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Republican David Vitter

On Saturday, New Orleans-based investigative reporter Jason Berry published a new interview with Wendy Ellis, a former prostitute who had previously claimed to have had a relationship with Republican Sen. David Vitter. In her sit-down with Berry, Ellis now says that in 2000, she became pregnant by Vitter, who she alleges told her to have an abortion. Ellis, who says she is coming forward because she is terminally ill, says she refused and put the child up for adoption. Vitter's gubernatorial campaign, unsurprisingly, flatly denies the allegations . There are also a number of inconsistencies in Ellis' story, as outlined by's Clancy DuBos, and Ellis has also offered no proof of her claims.

This story comes just days before the Oct. 24 jungle primary. Polls show Vitter and Democrat John Bel Edwards grabbing the two spots that would send them to a Nov. 21 runoff. Republicans Scott Angelle and Jay Dardenne lag behind Vitter, and they're very unlikely to catch up to Vitter unless he loses a significant amount of support by Saturday.

But whether this story is enough to damage his prospects is unclear, to say the least. Among other things, early voting began a week ago (and has now concluded), so the universe of voters who might be swayed by this interview is now more limited. And given the unsubstantiated nature of Ellis' charges, it's even possible they could boomerang and generate sympathy for Vitter, though no candidate for office enjoys questions like this. We'll know in a week whether Ellis' claims wind up having an impact on the race.<|endoftext|>The proposal to build a D.C. United soccer stadium at Buzzard Point involves complex land swaps and a substantial city investment that some residents have criticized as fiscally imprudent. But at a community meeting hosted by the team last night in a spartan room on the eighth floor of 100 M St. SE, some neighbors' concerns had more to do with self-preservation.

"They're digging up the earth, are we going to fall in?" asked Donricka Walker, who lives nearby.

Team and city officials presented their plans to the neighborhood, which could be further transformed by a stadium less than a decade after the opening of Nationals Park helped bring residences and retail to Navy Yard. Neighbors' concerns, which included parking and handling the large crowds that would come with the 20,000 seats at the new stadium, were met with explanations and plenty of charts, maps, and diagrams.

Alan Harwood, a representative of engineering and architecture firm AECOM, assured neighbors that the project would give residents more places to congregate, saying developers "want everyone to walk together and drink beer together" by giving them access to the city's waterfront.

Walker said the explanations were good, but that she still had her worries, including dust from construction. Overall, though, she said the potential benefits of the project were "exciting" for her.

Buzzard Point will make use of the existing routes to Nationals Park, including the Navy Yard-Ballpark Metro station. Metrorail will act as the major mode of public transit to the area, though the city has proposed new Circulator, streetcar, and bus routes.

D.C. United would encourage Metro use, while adding some parking spaces and making agreements with existing parking facilities near Nationals Park. To alleviate concerns over already tight parking on game days, the team insists that street parking in the neighborhood will be protected. A planned upgrade to the Frederick Douglas Memorial Bridge, scheduled to be completed after the inaugural D.C. United season at Buzzard Point, would also help bring people to the stadium.

Development at Buzzard Point will be a long process (estimates are 10 to 20 years), but the end goal is a mixed-use point of attraction on the waterfront. Construction of the stadium itself is estimated to bring in nearly 1,800 construction jobs, according to the team. More than half of the jobs in the D.C. United stadium construction would go to D.C. residents. Team officials are confident that the D.C. Council will approve the deal and expect a vote after the hoopla of November elections cools down.

D.C. United community relations spokesperson Victor Melara said the deal would be a good move for the team, leading to more revenue, better players, and more outreach and advertising. Melara believes the new stadium will allow the team to capitalize on soccer's increasing popularity after the World Cup.

Rendering via D.C. United<|endoftext|>The other day we mentioned that Glenn Beck intends to “go Galt” with a new effort called “The American Dream Labs” which he is building with the intention of revolutionizing everything from technology to education to agriculture to entertainment and even creating new forms of energy.

On his program last night, Beck revealed that his intention to “go Galt” is quite literal, unveiling grandiose plans to create an entirely self-sustaining community called Independence Park that will provide its own food and energy, produce television and film content, host research and development, serve as a marketplace for products and ideas, while also housing a theme park and serving as a residential community.

At the center – in the middle of the lake that is itself larger than all of Disney Land – Beck (with the help of David Barton) will create a massive “national archive”/learning center where people can send their children to be “deprogrammed” and elected officials can come to learn “the truth.”

All for a mere $2 billion.

There is no way to even try to summarize the delusional insanity of Beck’s twenty minute description of his vision, so we are just posting the entire video:

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Your browser does not support iframes.<|endoftext|>GOODYEAR, Ariz. — When Joey Votto announced in late December that he would not play for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic, he issued a somewhat puzzling statement.

“There were some aspects of my performance in 2016 that I have decided were lacking,” the Reds’ first baseman said. “I would like to use 2017 Spring Training for preparation.”

Article continues below ...

