PFT: Video doesn't prove what Hargrove said

AP

Maybe it really wasn?t Anthony Hargrove?s voice saying, ?Give me my money.?

The video/audio of a comment supposedly made by the former Saints defensive end during the third quarter of the 2009 NFC title game provides further proof of Drew Brees? point (even if it wasn?t articulated the best way possible) that the media has more power than anyone realizes.

The NFL, however, fully realizes.

And the NFL used the power of the media to make millions believe on Monday that Saints defensive Anthony Hargrove said, ?Bobby, give me my money? after being told by assistant head coach Joe Vitt that Vikings quarterback Brett Favre may have suffered a broken leg in the 2009 NFC title game.

The seed was planted and fertilized when a dozen members of the media covering Monday?s appeal hearing received an invitation to witness an encore performance of former prosecutor Mary Jo White?s summary of evidence.? The relevant excerpt from the transcript of the media session contains White?s explanation, comments from NFL Security chief Jeff Miller, comments from NFL spokesman Greg Aiello, and two of the members of the media ? Peter King and Jim Varney.

White initially explained that the video contains Hargrove?s ?voice and picture.?? After the video was shown once to the members of the media, Aiello suggested that the media pay attention to Hargrove winking and smiling after hearing that Favre broke his leg.? White later claims that Hargrove ?smiles and winks and states, ?Bobby, pay me my money.??

Varney asks White, ?How do you know it?s Hargrove?s voice??

White, perhaps not recognizing in that moment the ironic link to a very common lawyer joke, says, ?Because you can see his lips moving.?

But here?s the problem, and I didn?t notice this the first time I saw the video.?

When Hargrove?s lips can be seen moving, his voice can?t be heard.

Only after Hargrove?s face is fully obscured by the head and shoulders of defensive tackle Remi Ayodele are the words ?give me my money? audible.

No one has questioned this because the media present at the session was told ? and in turn told the rest of us ? that Hargrove said, ?Bobby, give me my money.?? Even Peter King, who seemed curious and a bit skeptical in the transcript, affirmatively stated twice in his article following the media session that Hargrove said what the NFL claims he said.

Watch the video.? When Hargrove?s lips are moving, no corresponding voice can be heard.? So if his voice wasn?t picked up by the NFL Films microphones when we could see his lips moving, how can we suddenly hear him say, ?Bobby, give my me money? after his lips and head and mouth are obstructed?

Also, don?t forget that Hargrove didn?t apply the hit that resulted in Favre possibly having a broken leg.? Instead, Favre had been hit low by McCray and high by Ayodele.? So why would Hargrove be asking for any money at all?

None of this changes the fact that, barring evidence that the phrase was added artificially after the fact (I?m not saying it was . . . yet), someone said ?give me my money.?? Which supports the conclusion that there was a bounty on Favre.

But I don?t believe the video shown by the league to the media shows that Hargrove said it.? And I can?t believe that the NFL presumes conclusively that he said it.? And I can?t believe the NFL sold it as fact to the media.? And I can?t believe the media swallowed the hook.

And I can?t believe I didn?t pay close enough attention to figure it out before today.

And given Hargrove?s passionate denial that it?s his voice, I believe him.

This serious flaw in the presentation of the evidence necessarily undermines the league?s entire investigation, further reinforcing the importance of asking tough questions about the proof, the process, and all other aspects of the case.? Regardless of whether the players are guilty or innocent, the NFL has peddled to the public, via the media, a stream of inconsistencies, mischaracterizations, and embellishments that raise legitimate concerns about the competence and/or the motives of everyone whose fingerprints are on the file.

bill of rights toys r us toys r us shame shame the waltons the waltons

Housing recovery on track, despite bumps

Steven Senne / AP

A for sale sign hangs in front of a home, in Milton, Mass.

By Bill Briggs

A backward baby step in home sales last month?is little more than a momentary bobble amid what appears to be an otherwise mending U.S. housing market, many industry analysts and some Realtors agreed Thursday.?

While purchases of previously owned homes slipped by 1.5 percent last month as compared to April, many experts brushed off the decrease by pointing to a vastly limited stock of available listings -- especially a dearth of more-upscale houses in nicer neighborhoods. What's more, that lack of inventory seems to be helping shove values higher;?the national median home price was up nearly 8 percent in May when compared to the same month last year.?

While any possible residential revival is sure to kick out a few more sour notes this year, analysts said, Thursday's fresh clump of housing stats pile a bit more evidence on the case for a larger realty recovery.?

