The Jets in the middle of more controversy, the U.S. ropes a $60 million whale and the true VMA winners and losers

- The New York Jets are already the most controversial and flashy team in the National Football League, so why not add a healthy dose of (alleged) sexual harassment to the ledger? The team that lit up HBO’s Hard Knocks with contract disputes, profanity, a guy struggling to name the eight kids he has be seven different women and scores more hijinks and shenanigans now finds itself accused of sexually harassing a female TV reporter Saturday at practice. New York Jets owner Woody Johnson confirmed Monday that the team will begin interviewing players as part of its investigation with the league office. "Right now, we're working with the league and we're doing all the fact finding, checking the facts, doing the interviews," Johnson said. "Interviews with the players will start [Tuesday]. We've talked to some of the non-players, but [Tuesday] we'll get into it all." Those interviews will center on the treatment of Ines Sainz of Mexico's TV Azteca, a reporter known for dressing provocatively while covering various sports and for being just as concerned with her sex appeal as with getting the actual story. However, even if Sainz shows up to cover the Jets in a bikini top and daisy dukes, the players and coaches were way over the line if the allegations against them are true. The controversy began when Sainz attended practice Saturday as a working member of the media and according to multiple accounts, Jets defensive backs coach Dennis Thurman intentionally overthrew footballs to players during a drill for defensive backs in order to land the throws near Sainz’s position on the sideline. Adding another layer of creepiness to the situation, defensive end/linebacker Jason Taylor, who is several inches too tall and about 40 pounds too heavy to be a defensive back, also jumped in on the drills. So did head coach Rex Ryan, who probably should have been putting the kibosh on the inappropriate behavior but instead kicked things up a notch by having Thurman run a pattern near the sideline and intentionally overthrewing the pass in Sainz's direction. But maybe that was just boys being boys and once practice was over and the testosterone stopped flowing quite as much, the situation calmed down……right? Umm, not exactly. After practice Sainz entered the locker room to conduct an interview and was reportedly greeted by catcalls and hooting. Verrrrry classy, guys. Another reporter approached Sainz to see if she was OK, at which point defensive lineman Kris Jenkins yelled, "This is our locker room!" Making matters worse, the team’s public relations staff was on hand and essentially condoned the behavior by doing nothing to stop it. Sainz referenced the entire situation on her Twitter account later in the day. “I die of embarrassment!" Sainz wrote in Spanish. "I am in the locker room of the Jets waiting for Mark Sanchez while trying not to look to anywhere!" Hmm…..doesn’t exactly sound like someone who is angry or offended, but Sainz apparently decided that she was both of those things because she later Tweeted, "Thanks all for your support and concern. I already testified before the NFL, and now is up to them to decide whether or not there will be consequences!" Johnson isn’t waiting to hear from his players before addressing the situation publicly, saying he has already called Sainz and offered an "open apology" to her. The league is also looking into the matter as well as evaluating a formal complaint made by the Association for Women in Sports Media against the Jets for their treatment of Sainz. Ultimately, it’s not the worst treatment of a female media member ever to occur in the locker room or by a team, but that doesn’t make it (assuming the allegations have merit) acceptable and this might be one line the 2010 New York Jets have crossed that they will regret……….

- Booyah! The United States may be on the verge of its largest arms sale ever and to be honest, we’re so hard up for the infusion of cash that I really don’t care who the buyer is. But for the sake of keeping this story rolling, let’s just assume that I care. Okay, who is this big-money buyer? Saudi Arabia, you say? Whatever. Word on the street is that the U.S. is poised to sell the kingdom from whence much of its oil flows a package of aircraft and weapons systems for Saudi Arabia that could total $60 billion when the final bill is tallied. The more optimistic among us would add that the deal could generate as many as 75,000 jobs if finalized, which would obviously be a great development for a still-struggling American economy. The official notification of the sale from the Obama administration to Congress is expected some time this week, and production would take place over five to 10 years. Now, you might be asking what sort of weaponry and technology could add up to an 11-figure purchase and the answer to that would include: Boeing F-15 fighter jets – as many as 84 new ones and the refurbishment of 70 others – and helicopters including 70 Apaches, 72 Black Hawks and three dozen Little Birds. Further additions to the sale could include naval and missile defense systems for the Saudis, so we’re talking a pretty hefty commission from whichever salesperson closed this deal for the U.S. But wait, there’s more. Defense contractor Boeing is also a contender in another potential F-15 sale, this time to South Korea. The Pentagon has already approved the airplane manufacturer’s request to market a stealth version of the F-15, dubbed the Silent Eagle, to South Korea even though most defense analysts consider Lockheed-Martin’s F-35 Lightning and the Eurofighter Typhoon may be stronger contenders to win a South Korean order for 60 fighter jets. Either way, a big day for American defense contractors and if we can help other countries bolster their air defense and possibly play a part in them obliterating their enemies, I say go for it………

