Either way, I think my response would be the same…

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SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Farmers who sold corn to bankrupt ethanol producer VeraSun Energy Corp. have been receiving letters asking for repayment of funds due to “bankruptcy preference.”

The Iowa State University’s Center for Agricultural Law and Taxation says the letters are telling growers who sold corn to VeraSun in the 90 days before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that they have until Sept. 30 to repay 80 percent of what VeraSun paid them for their corn.

National and state corn growers associations are telling their members they might have defenses and they should consult with an attorney.

Sioux Falls-based VeraSun filed for bankruptcy in October 2009 after tightening credit markets erased its lifeline to weather the swings in corn and fuel prices.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

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Guns and Weapons Policy
This policy applies to all employees of the NFL and its member clubs, including players.

Prohibitions. Whether possessed legally or illegally, guns and other weapons of any kind are dangerous. You and your family can easily be the losers if you carry or keep these items in your home. You must not possess these weapons while traveling on League-related business or whenever you are on the premises of the following:

• A facility owned, operated or being used by an NFL club (for example, training camp, dormitory, locker room, workout site, parking area, team bus, team plane, team hotel/motel);

• A stadium or any other venue being used for an NFL event (for example, a game, practice or promotion);

• A facility owned or operated by the NFL or any League company.

Put simply, the League, the Players Association and law enforcement authorities urge you to recognize that you must not possess a gun or other weapon at any time you are performing any service for your team or the NFL.

Legal Possession. In some circumstances, such as for sport or protection, you may legally possess a firearm or other weapon. However, we strongly recommend that you not do so. Any weapon, particularly a firearm, is dangerous — especially so when it is in a vehicle or within reach of children and others not properly trained in its use.

Understanding the Law. If you legally possess a weapon, you must understand the local, state and federal laws that apply. The NFL Security Representative in your area will help you get information about these laws. You should be aware that if you take a weapon from one place to another — for example, across state lines — a different set of laws may apply in the new place.

Discipline. If you violate this policy on guns and other weapons, you are subject to discipline, including suspension from playing. And if you violate a public law covering weapons — for example, possession of an unlicensed firearm — you are not only subject to discipline, including suspension from playing, but also subject to criminal prosecution.

Remember, be careful and understand the risks.

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The first league is the most spendy league I’m in…it’s $150 to buy in…which is enough, but there is more money to be won then.  The guy that runs it brings quite a pile of beer, it’s an evening hanging out with some guys and getting loaded so the cost compared to a normal night out with a few buddies is comparable.  I had pick seven…which isn’t the greatest but after going through the draft I thought it worked out alright.  I would prefer having a pick in the top 3 or bottom 3.  Picking right in the middle gives you middle picks for each round.  The numbers should work out pretty even, but it -seems- like having a higher pick in rounds is worth more than mid range picks…but it should average out.

Here are my picks, not in “picked” order:

STARTERS
QB	Drew Brees, NO QB [Breaking News]
RB	LeSean McCoy, Phi RB [Breaking News]
RB	Arian Foster, Hou RB [Breaking News]
RB/WR	C.J. Spiller, Buf RB [Breaking News]
WR	Miles Austin, Dal WR
WR	Wes Welker, NE WR  P [Recent News]
TE	Brent Celek, Phi TE
LB	D.J. Williams, Den LB [Recent News]
LB	Jonathan Vilma, NO LB  P [Breaking News]
DL	Julius Peppers, Chi DE
DL	Trent Cole, Phi DE  P [Breaking News]
DB	Yeremiah Bell, Mia S
DB	Tyvon Branch, Oak S
D/ST	Eagles D/ST, Phi D/ST
K	Robbie Gould, Chi K
HC	Falcons Coach, Atl HC
BENCH
Bench	Robert Meachem, NO WR [Breaking News]
Bench	Malcom Floyd, SD WR
Bench	Demaryius Thomas, Den WR  Q [Recent News]
Bench	Dwight Freeney, Ind DE [Recent News]
Bench	Kevin Smith, Det RB  P [Breaking News]
Bench	Brian Westbrook, SF RB  P [Breaking News]
IR

There are some weak points, but I think there is some potential there to work out well.  CJ is a reach, but he was a good value in the round I picked him up.  Last year was my first year in this league and I was really not happy with my team.  This year I put in more effort, thought things out more and I think I did a lot better in the draft.  This league is also a PPR league and QB TD’s are worth 6.  PPR is new to this league this year and when I plugged in the league scoring into a website, the PPR change made a pretty significant difference in the order it said to pick these guys.  The scoring last year was high, this year I think it’s going to take 200pts/wk to win consistently.  It seemed to me that some guys were still stuck on the old “rb’s are king” mentality when running through this draft.  The paperwork I had didn’t reflect that…but maybe my stuff is wrong.  It’s really all just a crap shoot.  One or two key injuries is going to take a guy right out of contention.

