Mediation meetings don’t help NHL talks

The latest round of NHL labor talks ended with the two sides in different rooms.

The players’ association and league negotiators met separately Wednesday with federal mediators in suburban New Jersey, holding discussions that didn’t appear to have moved the sides any closer to a deal to save the hockey season.

There was hope going into Wednesday that negotiations could get back on track to the point they were last Thursday before talks fell apart.

When the NHL agreed last week to increase its make-whole offer of deferred payments from $211 million to $300 million, it was part of a proposed package that required the union to agree on three non-negotiable points. Instead, the players accepted the raise in funds, but then made counterproposals on the issues the league stated had no wiggle room.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman then said that the offer was being pulled from the table.

No new meetings have been scheduled.

ETC.

Sanchez Sola is new Chivas USA coach

Former Mexican League coach Jose Luis Sanchez Sola was selected as the new coach of Chivas USA, the troubled Major League Soccer team that hasn’t made the playoffs in three seasons.

Sanchez Sola, 53, formerly ran the youth program and then the first-division Mexican team in Puebla, reaching the Clausura semifinals in 2009. With Chivas USA he replaces Robin Fraser, who won 15 games in two years, suffering through a franchise-worst 14-game winless streak to end last season.

—Kevin Baxter

Skip Schumaker passed a physical examination to finalize his trade to the Dodgers from the St. Louis Cardinals.

In exchange for the 32-year-old utility man, the Dodgers sent the Cardinals light-hitting double-A shortstop Jake Lemmerman. The Dodgers designated Scott Van Slyke for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for Schumaker.

Schumaker, a career .288 hitter, is expected to provide the Dodgers with depth at second base and all three outfield positions.

—Dylan Hernandez

The blockbuster trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Josh Beckett and Carl Crawford from Boston to the Dodgers in August will wrap up with the Red Sox paying $11.7 million to the Dodgers over the next three years.

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Texas Tech brought back former Red Raiders quarterback Kliff Kingsbury to become the head football coach.

Kingsbury was the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M;, coaching Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel this year, and was the first in a string of record-setting quarterbacks for the Red Raiders under former coach Mike Leach.

He has never been a head coach and at 33, he’ll be one of the youngest in major-college football.

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An internal investigation into a former player’s allegations of abuse by Washington State football coaches didn’t turn up any evidence of such abuse, Athletic Director Bill Moos said.

A dozen players were interviewed by two members of Moos’ staff, and all reported they were having a positive experience at Washington State under Leach, the head coach, and his assistants, Moos said.

Star receiver Marquess Wilson quit the team during a practice late in the season and later contended that players were suffering physical and mental abuse by coaches.

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Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, who has led the Crimson Tide to its second straight national title game, said he will return for his senior season instead of making himself available for the NFL draft.

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Sacramento center DeMarcus Cousins was suspended for one game without pay by the NBA for striking Dallas’ O.J. Mayo in the groin area in the Kings’ road loss Monday night.

Cousins sat out the Kings’ game Wednesday night at Milwaukee.

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Abby Wambach scored twice to become only the second American woman to reach 150 international goals, and the United States beat China, 4-0, in a soccer exhibition at Houston.