- You’ll undoubtedly hear all manner of reports about who the big winners and losers were at Sunday night’s MTV Video Music Awards. Based on who won the most moon man statues and who had the worst, most obviously lip-synced performance, those designations will be handed out and I’m sure that a lot of entertainment media members will spend a lot of time breaking down the ceremony as if it actually matters. Know that I am not one of those people and my winners and losers can be easily summed up in one sentence. Winners are those who did not watch a single second of that train wreck and losers are anyone who did watch, either in person, on television live or on re-airing of the broadcast. On what do I base this? Well, partly it’s derived from the asinine, talentless group of hacks who performed at the show, a group “headlined” by Taylor Swift and Kanye West. After West’s much-discussed interruption of Swift’s acceptance speech last year (and if a teeny bopper country pop singer winning awards isn’t a sign your awards show sucks, I don’t know what is), the two were reportedly set to make nice this year and in fact, the predicted making nice did materialize…..sort of. Swift performed a pretty typical, terrible song of hers that appeared to allude to West in its lyrics and everyone hailed it as her making a public profession of forgiveness for the man who ripped the microphone from her one year prior and degraded and crapped all over her winning video by saying an equally crap-tacular Beyonce video should have won. Once Swift did her thing and further dragged music to a new low, West closed the show by debuting his new single “Runaway.” Following an introduction by pal Aziz Ansari, West strolled out in a butt-ugly red suit and black t-shirt combo every bit as loud and hideous as his personality typically is. The lyrics of the song aptly described the past year for West and the feelings of…..well, pretty much everyone he’s ever encountered. “You’ve been putting up with my s— for way too long…/ Let’s have a toast for the douchebags/Let’s have a toast for the a–holes…/Baby, I’ve got a plan/Run away as fast as you can,” West rapped. He then went on to perform a thoroughly d-baggish song with a stage filled with ballerinas and received a chant of “Kanye! Kanye! Kanye!” from the crowd when he finished. All in all, a thoroughly stomach-churning night that will assuredly reinvigorate the immense ego of a man who is already on record as proclaiming himself the voice of this generation. Thanks for fueling that fire, MTV Video Music Awards……….

- For the fastest Internet connection in America, just hop into your car and take a nice, long drive to…..Chattanooga, Tennessee? Yup, the fastest connection to the information superhighway may in fact reside in southern Tennessee, of all places. City officials in Chattanooga claim that their town began offering one-gigabit-per-second internet upload and download speeds Monday, a rate they boast to be the fastest in the United States -- and 250 times the average internet speed in the nation. The cynic might ask why a city gains from a one-gigabit-per-second Internet connection that will cost freaking $350 a month and will likely be far too pricey for the vast majority of Chattanoogans. Heck, even non-cynics should be asking that question because it’s a damn pertinent one. City officials see it as an investment in the future. "It's like any other leading technology, people will invent ways to use it," said Chattanooga mayor Ron Littlefield. "And having it here will bring those inventive minds to focus in Chattanooga." So you’re thinking that ridiculously fast Internet that will only appeal almost exclusively to those uploading massive video and graphics files will draw people to your city? Lots of luck with that…..and that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t believe in luck even a little bit. The service will be offered by EPB, a city-owned power company that will be the one holding the ski mask and gun when it asks $350 a month for the ultra-fast service. The man leading the company into that ridiculous endeavor will be Harold DePriest, CEO of EPB. DePriest even admitted that the company is unsure of how to price the service since such download and upload rates are unprecedented in the U.S. "It's a pretty big monthly bill. And a gig is a pretty big speed," he said. "We really don't quite know how to price it. Nobody else has done a gig in this country, and that means we don't know exactly how much it will cost us to offer it." You may not know how to price it, but I’d say a starting point south of $250 would be a good idea. EPB believes that the faster broadband speeds mostly will appeal to business owners, which is logical. Perhaps another solid idea for promoting the service would be having the city’s own mayor not speak out publicly about his having no need for the very product he’s hanging his city’s hat on. “I don't think I need one gig right now," Littlefield said. "I'd need it for about five minutes and I could download the entire text of the Library of Congress [in that time] and that would be enough. I already have the 30-megabyte [per second] service and it's lighting fast." Littlefield attempted to salvage his poor choice of words by adding, "I do believe there are doctors and engineers and people in the entertainment business and others that will need it and utilize it." If nothing else, the faster connection speeds put Chattanooga at the forefront of the race to up broadband speeds across the country and will certainly delight the Federal Communication Commission, which in March announced a plan to try to speed up U.S. Internet connections to compete with the rest of the world. To put Chattanooga’s new system in perspective, the 100-megabit-per-second connections the FCC hopes to put in 100 million American homes by 2020 would be one-tenth as fast as those reportedly offered in Chattanooga as of Monday. Those faster speeds will soon be available to all of the city’s 170,000 residents even if 99.99999 percent of them either don’t need it or can’t afford it, good times………..

- Dammit, America. Of all the pieces of news that could cross my desk right now, this is the absolute last thing I want to see. Our economy is in the tank, the number of groups and rogue nations that hate us and want to obliterate us is increasing by the day and our health care system is still abysmal. We need a major pick-me-up and I feel confident in saying that a decline in the estimated number of violent crimes committed in the United States - the third straight year with a decline - is not that boost. Having the total estimated volume of violent crimes for the 2009 calendar year plummet 5.3 percent, compared with 2008, is a sign that we’re headed the wrong direction and quickly. Furthermore, the rate of violent crime fell to slightly less than 430 offenses for every 100,000 individuals. That means your chances of being mugged, stabbed, robbed or shot are lower than they have been in a long time and with murder/nonnegligent manslaughter and robbery down by 7.3 percent and 8.0 percent, respectively, compared with 2008, the picture just keeps getting bleaker and bleaker. These sobering figures come from an annual report released Monday by the FBI. Scan down the report and you find one disheartening figure after another, whether it’s the 4.2 percent decline in aggravated assault or the seventh straight year of declining property crimes. Why are these numbers bad, you might ask? Well, first and foremost I submit to you that what one stat can America dominate the world in if not violent crime? We can murder, stab, shoot, slash and assault like no one else and if we start giving up what we do best, what’s left? Even motor vehicle thefts were down 17 percent in 2009, which means we’re losing our carjacking edge as well. Also, if law enforcement officials made roughly 13.7 million arrests last year and those numbers are only going down, our nation’s cops are going to have a lot more free time on their hands and that will mean more time sitting in doughnut shops, eating crullers and creamsticks and getting FAT. In short, you can see where all of this is headed and it’s nowhere good………