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Second child abuse allegation against Vikings' Peterson comes to light

Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson was accused of abusing another of his children in an incident more than a year before the All-Pro was indicted on felony charges last week, a Houston television station reported Monday.  
KHOU-TV reported Monday that the incident occurred in June 2013, while the boy, then four years old, was visiting Peterson from out of state. The station reported that the child suffered a head wound that left a scar above his right eye. The scar was still visible weeks later. 
The station also obtained text messages between Peterson and the boy's mother in which Peterson said he had disciplined his son for cursing at a sibling. 
"I felt so bad," one of Peterson's messages says. "But he did it to his self [sic]." Peterson never answers when asked what he hit the child with, but later says "Be still n take ya whooping he would have saved the scare [scar]. He aight [all right]."
A law enforcement official confirmed to KHOU that authorities had known about the allegations, and the station reported that the mother had filed a report with Child Protective Services. TMZ reported that the CPS investigation determined that the child had sustained the head injury accidentally while Peterson was punishing him and no charges were filed. Texas law permits parents to administer "reasonable punishment" to children.
The latest allegation surfaced hours after Peterson was reinstated to the Vikings' active roster after being deactivated from the team's 30-7 loss to the New England Patriots Sunday. The team released a statement to NBC Sports' ProFootballTalk.com late Monday confirming that they had known about the 2013 allegation when the decision to reinstate Peterson was made. 
Peterson's attorney Rusty Hardin responded to the allegation by saying "This is not a new allegation, it's one that is unsubstantiated and was shopped around to authorities in two states over a year ago and nothing came of it. An adult witness adamantly insists Adrian did nothing inappropriate with his son. There is no ongoing or new investigation."
On Monday, the Radisson hotel chain said it was suspending its sponsorship of the Vikings, citing its "long-standing commitment to the protection of children." Radisson's sponsorship includes a press banner that is behind those speaking at Vikings news conferences. On Monday, the banner was behind Vikings general manager Rick Spielman as he discussed the team's decision to reinstate Peterson.
Peterson is scheduled to appear in court in Montgomery County, Texas Oct. 8. He faces charges of reckless or negligent injury to a child. Peterson is accused of using a wooden switch on another of his sons this past May, leaving deep bruises that were visible several days later. 

Businesses reported cutting jobs due to ObamaCare

Businesses are cutting jobs due to ObamaCare, according to surveys by several regional Federal Reserve Banks.
Health economist John Goodman noted that "three Federal Reserve Banks in Philadelphia, New York and Atlanta have surveyed the folks in their area and roughly one fifth of the employers are saying they cut back on employment.
“Roughly one fifth are saying they're moving from full time to part time,” Goodman added. “More than one in ten are saying they're doing more outsourcing - all this because of the new health care reform."
Doug Holtz-Eakin, former Director of the Congressional Budget Office, said “for the smaller employers -- those that have between 20 and 49 employees -- you get a negative impact on jobs, you get a negative impact on wages in those jobs. What this means for small business as a whole is over $22 billion of earnings gone for their workers and 350,000 jobs."
Small business is responsible for the vast majority of job creation in the U.S.
The president repeatedly has delayed the mandate requiring businesses with more than 50 employees to provide insurance. But businesses know it's coming, so many avoid hiring to keep their worker rolls below 50.
Also, the mandate applies only to those who work more than 30 hours a week -- an incentive for employers to reduce hours.
Merrill Matthews of the Institute for Policy Innovation noted, "you have a kind of a natural cliff there, that keeping your employees under that magic number" relieves employers of the mandate to provide insurance.
"The 30-hour cutoff is how the administration determines whether you're full time or part time," Goodman explained. "And so we see this everywhere that people are restricted, they're pushed below 30 hours, they count as part time and when they're part time, the employer doesn't have to provide health insurance."
More than a third of manufacturing firms in the NY Fed survey said they're raising prices to cover the costs of health care, and about half the businesses surveyed by the Dallas Fed said ObamaCare is raising insurance costs for their employees.
"Yes we are going to see increased cost to employers who are trying to provide health care for their employees,but employers don’t just take that lying down," said Tevi Troy of the American Health Policy Institute.
Goodman added, "Even among full-time workers, their take home pay is going to go down because one thing that almost all the employers are doing in response to ObamaCare is raising the deductibles, raising the co-payments and making the employee pay more of the premium."
On Monday, the administration reported that 279,000 people have yet to clear up discrepancies in their income data, which could mean their premiums will go up, as well.
Officials also say 115,000 still have not resolved their immigration status. Their insurance will end if they don't clear things up by Sept. 30.

White House officials warn Syria over ISIS mission

The United States would retaliate against Syrian President Bashar Assad's air defenses if he were to go after American planes launching airstrikes in his country, a senior Obama administration official said Monday.
Officials also told Fox News that the U.S. has a good sense of where the Syrian air defenses, along with their command and control centers, are located. If Assad were to use those capabilities to threaten U.S. forces, it would put his air defenses at risk, a senior official told Fox News.
President Obama has authorized U.S. airstrikes inside Syria as part of a broad campaign to root out the Islamic State militant group, though no strikes have yet been launched in the country.
Asked Monday about the prospect of striking Assad's regime if his forces were to target Americans, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said there will be "rules of engagement that are related to any military orders the president directs."
"It won't surprise you to know that there are contingencies related to self-defense when it comes to these sorts of rules of engagement," he said.
The mere discussion of launching strikes in Syria has highlighted the complexity of taking U.S. military action inside a country locked in an intractable civil war. The conflict has created odd alliances, with both the U.S. and the Assad regime now fighting the Islamic State militant group.
However, U.S. officials have ruled out direct coordination with Assad and insist that a campaign against the Islamic State will not strengthen the Syrian dictator's hold on power. Obama is seeking congressional authorization to train and arm Western-backed rebels in the country in hopes they can both fight the Islamic State and eventually the Assad regime.
Officials told The Associated Press that Obama has been making phone calls in recent days to lawmakers in both parties pressing for them to authorize the train-and-equip mission before lawmakers leave town Friday for an almost two-month recess in preparation for November's midterm elections.
The rise of the Islamic State group has put Obama on the brink of being drawn into a Syrian conflict he has long sought to avoid. Administration officials have long insisted that one of their concerns with taking airstrikes against the Assad regime is the government's formidable air defenses, which could put American forces at risk.
Those air defense capabilities are less prominent in the more desolate stretches of eastern Syria where U.S. warplanes are likely to fly in order to launch airstrikes. However, officials have said that air defense systems can be moved and thus must be monitored as the U.S. mission ramps up.