Phil Humber has not excelled at any professional level after a stellar college career at Rice. He also had Tommy John surgery. I'd rather have Hughes or Lester. Carlos Gomez is one of the top outfielding prospects that the Mets had. He's a raw talent with blazing speed (Jose Reyes claims that Gomez runs faster than him) and some pop in his bat. However, Gomez gets caught stealing quite a bit, being thrown out about 30% of the time in the minors. His lifetime batting average in the minors is .278, his lifetime on base percentage is .339, and his slugging percentage is .399. Doesn't really jump off the page. He is young, only 22 years old and may develop into a nice player. I'd rather have Melky or Ellsbury. I think this is a great deal for the Mets. I don't think the Mets will miss these prospects and they are getting perhaps the best pitcher in the game.

Ellen Grounds recognized with ‘Friend of the Children’ award

The Wabash County Retail Merchants Committee (RMC) outlined plans for its upcoming fundraiser basketball games during Tuesday morning's regular monthly meeting at Hogg Heaven in Mt. Carmel.The event will consist of two games - one between the "Guns" (law enforcement) and the "Hoses" (firefighters), and one between the "Books" (District 348 educators) and the "Band-Aids" (medical personnel).There will also be a third game this year, according to Event Coordinator Rod Rodriguez."We're going to call it a tournament this year because we're going to have a third game," said Rodriguez. "We're going to bracket Guns and Hoses - Books and Band-Aids, and whoever wins those ball games will play for City Champion and have bragging rights for a year."

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Sharon Bush defends alleged JFK love child

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- U.S. President George Bush's former sister-in-law has defended a man in Canada publicized as the love child of President John Kennedy, Vancouver media reported.

Sharon Bush, the former wife of the president's brother, Neil, told British Columbia's Vancouver Sun media scrutiny and criticism of Jack Worthington was unfounded, as she dated him after her divorce and knew him well.

"He is a fine man, highly ethical, a man of high integrity," Bush said.

Bush said she was speaking out after a British tabloid discredited a media investigation launched more than a year ago by Vanity Fair magazine into the background of Worthington, who bears a strong resemblance to the Kennedy family.

Earlier this week, Worthington showed the Globe and Mail his U.S.

Wild Card/Vacation Day 11 of 12

Only two more shopping days until I return to the final days of the City Council campaigns. Then, we'll have fun taking apart the campaigns. Any dirt yet? Any mudslinging. You know, the good stuff. Or is everyone behaving? My wife is now looking over my shoulder -- literally -- so I have to pretend that I'm just checking ball scores. See ya in two days. Here's Wild Card ...

Transcript of The Times interview with David Petraeus

The months of April, May, June even into July, and the very tough casualties that we sustained and that our Iraqi partners sustained as we went into al-Qaeda sanctuaries and had to fight to take them away, which was again, we knew it was going to happen. You may recall that I said this is going to get harder before it get easier, but that was very, very hard. And there were moments when General Odierno [Commanding Genral of US III Corps] and I would look at each other and say ’When are we going to get to that point? When are we going to cross this?’ It did finally come, although I am not implying that we have turned corners or are seeing lights at the end of the tunnel or are doing victory dances in the end zone because we are doing none of that.

Ambassador Crocker and I won’t even characterize ourselves as an optimist or a pessimist at this point.