Bow Wow gave his camp a scare Thursday night when the 20-year-old rapper had to be rushed to a Cincinnati hospital after his concert performance at the U.S. Bank Arena.

Bow is said to be doing well but is still in the hospital undergoing tests. His record company, Sony Music, said in a statement on Friday (December 7) that the young superstar appears to be suffering from “stress and exhaustion.”

Not only has Bow been one of the top-line acts on his current tour with Chris Brown, Sean Kingston, Soulja Boy, Lil Mama and others, but he’s also been all over the world during the past few months promoting Face Off, his joint LP with Omarion, which drops Tuesday.

The tour hits Chicago on Friday night, but Bow will not be cleared to take the stage, according to Sony.

“He loves them and will be sure to come back to Chicago soon!” his company said of what Bow wants to express to fans.

Bow is expected to return to the tour very shortly, and as an added bonus, Omarion will be joining the tour on some select dates, which have yet to be announced. If you listen to the duo’s new LP, you can expect Bow and O to hit the road with a full show of their own in 2008. On the title track, Bow proclaims, “Rest in peace to the Scream Tour. It’s the Face Off tour next summer.”

The race for the 73rd Heisman Trophy has mirrored the season itself — it’s been a mad-cap mess.

Candidates rose and fell, sort of like schools ranked No. 2 in the Associated Press poll.

In the same way that Ohio State and Louisiana State ended up as the last teams standing in the Bowl Championship Series standings, the Heisman race also staggered to a finish.

An unprecedented season might lead to an unprecedented result, with Florida quarterback Tim Tebow becoming the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy.

Several key straw polls have tabbed Tebow to win while projecting junior Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden to finish second for a second straight year.

Quarterbacks Chase Daniel of Missouri and Colt Brennan of Hawaii also received invitations to Saturday’s ceremony in New York, but this year’s award seems destined to go to a Southeastern Conference player for the first time since Florida quarterback Danny Wuerffel won in 1996.

It’s been an unusual year when you consider Tebow and McFadden played on teams that combined for seven losses.

Tebow is favored because he posted off-the-chart numbers for 9-3 Florida, becoming the first player to run and pass for at least 20 touchdowns in a season. Tebow led the Gators with 838 rushing yards and also passed for 3,132.

McFadden, after a couple of sub-par midseason games, played himself back into award contention on Thanksgiving weekend with one of the year’s most impressive performances: a 206-yard rushing effort in a win over LSU that included McFadden playing quarterback in Arkansas’ “Wild Hog” formation.

Tebow and McFadden needed a few breaks. Preseason favorites John David Booty of USC, Mike Hart of Michigan, Steve Slaton of West Virginia and Brian Brohm of Louisville all fell out of contention.

Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan appeared the favorite until the Eagles suffered a Nov. 3 home loss to Florida State.

The trophy then seemed Oregon quarterback Dennis Dixon’s to lose until he suffered a season-ending knee injury against Arizona on Nov. 15.

Last weekend, Tebow and McFadden became clear-cut favorites after contenders Pat White of West Virginia and Daniel of Missouri suffered Heisman setbacks.

Daniel, a week after completing 40 of 49 passes for 361 yards and three touchdowns in a win over Kansas, was held without a scoring pass in Missouri’s Big 12 title-game loss to Oklahoma. White suffered a dislocated thumb in West Virginia’s stunning home defeat to Pittsburgh.

Brennan finished sixth in last year’s Heisman Trophy balloting after setting the NCAA single-season record with 58 touchdown passes.

Brennan threw “only” 38 scoring passes this year but led Hawaii to a 12-0 finish and a berth in the Sugar Bowl. Brennan probably earned his Heisman invite after rallying the Warriors from a 21-point deficit last weekend to a 35-28 win over Washington.

Brennan threw for 4,174 yards this season and also became the NCAA’s career leader in touchdown passes with 131.

chris.dufresne@latimes.com

Barry Bonds cleared the courthouse metal detector, smiled and flashed a Hawaiian hang-loose sign to the crowd pressed against a window waiting for a peek.

Hours ahead of his court appearance for charges he lied to a grand jury about his steroid use, Bonds’ supporters started showing up. Some wore San Francisco Giants jackets, another carried a “Free Barry” poster and many cheered when they glimpsed the home run king through a swarm of reporters.

Sacramento travel agent Rich Archuleta, who calls himself Candlestick Rich, held up a Grim Reaper costume on a stick. The get-up came with a sign: “Welcome to the Geo. Mitchell Witch Hunt” - a reference to former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, who’s headed baseball’s investigation into drugs.

“We’re in court. This ain’t nice. He’s the greatest player who ever lived,” Archuleta said. “That hasn’t stopped him. The only thing that stops him is the negative press he gets.”

