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  The Chicago Bears made a move to upgrade their defensive line in the second round of the NFL draft. And they added to their defensive secondary in the third round. The Bears traded with the Washington Redskins on Friday night to move up from No. 62 to No. 53 and select defensive tackle Stephen Paea of Oregon State. The Redskins also got the Bears’ fourth-round pick, No. 127 overall. The 6-foot-1, 295-pound Paea was an All-American last season for the Beavers. He had 14 sacks and nine forced fumbles in his career. Chicago is looking for help on the defensive front after releasing former Pro Bowl defensive tackle Tommie Harris. Paea said he can play nose guard or tackle. In the third round, the Bears took safety Christopher Conte of California with the 93rd overall pick. Conte had 72 tackles, one interception and blocked a punt that he returned for a touchdown last season. In the first round, with the 29th overall pick on Thursday, the Bears beefed up their off...

By DAVID J. NEAL Shortly after Dolphins first-round pick Mike Pouncey finished meeting with coaches and Dolphins front office personnel and the South Florida media Friday evening, the NFL got its court ordered stay that restored the lockout. Perhaps somebody slipped Pouncey the playbook between the time he met with the media and the time he left the Dolphins Davie offices. The resumption of the lockout means teams and players must again act like they have restraining orders against each other. “I just came in here and really just visited the facility and met everybody,” Pouncey said about an hour before the lockout was restored. “I guess we’ll handle the playbook sometime down the line when it’s time for camp.” When that will be is up in the air. The Dolphins originally planned to have rookie camp next weekend, and several players had been at the Davie facility Friday. The players’ side has filed a brief arguing agai...

  After an awkwardly long wait throughout the first two rounds of the NFL Draft (and into the third), Ryan Mallett ended up getting picked by the New England Patriots with the 73rd overall pick. Despite the general unpleasantness of the moments leading up to his selection, Mallett really wound up in an excellent spot. So much of a person's pro career depends on the good fortune of going to a solid organization, with strong ownership and good coaches, and teams don't come much more solid than the Patriots. In the best case, Mallett works hard, learns from masters like Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, and eventually inherits the starting QB position of a championship team (we'll call this the Joe Montana/ Steve Young scenario). If not that, it's still an excellent chance to learn from the best and possibly get traded to another team looking for a starter in a couple of years (we'll call this the Matt Cassell scenario). Either way, it's hard to imagine...

  Nepotism is alive and well - very well, in fact - with the Oakland Raiders. But the fact Stefen Wisniewski's uncle, Steve Wisniewski, was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection for the Raiders and is now their assistant offensive line coach is not the overriding reason why Oakland selected the All-America guard for Penn State with their first pick of the 2011 draft, No. 48 overall, last night. Sentimentality is nice at family reunions, but productivity is always an NFL team's first consideration. Oakland did not have a first-rounder in the draft, which opened Thursday night, having sent it to the New England Patriots last year in exchange for former Pro Bowl defensive lineman Richard Seymour. "Just because Steve was there didn't necessarily mean it was going to happen," said Eddie Johnson, of Eastern Athletic Services, which represents Wisniewski. "Need dictated the pick more than anything. And, of course, the Raiders had a lot of knowledge about S...

a "premium" offshoot of the standard Hulu service, arrives on Microsoft's Xbox Live today –– and for a full week, thanks to a new promotion deal, Hulu Plus is completely and totally free. (Translation: the window is open through May 6.) After Friday, users will pay the usual Hulu Plus rate of $7.99 per week, which more or less stacks up with Netflix prices. Of course, that $7.99 comes on top of whatever fees you're already paying for your Xbox Live membership. For the uninitiated: Hulu Plus, which launched last year, has a far larger library than regular old Hulu, including a range of movies, and a bunch of television shows. So how does Hulu Plus on Xbox Live stack against the original version? RELATED: Kinect: The fast-selling gadget in the world In a less than complimentary review of the Xbox-bound Hulu, Chris Kohler of Wired calls the application "unfinished," and another term not appropriate for use in a family newspaper. "There’s...

  Social Security is closing the books on the era of paper checks. Starting in May, anyone applying for Social Security benefits will only have the option to receive them electronically. The 10 million people who still receive Social Security checks by mail -- about one in every seven recipients -- still have nearly two years to make the switch to direct deposit. Here are some details behind the move: TIMING The U.S. Department of the Treasury will start the full changeover effective May 1. Social Security recipients currently getting checks will need to switch to direct deposit by March 1, 2013. Further details are at www.ssa.gov , where you can also watch videos publicizing the switch that feature actors George Takei and Patty Duke. Anyone needing to make the switch can do so at www.godirect.org . REASONING It's safer and more reliable to do receive payments this way. "You don't have to worry about your check being lost or stolen and your money is availa...

  Pass rusher? Nah, forget that. The Patriots [team stats] coach likes what he has in-house. He likes his young group of linebackers so much that he didn’t feel compelled to make a move. At least, that’s what he claimed after last night’s proceedings. We’ll respectfully disagree. But we’ve been beating that drum for a while. So let’s move onto the pick that makes Belichick one of the shrewdest operators in the business. You want sizzle? You want spice? You want the ultimate roll of the dice? Try Ryan Mallett. While teams were scrambling for quarterbacks all over the board, jumping all over each other for kids who just might not be that good, Belichick merely swooped in during the third round and probably stole the best one of the bunch. Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Christian Ponder, Blaine Gabbert, Andy Dalton and Colin Kaepernick were all gobbled up before the Pats locked in and selected the somewhat controversial Arkansas quarterback with the 74th pick. Is this Tom...