3 straight games at home to the Florida Marlins.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Phillies placed left fielder Raul Ibanez on the 15-day disabled list this morning with a pulled groin muscle. Ibanez was hitting .312 with 22 home runs and 59 RBI. He is second in the league in homers and RBI.

Fortunately, for the Phillies, the rest of the teams in the division aren't taking advantage of their ineptness.

Judging by our cell phone bill, I thought my two teenage stepdaughters were text messaging queens. But I was wrong.

A 15-year-old girl from Des Moines, Iowa, was crowned the text messaging champion Tuesday after winning the LG U.S. National Texting Championship. (Yes, there is such a thing.)

The Iowa girl sends more than 14,000 texts a month, but this contest included texting while blindfolded and texting while maneuvering through a moving obstacle course.

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