Most people with taxable investment portfolios are familiar with the concept of “loss harvesting.� The concept is simple: sell positions at a loss prior to year-end to lock in the potential tax benefits. These losses can be used to offset realized gains, and up to $3,000 of losses may be used against ordinary income for federal income tax purposes in any calendar year. Any losses not used can be carried over into subsequent years. Investors should work closely with their advisors to ensure that they do not violate the so-called “wash-sale rules� by purchasing “substantially identical� securities within 30 days before or after the sale that resulted in a capital loss. This can inadvertently happen when an investor has multiple accounts or financial institutions, as each may be unaware of what the other is doing.

By Joel Mathis and Ben Boychuk http://www.coachonlineoutlet.us.com

“Our first Hollister Freedom Rally is over and we thought it was a great event for the bikers, the locals and anyone else that was lucky enough to be there," he wrote. "Being a free rally it can be challenging to determine the total attendance, but based on the number of bikes that were there each day and the traffic in the vendor area, we are estimating a number that is just North of 40,000. And, although this is the number we will share with the media, this is not a precise science. It is only an estimate. Our team worked really hard, but had a great time and enjoyed this opportunity. We want to acknowledge everyone in Hollister including all the media channels, local business leaders, the City, the Police Department, Public Works and the Downtown Association for all that everyone did. In particular we want to acknowledge Chief Westrick. His vision and leadership qualities kept the planning side of the rally on pace and was a critical element in the overall success of the event. And, special thanks to Brenda (Weatherly from the HDA) and her team who provided us with mountains of information and historical data. She was always there when we needed her."

Basketball is officially back — well, sort of. 

The NBA preseason started last week and former Arizona Wildcats basketball standout Richard Jefferson is already making noise for his new team, the Cleveland Cavaliers. 

Jefferson posterized Atlanta Hawks center Walter Tavares last night with a monstrous dunk that earned him the No. 1 play in "SportsCenter's" Top 10 Plays. As the game's broadcaster put it, he "turned back the hands of time" — Jefferson is 35.

Although the Hawks edged the Cavs 98-96, even LeBron James couldn't believe Jefferson's slam. See the video below. 

Jefferson didn't play very well, shooting 2 of 9 from the field for seven points. But his dunk certainly made up for his lack of production from the field. 

The Cavaliers play again tonight when they take on the Philadelphia 76ers. 

LOUDON, N.H. — Raised in Connecticut, Joey Logano always considered New Hampshire his home track, the one where he dreamed of being bathed in confetti in Victory Lane and flocked by family and friends.

For Logano, the track about 75 miles outside of Boston was his version of Daytona.

Winning at New Hampshire could mean a bit more to him than a boyhood fantasy fulfilled when the season ends — it could be Logano’s launching pad for his first NASCAR championship.

Logano helped Team Penske strengthen its grip as the organization to beat for the championship, pulling away on an overtime restart to win Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and advance to the second round of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Make it 2 for 2 for Team Penske in the Chase.

“We’re doing what we’ve got to do to win this thing right now,� Logano said.

Logano and teammate Brad Keselowski, who won the Chase opener at Chicagoland, have both advanced to the next round. Four drivers will be eliminated after every third race, and a win guarantees a driver an automatic berth into the next round. The first cutoff race is next week at Dover International Speedway.

Team Penske will be playing with house money at the Monster Mile. Roger Penske’s crew is rolling, winning four of the last five races dating to Bristol and snagging the early lead on the scorecard against Hendrick Motorsports.

Will Power won the IndyCar Series championship for Penske last month.

Logano raced to his fourth victory of the season, leading 73 laps and surviving a NASCAR season-high 15 cautions that wrecked results for several Chase drivers.

He took the lead from Kevin Harvick with 27 laps left and went on to his seventh career Cup victory.



Keselowski led 78 laps, hit the wall, and still was in the hunt for a win. The 2012 champion failed in his bid to win a third straight Cup race, though he salvaged a seventh-place finish.

Keselowski and Logano are 1-2 in the points standings. Denny Hamlin, Greg Biffle, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola are in the bottom four of the 16-driver field at and risk of getting cut next Sunday at Dover.

Rookie Kyle Larson was second at New Hampshire for his second top-three finish in two weeks.



SINGAPORE — Lewis Hamilton took the lead in the Formula One drivers’ championship by winning the Singapore Grand Prix, leapfrogging teammate Nico Rosberg who had to retire early with a gear-selection failure.

Hamilton led comfortably but was forced into a late pit-stop, briefly giving up the race lead to Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel, before he passed the German seven laps from the finish to win by 13.5 seconds at the Marina Bay circuit.

No photoshopping here … yes Laredo really is that handsome! Laredo is about a year old. He was rescued from the streets. When rescued, he was very emaciated and had been starving. Blood work revealed his liver enzymes were high due to lack of nutrition. Once he had good food, love, and a nice soft kitty bed to recover on for a while his blood work was rechecked showing his liver had healed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Serena Williams says Maria Sharapova "showed a lot of courage" in taking responsibility for her failed drug test.