This is my favorite league.  The guys that are in it take the game “seriously” but not over the top.  They do some homework, show up for the draft ready to pick…everyone has a computer and we do it online all in the same room.  There is quite a bit of smack talk going on, lots of beer drinking…and some poker playing afterward.  The entry fee and potential winnings are high enough that people don’t just see it as throw away money for the most part.  It makes for a pretty enjoyable experience.

The second draft of the weekend was held a Buffalo Wild wings.  I didn’t think too much of this until I noticed UFC 118 was going to be going on the same night.  I figured it was going to be pretty packed and really loud.  It was my first year in this league and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  I assumed it would be something like the first league…I was wrong.  BW’s has a wireless connection so I brought my laptop.  It was only myself and the league manager that brought laptops.  10 other guys were drafting from sheets of paper that the league manager provided with the top 160 guys listed.  They didn’t come with anything on their own.  I didn’t really understand that…but maybe they were just in it to hang out and screw around…no biggie.

My picks, not in picked order:

STARTERS
QB	Matt Ryan, Atl QB [Breaking News]
RB	Maurice Jones-Drew, Jac RB  Q [Breaking News]
RB	LeSean McCoy, Phi RB [Breaking News]
RB/WR	Knowshon Moreno, Den RB  Q [Breaking News]
WR	Wes Welker, NE WR  P [Recent News]
WR	Jerricho Cotchery, NYJ WR
TE	John Carlson, Sea TE
DP
D/ST
K	Matt Prater, Den K
BENCH
Bench	Eddie Royal, Den WR
Bench	Cadillac Williams, TB RB [Breaking News]
Bench	Devin Hester, Chi WR [Recent News]
Bench	Kevin Smith, Det RB  P [Breaking News]
Bench	Ted Ginn Jr., SF WR
Bench	Kyle Orton, Den QB
Bench
IR

In this league we have 17 slots and we did 14 rounds live at BW’s.  The last 3 slots we will pick up on FA/Waivers before the season.  Normally I wouldn’t be happy about having to burn waiver position, but everyone had to do it so it should come out fairly even.  In this league we drew for draft position from a hat, I picked #2.  I was pretty happy with that position as it gave me an opportunity to get one of the top RB’s.  This is not a PPR league, and QB TD’s are worth 4.  IMO that makes RB’s king.  Guys made some picks in this league that I didn’t quite understand.  Favre went as the 2nd qb and he was picked in the 2nd round…it seemed way to early for me.  But…as the guys were picking it seemed to me that I would have to adjust my mentality.  QB’s started to come off the board early and quickly.  As I looked at my sheets there are tiers at each position, if you don’t get a pick in the upper tier you can wait and get one in the 2nd tier.  There is quite a drop off between 1 and 2…but not so much of a drop off between each player in the given tiers…make sense?  So my thinking is always if the first few in the 1st tier are taken…I’ll wait and get some on the 2nd tier.  When the QB’s started to come off all the tier 1′s are gone quick..then the tier 2′s start going very quickly…almost all before it got back to me.  Even though I thought it was really early to pick up a QB, if I didn’t take one with the way they were coming off the board…I’d be dropping down to tier 3.  I took Ryan…which might be tier 3 anyhow.  There were a few guys that picked backup qb’s before they had a fully stable of RB’s and WR’s…picked backup te’s and backup defenses.

I mentioned earlier this league picked 14 and has 17 slots.  I didn’t pick a defense or an individual defensive player, I can pick one up on waivers and it really doesn’t matter.  If nothing else I’ll play the match up game and switch on some weeks.  Kickers for the most part are my last pick…someone else picked Gould so I went with Prater.  I’m not an expert, but I don’t think it’s smart to waste a pick on a backup defense or te…I think these can be picked up later if needed.  I’m not particularly thrilled with my picks in this league over all.  I think I’ve got a couple that aren’t too bad, but there are some weak spots and a couple of chances…we’ll see I guess.

