Are you ready for some football? As of last week, the answer would have been maybe not.

A state representative, joined by Baptist leaders, is questioning a program they suspect of channeling racetrack money into Texas political races.

Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the top U.S. military officer, said today that the Pentagon is planning for “potential military courses of action,’ against Iran. He criticized Tehran’s government for an “increasingly lethal and malign influence” in Iran.

Convicts pass up opportunities to escape from jail because conditions are “too comfy,” according to Glyn Travis of the Prison Officers Association (POA). For instance, a drug dealer frequently broke into Category-C Everthorpe prison in Yorkshire, England using a ladder, but not prisoners attempted to escape.

In an effort to boost the economy, the U.S. Treasury Department will directly deposit the first 800,000 payments four days earlier than expected. On Thursday, the department announced the early arrival of the payments, which originally were going to be sent on May 2.

On Friday, China appeared to bend to international pressure as the government announced it would meet with envoys of the Dalai Lama, an unexpected change of course as violent Tibetan demonstrations in western China have threatened to hurt the country’s reputation over the Beijing Olympics in August.

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright sits down with Bill Moyers tonight in his first interview since a  furor erupted over his controversial statements that have impacted the presidential campaign.  Barack Obama denounced some of the statements but otherwise stands by his former Chicago pastor and tried to quell the controversy with a speech about race six weeks ago.  Still, the issue has not gone away, as indicated by a Republican ad about Wright in North Carolina that surfaced this week. Wright  has scheduled other appearances, an NAACP speech in Detroit Sunday and a National Press Club speech in Washington Monday on the role of faith in the public square that's bound to be well covered. The Moyers interview will be broadcast at 9 p.m. Friday on KERA-TV, Channel 13.  Click read more for excerpts.

A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna was arrested outside the 92nd Street YMCA after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents told him to shut up.