The NFL is Tax-Exempt? Pardon Me?

A reader of Northern Connection sent me the following video of Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and his quest to eliminate the tax-exempt status of the NFL:

https://screen.yahoo.com/nfls-tax-touchdown-sports-league-000702495.html  

And another reader sent me this link to CNN that gives the details:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/22/us/nfl-nonprofit-taxes/

 

In the CNN article, they mention that the NFL employs a team of lobbyists:

“According to a CNN analysis, the NFL employed 20 lobbyists in 2014 and spent more than $1 million in efforts to sway lawmakers…Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which runs the transparency website Opensecrets.org, says the NFL's lobbying team is "all pro," and almost all are "former government employees, former Hill staffers. So they have good access by buying the help of people who know how to navigate Congress."…Nineteen of the 20 worked for Congress, largely in the offices of House and Senate leaders, according to a CNN review of lobbying disclosures…If the NFL were to lose its tax exemption, there's precedence for it. Major League Baseball gave up its nonprofit status in 2007, and the National Basketball Association never had one.”

Call me naïve, but why in the world does the NFL need so many, let alone any, lobbyists? Do you think Coburn has a chance to get the NFL tax-exempt status removed? Do you think it's okay for the NFL to be tax-exempt?

Looking forward to hearing from you, so let me know your thoughts in the Comment section below:

Do You Believe In Ghosts?

Halloween is just around the corner, so in the October issue of Northern Connection magazine, I asked if you believe in ghosts and shared a personal encounter that I witness on occasion between my pets and something only they can see:

"What we all, including my husband, would observe was not so much the ghost as how our pets would interact with something that they could most definitely see, that we could not. Just as a dog can hear a high-pitch whistle too high for humans to hear, our pets could see something that wasn’t there. Dogs visiting this home would be lying in the living room panting – when something would catch their eye and they would stop panting, and stare at a certain spot in the room near the ceiling – no shadows, no cob webs – just the corner. Cats and kittens would jump onto the top of the chair and try to paw at whatever it was they were seeing. We’ve all seen the pets, alone and in groups, interacting with something only they can see.

Actually, we think there may be more than one ghost because sometimes, when you are in the home alone, you can hear a whispered conversation going on in the living room that stops as soon as you enter the room.”

So what do you think? Is this house haunted? Have you ever experienced something supernatural, visited a haunted place where the unexplainable took place? I hope you’ll share your encounter with us in the comment section below: