In Phoenix, Ginger Rough reports Arizona lawmakers who took cross-country trips and accepted free game tickets at the Fiesta Bowl's expense "will receive invoices in the coming weeks asking them to fully reimburse the bowl for those costs." Fiesta Bowl attorneys yesterday confirmed that they are "conducting an investigation to determine the bowl's total outlay on lawmaker gifts and travel so that it can seek reimbursement for those expenses." In some cases, invoices "could be in the thousands of dollars" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 4/14).
COURT REPORT: Yankees fan PORTIA WALTON has hired attorneys MATTHEW BLIT and LES LEVINE, who plan to file a $2M suit against the Yankees and Hard Rock Cafe over an April 4 incident at Yankee Stadium. Walton said that she was "in an outdoor dining area outside the Stadium's Hard Rock Cafe when she put her foot on a metal hatch that had a power cord sticking out of it." She was "jolted by so much electricity, she had to be hospitalized" (N.Y. POST, 4/14)....Former NFLer BILL ROMANOWSKI is "alleging in a new federal lawsuit that he was blindsided by a tax scam." Romanowski said that the setup "involved investing millions of dollars into thoroughbred racehorse breeding in order to collect millions more in tax write-offs." But he alleges that when the operation "crumbled," he discovered that the "law firm that advised him in the investment was secretly on the scheme's payroll" (DENVER POST, 4/13).
CHARITY STRIPE: Cowboys Owner JERRY JONES and his wife, GENE, on Sunday "attended an event at Tony's in Houston to raise money for the ESCAPE Family Resource Center." Jones contributed a total of $220,000 to the cause (DALLASNEWS.com, 4/13)....The Carol Mann LPGA Players Invitational Monday raised a "record $204,000 for The Women's Home" at Champions Golf Club in Houston (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 4/13).
NAMES: MLB Exec VP/Baseball Operations JOE TORRE was honored yesterday at the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards, held in the Great Hall at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum (MLB)....Former NFLer JAMAL LEWIS and his business partner "have offered to buy" the closed Maui Sands water park in Sandusky, Ohio, for $3M. Erie County Common Pleas Court Judge ROGER BINETTE "must approve the sale before it's finalized" (SANDUSKY REGISTER, 4/13)....ESPN received 28 Gold Medals and 69 overall medals at the N.Y. Festivals Int'l Television & Film Awards ceremony Tuesday. For a fourth straight year, ESPN's total topped all entrants, giving the network the honor as Broadcaster of the Year (ESPN)....Tennis player ANDY RODDICK and his wife, supermodel BROOKLYN DECKER, are "moving into a new home this week in Austin, Texas" (N.Y. POST, 4/14).
IN MEMORY: Arsenal investor DANNY FISZMAN passed away yesterday at the age of 66 after a battle with cancer. Fiszman, who joined the Arsenal BOD in '92, recently agreed to allow fellow Arsenal investor STAN KROENKE to buy his shares in the team within 20 days of his death, paving the way for Kroenke's takeover of the EPL club (THE DAILY).