"The bigger picture is that sales are still up almost 10 percent year over year," said Jed Kolko,??chief economist for Trulia, a real estate website.?"So the combination of declining sales (in May) but rising prices means that supply is tightening -- not that demand is weakening."?

According to NAR, purchases of previously owned U.S. homes dipped to a seasonally adjusted annual?rate?of 4.55 million in May from 4.62 million in April.?

?The slight pullback in monthly home sales is more likely due to supply constraints rather than softening demand.?The normal seasonal upturn in inventory did not occur this spring,? said Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist. ?Even with the monthly decline, home sales have moved markedly higher with 11 consecutive months of gains over the same month a year earlier.?

Indeed, the common buzzword being bandied about lately among many Realtors with equal parts hope and hate: inventory.

Nationally, total housing inventory at the end of May dropped 0.4 percent to 2.49 million existing homes available for sale, NAR reported. That represents a 6.6-month supply of available homes at the current sales pace. In April, there was a 6.5-month supply.?

Across the country, listed inventory is 20.4 percent lower than a year ago at this time, when a 9.1-month supply existed.?Compare that to the peak of the market in July 2007 when unsold inventory hit a record of 4.04 million homes.

?Because new inventory is down year on year, that means there are fewer homes (for buyers) to choose from,? Kolko said. ?That can hold back sales. You can?t sell homes that aren?t on the market.?

According to a survey released last week by Realtor.com, in 144 of 146 metro markets the inventory of listed residential properties dropped during May compared to the same month last year.?

In Sacramento, existing inventory at the end of May was 1,413 single-family homes ? compared with 4,111 homes the same month in 2011, said Brian McMartin, a broker associate with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate, Mason-McDuffie.

That shortage is ramping anxiety and anger among Sacramento agents and buyers because the demand to buy there is gaining?energy, McMartin said.?

"At that rate, we have less than a month of inventory left, assuming nothing else came on the market,? McMartin said. ?Sales here are up but not exponentially. We have an inventory issue.

?We have buyers frustrated, getting outbid left and right, making five, 10, 20 offers, having to overbid.?

The inventory shortage apparently is helping push up prices following the worst housing slump since the Great Depression, Yun said. The national median price for a home resale rose to $182,600 in May, according to NAR. That's 7.9 percent higher than the same month one year ago, and the highest since June 2010. The last time the American housing market posted three consecutive monthly price increases, year over year, was March to May of 2006.

A report Thursday by the the Federal Housing Finance Agency also showed that U.S. home prices rose 0.8 percent in April from March in?a sign of property-market stabilization, agency analysts contend.?

Kolko pointed to modest job gains, record-low interest rates, and the inventory scarcity?as?vital elements fueling the?boost in home prices.?

"But the important question," he added, "is why is inventory declining?"

Some would-be sellers probably are waiting to plunk for-sale signs in their yards because they aren?t convinced the housing market truly has hit bottom, experts theorize.?

In Cuyahoga County, anchored by Cleveland, listings are down 5.7 percent for the year. Meanwhile, at one of greater Cleveland's biggest realty firms, Russell Real Estate Services, sales?gained 11.5 percent in May over the previous month and 9.4 percent for the year, said Ron Russell, CEO of the company. The uptick there seems to be driven primarily by more upscale consumers.?

"Many of our clients tell us they're ready to go from two garages to three, and that they're tired of living in a 1,500-square-foot home and want 3,000 square feet," Russell said.?"If sales are up and inventory is down, inflation is here."?

That price inflation already is showing up in the dollar volume of sales throughout Cleveland. Citywide, volume was up 31.1 percent in May and dollar-volume has climbed 21.3 percent for the year, Russell said.?

Still another factor impacting inventory, Kolko said: the jagged cycle of foreclosure filings within individual markets,?and the differing rules within some states as to how (and how fast) foreclosures are processed. In New York and New Jersey, for example, foreclosures must be handled judicially, meaning lenders must take borrowers to court to force foreclosure. That process often takes far longer to complete.

Last week, RealtyTrac released fresh figures showing that foreclosures nationally rose by 9 percent in May from the previous month, to 205,990 total properties ticketed for bank repossessions, scheduled auctions, or default notices.

Kolko agrees with the notion offered by RealtyTrac that May?s increase in foreclosure activity was ignited by lenders finally churning through a backlog of foreclosed homes and not by a new wave of homeowners who are falling behind on their mortgages.?

In time, as lenders chip away at the foreclosure glut, that should invigorate the housing market by clearing the system of these distressed homes. That means less overhang, tighter supplies and, thus, increased demand, experts believe.?