On Monday, the Russian star revealed she tested positive the day she lost to Williams in the Australian Open quarterfinals in January. At a news conference Tuesday to promote an exhibition at Madison Square Garden, Williams didn't want to talk about the fact she had faced an opponent with a banned substance in her system.

The 21-time Grand Slam champion said that like the rest of the sports world, she was "surprised and shocked" to hear the news about Sharapova.

"I think most people were happy she was upfront and very honest and showed a lot of courage to admit to what she had done and what she had neglected to look at in terms of the list at the end of the year," Williams said.

Sharapova announced she tested positive for meldonium, a blood flow-promoting drug she said she had been taking for 10 years for various health issues. Meldonium was banned because it aids oxygen uptake and endurance, and players were notified of the changes in the WADA banned substances list in December. Sharapova claimed she simply neglected to click on the link.

She could face a long ban from the International Tennis Federation, possibly ending her season and preventing her from competing at the Olympics.

"It's just taking responsibility, which she admitted that she was willing to do and ready to do," Williams said. "Just hope for the best for everybody in that situation."

Sharapova and Williams have had some barbed words for each other in the past off the court, but on Tuesday, Williams was fully supportive. While Sharapova is one of her biggest rivals based on the Russian's results and five major titles, Williams has dominated the head-to-head series, winning the last 18 meetings over more than a decade.

"As Maria said, she's ready to take full responsibility," Williams said. "She showed a lot of courage and a lot of heart. I think she's always shown courage and heart in everything she's done, and this is no different."

A fellow Nike endorser, Williams declined to comment on the shoe company's decision to suspend its relationship with Sharapova.

Two-time Grand Slam finalist Caroline Wozniacki, who faces Williams in the exhibition Tuesday night, agreed with her good friend's assessment of Sharapova's announcement. Wozniacki acknowledged, though, the lengths elite athletes typically go through to ensure they don't accidentally ingest banned substances.

"Any time we take any medication, we double, triple and quadruple check, because sometimes even things like cough drops or nasal sprays can be on the list," Wozniacki said. "I think as athletes we always make sure to really make sure there's nothing in it."

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin, who was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame on Tuesday, said many questions needed to be answered before she could judge Sharapova's case.

"I think we're all a little bit sad and disappointed about the situation," she said on a conference call. "It's never good for the game."

Marat Safin, who on Tuesday became the first Russian elected to the Tennis Hall, agreed, noting that it's not uncommon for players to miss that a substance has been added to the banned list. He said he believed that Sharapova did not intend to cheat, but then quickly added: "I want to believe so."

You’re rounding the third turn going somewhere north of 100 miles per hour, protected by a lump of twisted metal, and all of a sudden, you wonder.

Did I turn in my homework?

This is Dylan Cappello’s life. Racing toward a potential future as a race car driver on the weekends. Racing between classes during the week.

He is a freshman at Northern Arizona University and the reigning Lucas Oil Modified Series champion. How’s that for a résumé? He’ll join more than two dozen slashes on Saturday at the starting line for the Geico Arizona Shoot Out at Tucson Speedway.

What exactly are slashes? Slashes are guys like Pat Petrie of Henderson, Nevada, a race car driver slash program specialist for the state health and human services department. Slashes are guys like Jason Patison, the 2006 Lucas Oil Modified Series champion slash television programming director. Shelby Stroebel owns a construction business in Idaho; two-time champion Jason Mardis doubles as a UPS driver.

And like Cappello, Colby Potts is a college student, balancing books and bolts, albeit at Arizona State.

This is duality at its finest.

“I’ve been racing since I was probably 4 years old — it’s always been a big part of my life — but going to school, you have to balance life out,� Cappello said. “You have to keep it around fifty-fifty.�

To his credit, and probably his parents’ delight, it might even be sixty-forty, tilted toward college life.

Cappello is 19 years old, a mechanical engineering major. He loves the outdoors, fishing, hunting. He is from Phoenix but loves Flagstaff.

When he was 5, he made a life call, a big one. He ditched the ice hockey rink for the track. It was a weighty decision. So what if he was just off a Big Wheel?

His dad, Daniel, was a driver, too, a gearhead. That’s how Dylan caught the bug. He hasn’t been able to shake it yet.

He spends much of Monday through Thursday as your average student, albeit probably with more grease under his fingernails. He often misses Fridays for race preparation, and his weekends are almost solely devoted to the sport he loves.

“I love doing this,� he said. “I wouldn’t be doing it if I didn’t love doing it. I have an end goal in mind.�

Ah, there’s the rub.

It’s easy to wonder what keeps guys going on the fringes of professional sports, when the big leagues look a million miles away, when every sponsor’s dollar is worth its weight in gasoline.

It’s the dream. Cappello has been alive less than two decades, and he has been doing this a decade-and-a-half. Three quarters of his life, he has put into this. Every tinker of every tweak of every twist of every nut and every bolt. He’s chasing something.

