Since we last left off, we reveled in the success of our own Lauren Cheney and her teammates on the U.S. women's national team in their epic, historic defeat of Marta-led Brazil in the Women's World Cup, discussed Kareem's love affair with the Dodgers, broke down some of the pertinent numbers behind UCLA's dismal decade in football, highlighted another edition of AllHailMightyBruins' summer name association series, and officially added a new "initialed" Ben Ball Warrior, LJ.

With that, let's get to the mid-week round-up of your bits and pieces of news from around the UCLA-iverse:

• Starting with basketball, Ben Howland got an early jump on his recruiting for the Class of 2014, making a scholarship to standout point guard Parker Cartwright from Loyola.  Despite being small at this point in time (he's entering his sophomore year in high school), the scouts widely expect him to fill out and to be a top tier PG prospect.
• Moving on to football, there's chatter that BYU running back/linebacker Collin Keoshian is leaving Provo for good and is considering moving on to play football in Westwood.
• Speaking of football, Jon Gold wrote up a profile of Johnathan Franklin for Lindy's Sports, including some quick quotes from Jet Ski on his goals for this upcoming football season.
  
• In campus news, UCLA Medical Center has announced the launch of a new program that will focus on reconstructive transplantation. In other words, for people who are severly disfigured, UCLA, again demonstrating its always-innovative and cutting-edge approaches, will provide face, hand and abdominal wall transplants.
• Sticking with campus news, Coldplay will headline a charity concert at the UCLA Tennis Center on August 3.  Proceeds from the concert will go to the Grammy Foundation's youth musical education programs.  With the dire cuts that public schools all over California are facing, anything that gets dollars to music programs in our schools is a good thing.  If you're around campus in early August, check it out.
• In Texas, former UCLA tennis player Jeffrey Fleming took the stand in the aggravated assault trial of a drunk jackass Chancellor Hutcheson who viciously sucker-punched Fleming during a concert two years ago, which caused Fleming to spend four weeks in a medically-induced coma and ending his UCLA tennis career.  Although Fleming has made major strides in his recovery, he still has a long way to go, so keep him in your thoughts, especially as he summons the strength to face his assailant in court.
• Finally, don't forget that this weekend is Carmageddon.  If you're trying to get to UCLA or Westwood this weekend, remember that the 405 will be shut down between the 101 and the 10, so you'll be stuck on surface streets.

And that is your mid-week update.  Fire away with your thoughts.

GO BRUINS