Distressed homes, including?foreclosures and short sales sold at massive discounts, comprised 25 percent of the May existing-home sales -- a 28 percent drop in April and a 31 percent decline from May 2011, NAR reported Thursday. ?

In states where foreclosures must be handled by the courts, the pipelines for getting those homes back onto the market remain clogged, Kolko said. ?

But in states like?California where foreclosures are primarily administered out of court, "many of those foreclosed homes already have been through the process and have been sold."?

In Sacramento, where one in every 234 housing units was in foreclosure during May, according to RealtyTrac, broker McMartin said local real estate experts have been claiming for years that a massive surge of foreclosures is about to flood the market and ease the inventory shortage. If Kolko is correct, of course, that already has happened.?

"The buzz we keep hearing is that the banks are going to release all this (formerly distressed) inventory," McMartin said. "We hear that same story every six to 12 months, or a different variation of it. It never materializes. I?no longer have faith in that happening."?

Despite the air-tight supply of listed homes in Sacramento, the median home price there was $168,750 in May, down from a peak of $392,750 in August of 2005, McMartin said.?

"That?brings us back to exactly 10 years ago when the median price was $169,718," McMartin said. "Around here, we call it 'the lost decade.'"?

Existing home sales are showing a slowdown in May, with CNBC's Diana Olick.

More money and business news:

Follow msnbc.com business on Twitter and Facebook?

?

mega millions winners anthony davis palm sunday toure patti smith lottery winners lottery winners

Pantech Swift (AT&T)

If you're looking for a messaging phone?on AT&T, chances are you're going to wind up with one from Pantech. Right now, for instance, there's the Pantech Link II?($9.99, 3 stars), the Pantech Pursuit II?($29.99, 3 stars), and the Pantech Ease?($49.99, 2.5 stars). Now add to that the Pantech Swift ($69.99 with a two-year contract), which, luckily, is the best of the bunch. Its keyboard is only decent and its processor is too slow, but it's still one of your top picks for a messaging phone on AT&T that isn't a smartphone.

Design and Call Quality
The Swift measures 4.3 by 2.2 by 0.6 inches (HWD) and weigh a hefty 6.3 ounces, though it didn't actually feel that heavy. The back is made from an ever so slightly rubberized black plastic, while a ring of purple plastic surrounds the sliding display. At 2.8-inches and 320-by-240-pixel resolution, the capacitive touch screen looks fine, though text is a little jagged. The screen itself seems responsive, though the processor makes most actions feel slow (more on that below).

When closed, there's just one button beneath the display that serves as a home key. The screen slides out into a slightly angled position, which makes it comfortable to see and access the Swift's four-row QWERTY keyboard. The keys are made of the same black plastic that lines the display, with purple accents and white lettering. They're a little flat, which makes it easy to press the wrong one, though I grew used to it over time. This certainly isn't the best keyboard I've tested, but you'll be able to send messages quickly and easily. And there's no good way to type without it, since the touch screen only gives you the option for a number pad-style keyboard.

The Pantech Swift is a quad-band EDGE (850/900/1800/1900 MHz) and dual-band HSPA 7.2 (850/1900 MHz) device with no Wi-Fi. Voice quality is average. Voices sound thin and fuzzy in the phone's earpiece. Calls made with the phone feature very good noise cancellation, though voices have a slightly muted quality. Calls sounded good through a?Jawbone Era?Bluetooth headset ($129, 4.5 stars), but there is no voice dialing, Bluetooth or otherwise. The speakerphone sounds fine but is not loud enough to use outside. Battery life was good at 6 hours and 49 minutes of talk time.

User Interface, Processor, and Apps
The Swift has a nice, bright, touch-based user interface. There are three customizable home screens you can swipe between, and it's easy to add additional apps or shortcuts. A strip of shortcuts at the bottom of the screen gives you quick access to the phone dialer, contacts, messages, and applications. The app menu features three pages of large, colorfully animated app icons. And for a messaging phone, the Swift handles text messages with aplomb?the menu is attractive and messages are threaded, so they show up in a conversational view.

UI aside, Pantech must have been ironic in naming this phone, because at times the Swift can feel remarkably slow. The phone is powered by a 600MHz Qualcomm QSX6270 processor, which is clearly not strong enough to run the phone's software smoothly. It can take upwards of five to 10 seconds to open apps, and at times I thought the phone had froze, only for the app to open a moment later. Swiping between each of the three home screens is first met with a delay, then followed by a noticeably choppy animation. While I like the phone's interface, you're going to have to be patient if you want to use it.