The last league…I was hung over…basically threw away some money.  I could have a chance, given some of the other teams that were put together, but over all I don’t feel great about the team.  Who knows…maybe this is the one I’ll dominate in.  I don’t remember all my picks.  I was slotted to draft #10, which might not have been too bad.  There was a guy pickin #4 that wanted to trade out of that spot for some reason so we swapped 1st and 2nd round slots.  I did this the day of the draft and didn’t sit down and push the fantasy projection numbers to see if this was to my advantage.  My gut feeling is the numbers probably show that it wasn’t a smart move, but it “felt” like an O.K. move.  By doing this, I ended up with MJD and I think I picked CJ after that…which was a HUGE stretch and probably a dumb-ass pick.  In the first league he was fine where I got him, but in the 2nd round?  I really should have went receiver or something.  We’ll see how it works out.  Picks got progressively dumber after that…

This is the last year I do the trifecta in the same weekend.  I’d do all 3 leagues again, but not all in the same weekend.  I’d like to be able to put some more effort in the drafting process than I did on Sunday.  Some of the guys in this league kinda irritate me a little, they won’t show up for the draft and have someone else pick, they don’t do homework before hand…there isn’t really that much smack talking done and they leave early.  The reason I don’t like this is because it doesn’t feel like everyone is putting in all their effort (yeah yeah, I was hung over…took some fliers, but we’ll see).  I like to feel like I’m competing against people that are doing all they can to win…I want to feel like I beat someone on their A game.

What’s really going to piss me off is if one of these 2 defense drafting guys end up winning the league.  We’ll see how it goes though, let the games begin!

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I can’t get my head around the idea that it’s OK to keep a loaded weapon in the house.  There are many people that keep one for “self defense” or whatever but I just can’t do it.  Even the pistol I have locked in the pistol safe doesn’t have a round in the chamber…I can’t bring myself to keep a loaded gun in the house.  The risk/reward just isn’t there at all.

It’s these kinds of “accidents” that can easily be prevented.  These “accidents” are what keeps the ignorant public fearful of firearms and stories like this are used to back tighter legislation and further restrictions.  We need to enforce the laws on the books, this guy needs to be charged with what he can be charged with currently.

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FARGO – Police say no one was injured when a handgun accidentally discharged in a south Fargo condo early today.

Sgt. Bill Ahlfeldt said the gun’s owner had just had some repair work done on the gun and was testing it at about 1:45 a.m. to see if a round would cycle through. As he tried to extract the live round from the chamber, the pistol went off in the home in the 3000 block of 23rd Avenue South.

“It was either some type of mechanical malfunction with the weapon or operator error,” Ahlfeldt said.

The bullet traveled through an exterior wall and into an open courtyard-type area, he said.

Officers checked on residents of homes in the bullet’s likely trajectory but found no injuries and no signs that the bullet had entered another home, Ahlfeldt said.

Police plan to file a long-form complaint in municipal court against the owner for discharge of a firearm in city limits, he said.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Stephen Strasburg has a torn elbow ligament and most likely needs Tommy John surgery, bringing the pitcher’s promising rookie season to an abrupt end.

Washington Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo said Friday an MRI on the right elbow revealed a “significant tear.” Strasburg will travel to the West Coast for a second opinion, but Rizzo anticipates the 22-year-old right-hander will need the operation that requires 12 to 18 months of rehabilitation.

“I look at the bright side,” Rizzo said. “Tommy John surgery is a surgery that we’ve had great success at. The success rate for guys coming back from Tommy John and retaining their stuff is very good.”

Strasburg was pulled from Saturday’s game at Philadelphia when he grimaced and shook his wrist after throwing a changeup. The Nationals initially called the injury a strained flexor tendon in the forearm, but an MRI taken Sunday raised enough questions for the Nationals to order a more extensive MRI in which dye is injected into the arm.

The No. 1 overall pick in the 2009 draft, Strasburg struck out 14 batters in a sensational major league debut in June. He is 5-3 with a 2.91 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 68 innings.

But he has had medical setbacks along the way, despite the team’s best efforts to be as cautious as possible with their prized youngster. He was placed on the disabled list a month ago with inflammation in the back of his right shoulder. He was making his third start since returning from the DL when he had to leave the game against Philadelphia.

“The player was developed and cared for in the correct way, and things like this happen,” Rizzo said. “Pitchers break down, pitchers get hurt and we certainly are not second-guessing ourselves. … Frustrated? Yes. But second-guessing ourselves? No.”

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NEW YORK — The college student accused of slashing a taxi driver because he was aMuslim has been taken to a New York City psychiatric ward.

Correction Department spokesman Stephen Morello said Michael Enright, of Brewster, N.Y., was taken from the Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital on Thursday night.

Authorities said that on Tuesday a drunk Enright attacked a Manhattan cab driver, Bangladeshi native Ahmed Sharif, who had identified himself as a Muslim during a conversation.