What the heck was Votto talking about after rebounding from a slow offensive start to tie the Nationals’ Daniel Murphy for the National League lead with a .985 OPS?

Uh, would you believe defense and base-running?

Votto’s remarks to two reporters at the Reds’ training complex on Thursday served as a reminder that the great ones are never satisfied.

“I was upset with some of the components of my game,” Votto said. “I felt like they were related to conditioning effort and that they were related to preparation. That’s part of the reason I passed on the WBC (Votto played in the previous two).

“I came here early, I started training very early in the offseason. I’m not sure there is a correlation between training and performance on the field. But at the very least, I’m not going to take that chance.”

Last season, in Votto’s estimation, there was a correlation between training and performance.

“I was shaky defensively,” he said. “Base-running, I wasn’t aggressive. I’d see old video of my running. It didn’t look as . . . I just didn’t look athletic. I didn’t look like I was being aggressive and athletic.

“That’s certainly not the way collectively we want to play here. And if I’m going to be on the field on a consistent basis, then I have a responsibility to my teammates to get the most out of myself. I watch everybody else on their team bust their behinds to be the best they can at every component. I should be the same.”

Votto, 33, doesn’t like to discuss his training — “Everybody talks about it. Then you see the exact same or a worse performance,” he said. But he acknowledged that he worked more on his movement during the offseason.

Offensively, Votto entered June batting only .213 with nine homers and a .735 OPS. But he was the best hitter in baseball over the final four months, hitting .378 with 20 homers and a 1.101 OPS.

“Swing-wise, I started slowly last year,” Votto said. “Some people would say that’s how numbers work. There is going to be positive and negative regression. But there was definitely a cause-and-effect between spring-training preparation, my early-season preparation and my slow start. I’m going to try to mitigate that. The changes I made during the season, I’m going to try and apply them earlier in the year this year.”

What went wrong?

“I was striking out a bunch and I wasn’t hitting well against left-handers,” Votto said. “Those go hand-in-hand with my swing. There is a connection between the way I hit against left-handers and my two-strike approach and my success in the batter’s box.

“I prioritized those two components in my game, and ended up seeing a flip. It was not a positive regression. It wasn’t just a numbers thing. It was a definite cause-and-effect between my effort, my work and in-game play. It wasn’t just one of those things. It was a genuine change I was in control of.”

This spring, as he enters the fourth year of a 10-year, $225 million contract, Votto is trying not only to maintain that control, but also improve other parts of his game.

Turns out his reasons for declining the WBC aren’t so puzzling at all.<|endoftext|>Speaking following the announcement that the US media giant will buy 100 per cent of Delta Topco (the parent company of F1) before the end of the first quarter of 2017, Carey said that he plans to take the sport “to the next level”.

Carey, who helped launch the US Fox Sports TV channel when he was CEO of Fox in 1994, has most recently been executive vice-chairman of 21st Century Fox.

He will take the chairman role at Formula One Group, working alongside CEO Bernie Ecclestone.

“I’m very excited to be joining this team and the potential ahead,” said Carey. “Clearly Formula 1 has been an enormous success much to the credit of Bernie Ecclestone, who has led this business for decades. I look forward to working with him and we both agree there is an opportunity to continue to build this business and take it to the next level.

“So what do we see as the opportunity? The opportunity is to grow and develop this sport for the benefit of the fans, teams, partners and our shareholders by increasing promotion and marketing of Formula 1 as a sport and brand.

“Enhancing the distribution of content, especially in digital – currently a very small percentage of revenue. Evolving the race calendar. Establishing a broader range of commercial partnerships, including sponsorships. Leveraging Liberty’s expertise in live events and digital monetization to make our events bigger than ever.”

Why is Liberty Media buying F1?

Liberty Media – owned by entrepreneur John Malone – has a wide variety of brands in its mass media portfolio, most notably Sirius Satellite Radio and the Atlanta Braves baseball team.

Carey believes that Formula 1 offers Liberty Media an “incredibly low-risk” business model due to its $9.3billion of contracted revenue under long-term contracts that extend as far as 2026.

F1’s main outgoings are payments to its teams, which are variable based on profits and revenues of the business.

“We were particularly attracted to F1 by the diverse revenue drivers and low-risk business models,” he explained. “There are essentially three core revenue buckets in the business: race promotion, broadcasting and advertising, and sponsorship – each with significant growth potential as we go forward.

“Formula 1 is a key player in the high-growth market for live, premium sports rights. There is an increasing demand from broadcasters, advertisers and sponsors who want access to F1’s mass global live audiences and attractive demographics.”<|endoftext|>Not much, at least at first.

But little by little, the calendar year would get out of sync with the solar year. That’s because our calendar year usually lasts 365 days. But not exactly. It actually takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes and 45 seconds for Earth to complete its journey around the sun.

Every year, the calendar falls about one-quarter of a day behind the solar year. Over time, Jan. 1 would come earlier in winter, then in the fall. After about 780 years, New Year’s Day would coincide with the summer solstice.