Nearby on the other side of the courthouse, the marquee above a tire and auto service shop read “Say it ain’t so Barry.” No telling whether the 43-year-old slugger saw it when his SUV rolled up about 25 minutes before his 9 a.m. start time.

Meanwhile, a dozen or so business people dressed in suits lined the first-floor window in the State of California building across the street to monitor the lively scene. More than 20 television cameras were set up.

Allen Jones said he’d been a Giants fan for 40 years. He wore a black T-shirt with this message in orange: “IF BARRY GOES TO JAIL THEN BASEBALL CAN GO TO HELL!”

Jones, who is selling the shirts online for $20, said he doesn’t care whether the seven-time NL MVP used steroids during his pursuit of Hank Aaron’s home run record.

Either way, Jones believes Bonds can become an advocate to help baseball eliminate its steroids problem.

“I have suffered from polio since birth and been on crutches 45 years,” Jones said. “I had a shoulder problem and the only thing that helped it was steroids. I’m against all illegal drugs. If Barry Bonds can hit 762 home runs, I think he can hit a home run against illegal steroid use.”

Bonds finished his 15th year in San Francisco with 762 career homers. Giants owner Peter Magowan told Bonds in September the club would not re-sign him for 2008.

There still is speculation Bonds might wind up across the bay in Oakland. The A’s had interest in acquiring him prior to him being indicted Nov. 15.

“I hope all goes well for him,” A’s owner Lew Wolff said Friday. “Our policy is pretty simple. We try not to comment on free agents and he’s a major free agent, so I’m going to give a major no comment.”

At least some A’s fans were rooting for No. 25 to wear green and gold.

“THE EAST BAY LOVES BARRY!” blared a sign held by Oakland resident Patrick Crotty.

“Unlike San Francisco, we will not turn our backs on him. I think they’re unfairly prosecuting Barry. If they’re going to go after someone, they should go after everyone,” Crotty said.

Bonds appeared in court barely more than four years after he testified before a grand jury that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. He pleaded not guilty to four charges of perjury and one of obstruction of justice.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, the authors of “Game of Shadows” that chronicles Bonds’ alleged longtime steroids regimen, were treated like celebrities outside the courthouse.

Before Bonds’ attorney Michael Rains got in place, he was stopped by a scantily clad activist from the animal-rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She was wearing a lettuce bikini in the Bay Area chill.

“Hey, Rains, would you like a steroid-free sandwich?” 27-year-old Christina Cho of Los Angeles yelled.

“I’ll pass,” he said, smiling.

“Meat contains steroids. Go vegetarian!” she shouted.

CompUSA, the computer and gadget retailer controlled by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim, has been sold to a restructuring and investment firm that will close stores and sell some company assets. The new owner is Boston-based Gordon Brothers Group, which recently helped CompUSA sell under-performing stores.

The terms of the deal were not not disclosed.

Dallas-based CompUSA said on Friday that active discussions are underway to sell its technical services business, CompUSA TechPro, its online sales operation, CompUSA.com, and select stores in key markets.

The chain’s 103 retail stores will remain open and staffed during the holiday season, offering discounts on computer and electronics ahead of the planned store closures.

“An orderly and expedited wind-down and asset sale process is the best option for CompUSA and its creditors at this juncture,” said Bill Weinstein, a Gordon Brothers principal who will be running CompUSA as its interim president.

“We worked long and hard with Gordon Brothers Group to achieve a business solution that maximizes CompUSA’s assets,” said Roman Ross, CompUSA’s current chief executive, who will continue to serve the company in an advisory capacity.

FRIDAY, Dec. 7 (HealthDay News) — The oldest evidence of tuberculosis has been discovered in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey, a finding that contradicts the widely held belief that the disease emerged only several thousand years ago, according to a team of international researchers.The discovery, made during investigation of the new specimen of the human species Homo erectus, lends support to the theory that dark-skinned people who migrated northward from low, tropical latitudes produced less vitamin D, which can have a negative effect on the immune system and the skeleton.

People with dark skin produce less vitamin D because the skin pigment blocks ultraviolet light from the sun.

“The production of vitamin D in the skin serves as one of the body’s first lines of defense against a whole host of infections and diseases. Vitamin D deficiencies are implicated in hypertension, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer,” John Kappelman, a professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin and a member of the international team, said in a prepared statement.

This specimen, believed to be a male, had a series of small lesions etched into the bone of the cranium. The shape and the location of the lesions are characteristic of a form of TB that attacks the lining of the brain.

The findings are published in the Dec. 7 issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.

Before antibiotics were available, doctors prescribed plenty of sunshine and fresh air for TB patients.

“No one knew why sunshine was integral to the treatment, but it worked. Recent research suggests the flush of ultraviolet radiation jump-started the patients’ immune systems by increasing the production of vitamin D, which helped to cure the disease,” Kappelman said.