NFL fines Favre $50K for 'failure to cooperate'

NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL has fined Brett Favre $50,000 for a "failure to cooperate" with the investigation into allegations he sent inappropriate messages and lewd photos to a former New York Jets game-day hostess.

The league says Commissioner Roger Goodell "could not conclude" that Favre violated the league's personal conduct policy based on the evidence currently available.

The league's statement also says Goodell determined Favre was "not candid in several respects during the investigation resulting in a longer review and additional negative public attention for Favre, (Jenn) Sterger and the NFL." The league's investigation began in October and the fine was announced Wednesday.

Favre allegedly sent messages and photos to Sterger two years ago when they were both with the Jets. The allegations against the 41-year-old Minnesota Vikings quarterback surfaced on the website Deadspin.

Read More

Who’s to Blame for Weight Gain?

By Rebekah Rast
It’s no secret that delicious holiday food can add a few extra pounds to the waistline.

But recent studies are attempting to show that weight gain, especially as a young child, is not all the fault of too much food and not enough exercise.

A Newsweek article titled Born to be Big, states, “The evidence now emerging says that being overweight is not just the result of personal choices about what you eat, combined with inactivity," says Retha Newbold of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) in North Carolina, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). “Exposure to environmental chemicals during development may be contributing to the obesity epidemic.” ’

What does this mean? That chemicals in the environment, newly termed obesogens, may lend a helping hand in the obesity epidemic, especially in babies and children. Studies show that these chemicals are found in the water and food supply as well as in other man-made chemicals.

As far-fetched as these new studies sound, one particular agency of the federal government is taking it very seriously — the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Get full story here.

Sarah Palin Is Still Owed Apologies

Video by Frank McCaffrey and Andrius Vaitekunas

Get permalink here.

The Real Financial Crisis

By Adam Bitely

The establishment in Washington, D.C. rose up from the murky swamp to renew their call for expanded, out-of-control government spending via the New York Times editorial page on Christmas. In their typical fashion, they call for more “stimulus” to fix state budgets that refuse to cut even the slightest amount of spending.

Too many people will lose government services if spending is cut, the New York Times and the D.C. establishment argue. How quickly they forget that this was the exact formula that Obama tried and failed miserably in 2009. Not to mention that it was government’s out of control spending that created the whole mess in the first place.

At some point in the late 90’s, politicians on all levels began to operate under an assumption that the prosperity would never end. Spending shot through the ceiling, and the services offered from the government expanded along with it. But now that the bills are coming due and the money has been spent, the very people that caused the mess are begging to be the ones to fix it.
This cannot be allowed.

They argue that all they need to do is have Washington, D.C. send ever more “stimulus” down to the states in order to balance the budgets that they didn’t deal with last year due to congressional handouts. Don’t cut spending, they say, because so many poor people would be affected.
Get full story here.