“With the success, I have a lot of people behind me,� Cappello said. “My parents, that keeps me going. Being right there, you know? There’s always talk about what we could do next year.�

Cappello has it plotted out. After this, he says, there’s E Series, which is televised, and a lot of people from there make it to NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. All he needs is a few more wins, a few more smiles, a few more sponsors.

“With the win last year, I gained exposure, people know about me more. … Half the sport is who you know,� Cappello said. “Who you know and who they know. You run into somebody, and you have to be presentable, talk nicely; it’s a big part of it. It’s about getting lucky. Talent isn’t gonna get you all the way there nowadays.�

He gets it. He understands the game. Smart kid. Mechanical engineering major and all.

Phil Mickelson shot a 5-under 67 in the first round of the Cadillac Championship in Doral, Fla., on Thursday.

DORAL, Fla. — Phil Mickelson’s scores from Doral over the past two years clearly suggested that the redesigned Blue Monster wasn’t completely to his liking.

He had to relearn a course that he played for more than 20 years, and indicated Thursday that he finally has the new Doral figured out.

Mickelson shot a 5-under 67 on Thursday in the opening round of the Cadillac Championship, the first World Golf Championships event of the year. Seeking his first win since the British Open in 2013, Mickelson made seven birdies and finished the day one shot back of leaders Scott Piercy and Marcus Fraser.

“There is a bit of a learning curve on some of the contours and where you have to go and where you want to go and the best place to be,� Mickelson said.

Fraser had seven birdies before his lone bogey of the day, and Piercy also got to 7 under at one point before settling for his 66.

Mickelson made bogey only twice, immediately erasing each with a birdie on the following hole, and the 67 was nearly six full shots better than his average round score at Doral in his previous two visits.

His best round on the Blue Monster in 2014 was a 69, and his low score at Doral last year was 71.

Danny Willett, Adam Scott, Jason Dufner and Charley Hoffman were all two shots back of Piercy, each carding 68s. World No. 1 Jordan Spieth was in a group another shot back, three off the pace at 3 under, and said that even on a relatively calm day by Doral weather standards, it felt like a grind.

SINGAPORE — Australian teenager Minjee Lee, seeing things clearer than ever after a chance visit to an optometrist, grabbed a share of the lead with Taiwan’s Candie Kung at the LPGA’s Women’s Champions tournament in Singapore on Thursday.

Lee made four birdies and an eagle in her opening round of 5-under 67 to join Kung at the top of the leaderboard on a windy day at the Sentosa Golf Club.

Defending champion Inbee Park was among a group of four players tied for third at 4-under 68

LOS ANGELES – Bryce Alford had 25 points, including a game-winning three-pointer with three seconds left, while UCLA held off a late Arizona rally for an 87-84 win at Pauley Pavilion.

UCLA was dominant until the final few minutes, shooting 51.6 percent from the field and making 11 of 22 three-pointers, both beating the Wildcats off the dribble and sinking shots over their defense.

The loss dropped Arizona to 13-2 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-12, entering a game at USC on Saturday at the Galen Center. The Wildcats had won eight straight games since losing to Providence on Nov. 27 in Fullerton, Calif.

It was the Wildcats’ biggest margin of defeat since they lost at USC 89-78 on Feb. 27, 2013, and the first time they had lost in double figures since Feb. 27, 2013, when USC beat the Wildcats 89-78.

The Wildcats trailed by up to 14 points in the second half but a three-pointer from Allonzo Trier cut the Bruins’ lead to 83-78 with 2:05 left. Kadeem Allen made a layup to pull UA within 83-80 and, after Alford missed a jumper, Allen drove inside for a layup and drew a foul.

Allen made the and-one to tie the game at 83 before Isaac Hamilton hit the second of two free throws to give UCLA an 84-83 lead, and UA then called timeout after getting the ball downcourt with 17.5 seconds left.

Ryan Anderson drove the ball inside and drew a foul from Hamilton, but hit only the first of two free throws, leaving the game tied at 84 with 10.9 seconds left when UCLA called a timeout to set up its final play.

Alford then stepped back for a three-pointer to win the game, walking back up the court almost nonchalantly afterward while fans celebrated. Alford had also hit three late three-pointers in UCLA's double-overtime loss at Washington last Friday.

In the first half, UCLA shot 51.4 percent and Bryce Alford hit a pair of three-pointers in the final 41 seconds before halftime while the Bruins took a 43-36 halftime lead.

Alford finished with 10 points in the half, while Aaron Holiday had 12 to lead UCLA. Kaleb Tarczewski had eight points and five rebounds for Arizona, which shot 42.9 percent.

Arizona started off slowly, failing to score over the first three minutes of the game. The Wildcats missed three shots and turning the ball over twice in that span, and trailed until the final minutes.

UCLA took leads of up to eight points, 28-20 on a jumper from Bryce Alford with 6:45 left, but Arizona pulled back within a point by the time Parker Jackson-Cartwright hit a three-pointer with 4:18 left.

Jackson-Cartwright hit another three, this time from the left corner, to give the Wildcats their first lead of the half, 34-33, with 2:47 left, and it remained close the rest of the way.