Is this a scam?

Hi Jeff, my name is Tom Griffiths and I'm from Hubdub, the company who runs the March Madness Predict-a-thon you signed up for.

As a March Madness fan I thought you might be interested in a new head-to-head player picks game we are trialling on tomorrow's NBA games:

http://hdplaytest.squarespace.com/nba-head-to-head-thu-26th-marc

Right now it's in the concept phase and being run manually via a blog that we setup on SquareSpace. All you do is pick which player out of 9 match ups will score the most on the night. It costs $5 to enter, and if you get more right than 2 randomly selected opponents you will win an instant $13. You can enter as many times as you like.

If you want to try it out click here:

http://hdplaytest.squarespace.com/nba-head-to-head-thu-26th-marc

I'd love to hear any feedback you have on the concept or prize structure so please feel free to drop me an email with your thoughts.

Many thanks,

Tom

--

Tom Griffiths
tom@hubdub.com

Product Director
Hubdub

No it's not a scam. Feel free to mail tom for more details

Ok - thanks!

Pa. House Dems pay themselves first
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-budget-democrats-080509-cn,0,3985223.story
HARRISBURG -- - House Democrats arranged for themselves to be paid ahead of other state workers as they voted yesterday for a placeholder budget.

The House Comptroller's Office confirmed this morning that it cut checks for Democratic lawmakers yesterday. State workers will not be paid until next week at the earliest. Senate Democrats have not been paid, nor have Republican lawmakers in the Senate or the House.

Asked why Democratic leaders had undertaken the decision to pay lawmakers first, Brett Marcy, a spokesman for House Majority Leader Todd Eachus, D-Luzerne, said:

"We have always had the ability to pay our Members throughout this budget impasse, but our leadership team made the decision early on that we would not pay our Members until we passed a bill that would allow state workers to get paid. We passed that bridge bill yesterday, and the Governor just signed it today."
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[More at the link...]

Giving Tree handed out holiday toys, took them back after the party, ex- volunteer, employee say
Memories of children crying over confiscated Christmas toys still upset the Rev. Tom Hill.

Hill, a former Giving Tree volunteer, also remains baffled by the diapers. There were boxes and boxes in storage, he said, and yet Giving Tree Director Libby Wright resisted handing them out to mothers in her program.

Wright often said food was in short supply when she sought donations, Hill said, even after he discovered Wright was storing large amounts in one of her organization's homes.

Wright declined an interview request for this story.

Hill, who now runs his own food program for the homeless, said he tried not to doubt Wright during his first years as a volunteer, but an incident at Christmas a few years back was hard to come to terms with.

Giving Tree clients attended a Knights of Columbus Christmas party where the children were all given toys. Hill was nearby at the Giving Tree's feeding site on East 22nd Street. He said he was appalled when several parents arrived with their crying children, telling him Wright waited outside the door and took the toys back as the children left.

Sally Hueston, a former client, said her son was devastated when he had to return a basketball.
[More at the link...]

Only One word to characterize such a great post “WOW” that was a very interesting read
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2149951