The Swift has an email app with access to AIM, AOL, AT&T, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo accounts. The Opera Mini 5.1 browser works well to deliver WAP and HTML pages. AT&T Navigator is preinstalled for voice-enabled GPS directions. But that costs $9.99 per month, and if you want to use the Web browser, a data plan costs $15 per month (or $10 per month when you also have unlimited messaging). For those prices, you're better off with even a low-end smartphone, so I'd only stick with the Swift (as well as feature phones on AT&T in general) if you're looking strictly to talk and text.

Multimedia, Camera, and Conclusions
For multimedia files, there's 185MB of free internal memory, along with an empty microSD card slot. My 32 and 64GB SanDisk cards worked fine. The phone is able to play AAC, MP3, WAV, and WMA music files, and sound quality was great through both wired earbuds and Altec Lansing BackBeat?Bluetooth headphones ($129.99, 3.5 stars). The music player is attractive, and displays album art spinning around like a record when it's available. Unfortunately, video support is not nearly as good. The Swift is only able to play H.264 and MPEG4 videos at resolutions up to 320 by 240.

The Swift's 2-megapixel camera lacks an LED flash and auto-focus. Shutter speeds are agonizingly slow, and photo quality is poor. Pictures taken with the Swift look either smudged, blurry, grainy, or sometimes a combination of all three at once. The video camera is just as bad. It records 320-by-240-pixel videos at a completely unusable seven frames per second indoors, and a still-poor 14 frames per second outside.

The Swift is the best of Pantech's feature phone offerings for AT&T, but it's merely an average phone by anyone's standards. The Samsung Evergreen?($69.99, 3 stars) has comparable features to the Swift, and is also worth a look if you're interested in a phone purely for messaging. The Samsung Flight II?($39.99, 2.5 stars) has a nicer keyboard, but poor call quality. Really, though, if you think you want more, you're better off with a comparably priced smartphone like the LG Nitro HD?($49.99, 4.5 stars). That will get you a large, beautiful display, fast 4G LTE internet speeds, access to hundreds of thousands of apps, and much greater multimedia capabilities.

Benchmarks
Continuous talk time: 6 hours 49 minutes

More Cell Phone Reviews:
??? Pantech Swift (AT&T)
??? Jabra Clipper
??? Huawei Ascend P1 (Unlocked)
??? LG Optimus Elite (Sprint)
??? LG Optimus Elite (Virgin Mobile)
?? more

etta james at last john king obama sings al green heidi klum and seal ohare airport etta james songs east west shrine game

Does Facebook Know Your Love Secrets? [INFOGRAPHIC]

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

dr. seuss dr seuss the temptations rush limbaugh sandra fluke green book some like it hot whale shark

Daycare worker convicted of shaking baby to appear in court (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

colt mccoy philadelphia eagles arbor day packers mike adams janoris jenkins john edwards trial

SportsLawGuy: From @ProFootballTalk re Bounty-Gate:"The craziest of NFL offseason." Says a lot coming a year after the lockout summer http://t.co/6sORInfd

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

lori berenson lori berenson the incredibles jon bon jovi dead new jersey plane crash kobe bryant wife bonjovi dead

A dictator or president?

It is much clearer why the Department of Homeland Security doesn't want to cooperate with Florida in purging non-citizen voters now that the president has made 800,000 illegals of voting age virtually citizens. How wonderful, getting an additional 800,000 voters on the Democratic voter lists right before the November election. No wonder the Department of Justice is suing Florida. Can't have too close a view of voter lists when 800,000 votes are at stake, can we?

It isn't as if the president didn't warn us months ago that he intended to be a dictator, not a president who followed the Constitution. Now he's decided just to ignore the Constitution and do what he wants to do, whether to ignore freedom of religion or the role of Congress or just not enforcing those laws he doesn't like. Perhaps President Obama should just migrate to Venezuela, where I understand there is soon to be an opening for a Marxist dictator since Hugo Chavez is dying of cancer. That way he wouldn't have to worry about the Bill of Rights or guarantee to the citizens of this country that their elected officials will make laws which the executive branch will enforce. He can just be an open dictator and not have to worry about a Constitution that describes three ? three! ? branches of government.

---

Sandra Sawyer

Land O' Lakes

brandon mcinerney brandon mcinerney black friday 2011 deals nfl power rankings week 12 nfl power rankings week 12 brine turkey brine turkey