The cab driver told police that the two struck up a conversation before Enright turned on him, screaming “This is a checkpoint, mother—-er! I have to put you down.”

Enright reportedly proceeded to stab the driver’s neck and face with a Leatherman knife. Authorities say Enright uttered an Arabic phrase before slashing Sharif’s face and neck.

The baby-faced student was drunk and incoherent at the time of his arrest and was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, police said.

He was later taken to court and remained jailed without bail Thursday on hate crime charges.

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Enright’s attorney told ABC News on Thursday that Enright does not harbor any enmity toward Islam or Muslims.

‘Counter to everything that New Yorkers believe’
The attack has raised concerns among some in the Muslim community that the debate around a Islamic community center planned to be built two blocks from the site of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has sparked anti-Muslim fervor.

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko told msnbc.com , however, that New York City has not seen a change in the number of hate crimes reported by Muslims so far this year, but every report is taken seriously.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said authorities do not believe the attack signifies a trend in anti-Muslim crimes.

Meantime Mayor Michael Bloomberg met Thursday at City Hall with Sharif.

In a statement, the mayor said it was impossible to know the motive but connected the attack to the debate about an Islamic center planned near ground zero.  “This attack runs counter to everything that New Yorkers believe no matter what god we pray to,” the mayor said in a statement.

Sharif, for his part, told reporters the project did not come up in his conversation with the passenger.

However, after meeting the mayor with his family, the driver said the motive was religion. “Of course it was for my religion — he attacked me after he knew I was a Muslim,” he said.

Suspect’s notebooks reveal no anti-Muslim sentiment
Enright once volunteered with an interfaith group that has supported the proposal for a mosque near Ground Zero.

He was found with two composition-style notebooks on him that contained details of his experiences embedded with U.S. forces in Afghanistan but did not appear to contain any anti-Muslim rants, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Enright was carrying the journals in a bag along with an empty bottle of scotch, the official told the AP on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

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The Best Investment Advice You Will Ever Get

Aug 25th 2010 9:24AM

I’m going to simplify what I consider to be the best investment advice I have ever been given and share it with you.  Here you go:

1. If you have any credit card or other type of consumer debt on which you pay 5pct or more interest, pay it off.  Compound interest is your enemy.  The chances of you earning more on your money than you are paying in consumer interest rates are slim. Pay it off.

2.  Cash is King. Now that Madoff is in jail, no investment can offer returns with zero risk. If you don’t fully understand the risks of an investment you are contemplating, it’s ok to do nothing. In times of massive uncertainty like we are facing today, doing nothing is a valid and IMHO preferable investment strategy. Just put your money in the bank.

3. Cash Creates Transactional Returns.   What does this mean ? It means that you should analyze what you spend money on over the course of a year. You will get a better return on your money by being a smart shopper and taking advantage of  cash, quantity or other types of discounts than you will in the stock market.  Saving 15pct on the $1k dollars worth of items you know you will absolutely spend money on is a better return on your money than making 15pct in a year on a $1k investment  because you don’t pay taxes on it.

If you have under 100k dollars in liquid assets,  your net worth will be higher in one year if you follow this advice  than if you follow ANY other investment advice any broker or banker will give you this year.

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Given this new opportunity to “trade” I wanted to try to figure out how to value picks in each round.  I suppose you could go with the “feels like a good deal” attitude, but in the end you probably get worked over doing that.  How much is a first round pick worth…2nd round..etc.  I did a little quick math to get an idea of what the points do as you move down through the rounds.  For the purposes of this I have assumed the “fantasy projected points” are accurate and that there are 12 teams in your league.  If we go off a “projected top 200″ players, assume they are picked in order…we group them into 12 man groups and subtract the value of the last man from the value of the 1st man.  By doing this we see how drastically the point spread between the guys drops off:

Check this out…I haven’t run through the whole list and I’m sure a guy could come up with a formula to see if you’re getting a good deal or not by trading picks.  If you list the “top 200″ by projected fantasy point value, break them up into 12 person groups, subtract the 12th spot from the 1st spot…this is what you get for the first 60 spots.

1 -12 494

13-24 414

25-36 216

37-48 157

49-60 125

It was really surprising to me that the drop off was that drastic just through 60 picks.  How do you value your pick then?  I’m thinking in the first round it’s a trade of picks in the round then a gain of a pick in the Xth round depending on the slotted spread.  You could also trade in a few rounds to make up the difference.

Something like this could have been really cool to monkey around with, too bad we didn’t come up with this idea a month ago.

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