Sports briefs

Judge blocks daily fantasy sports sites in NY
NEW YORK — A judge today barred daily fantasy sports sites DraftKings and FanDuel from doing business in New York, ordering the country’s two biggest fantasy sports companies to stop taking bets after the state’s attorney general argued their operations were illegal gambling.
State Supreme Court Justice Manuel Mendez’s order siding with Attorney General Eric Schneiderman comes amid increasing debate about whether customers who participate in the popular online fantasy sports games are competitors or bettors.
Mendez noted in the order that the sites were still allowed to operate in other states where allowed.
“The balancing of the equities are in favor of the NYAG and the State of New York due to their interest in protecting the public, particularly those with gambling addictions,” Mendez wrote.
The companies have 30 days to respond.

Boxing’s Larry Holmes now cast in bronze
Boxing great Larry Holmes has never felt fully appreciated in his Pennsylvania hometown of Easton.
Decades after succeeding Muhammad Ali as heavyweight champ, Holmes is finally getting the bronze — a 9-foot bronze statue.
Holmes plans to be on hand this weekend as a high school marching band leads a parade in his honor and a monument to the “Easton Assassin” is unveiled and dedicated.
Now 66, Holmes grew up in Easton and never left, despite a long, lucrative boxing career that took him to the pinnacle of his sport. He built a business empire that included office buildings and restaurants and devoted time and money to youth organizations.
Holmes says it’s “mind-boggling” that a seventh-grade dropout could rise to such heights.