OLYMPIA, Wash. - On the last weekday before the Super Bowl, legislators wearing Seattle Seahawks gear made noise over a bill to allow Washington state residents to legally play fantasy football.The activity has become increasingly popular in recent years with an estimated 40 million players participating each NFL season, often for money.There has been debate, however, over whether it should be considered illegal gambling, based on luck, or a game of skill, which rewards knowledge.Fantasy sports leagues invite players to compete against one another by selecting athletes from a league-wide pool and tracking how well they play. If Seattles Marshawn Lynch has a big game, the fantasy football team manager who selected him will get a boost.The federal government and 45 other states consider fantasy sports as legal games of skill. Washington, Louisiana, Montana, Iowa and Arizona — site of Super Bowl 49, where the defending champion Seahawks will face the New England Patriots on Sunday — all consider fantasy sports illegal.Bills that would legalize the practice are pending in Iowa and Montana. And on Friday, Washington state Sen. Pam Roach asked her legislative colleagues to support a plan to join the larger group.Wearing a blue and green Seahawks scarf, Roach told the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee that her bill would formally define fantasy sports as games of skill. She supported the position, saying fantasy football is based on understanding factors including a players abilities and individual matchups.We dont want to expand gambling, said Roach, a Republican from Auburn. Thats not what this bill is about.Committee chairman Michal Baumgartner, a Spokane Republican, said he was surprised by the complexity of the debate around what we thought was going to be a pretty simple bill.Officials from the state Gambling Control Board and a lobbyist for fantasy sports leagues turned up for the hearing to describe the issues involved.A key topic of debate is whether season-long fantasy leagues should be regulated the same way as day-to-day leagues, which are popular online partly because of their money-earning potential.The daily games have all the same aspects of a game of skill as longer leagues, Fantasy Sports Trade Association lobbyist Noah Reandeau said. Its not like there is a random number generator.State Sen. Steve Conway, a Tacoma Democrat, expressed skepticism. For many of us, its hard to understand how a daily game is a fantasy league game, Conway said.Baumgartner said he expects the issue to require more work before the committee can decide whether to advance the bill, which would face several more legislative hurdles before it could become law.We certainly are hoping that fantasies come true this weekend, he said at the close of the hearing. He later added that hed be putting on a Seahawks necktie for the rest of the day. Nike Air Max 97 Uomo Scontate .ca. Mr. Fraser, It looks like Martin Brodeur is coming back to play for the Blues. I was wondering if you have any great stories or fond memories of your time on the ice with Brodeur - in the NHL, or maybe even the Olympics. Nike Just Do It Uomo . Now the Minnesota Vikings have set their sights on soccer. http://www.nikejustdoit.it/nike-react-element-87.html.J. -- Omar Cummings helped the Houston Dynamo advance to the MLS Eastern Conference finals. Nike Just Do It Scarpe Uomo . Wiggins, who had been seen as a contender for a podium finish in Paris, was one of about 20 riders caught near the back of the peloton with 38 kilometres to go in the 218-km flat stage from Le Mans to Chateauroux. Nike Air Vapormax Scontate . - After sewage backups, toilet overflows and foul smells surfaced the past two years, nothing at the Oakland Coliseum surprises the home team anymore.(SportsNetwork.com) - The Eastern Conference leading Toronto Raptors will try to get back into the win column Monday night when they welcome the Denver Nuggets to Air Canada Centre. The Raptors returned home from a 2-1 western road trip Friday night, but fell to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 105-91. Amir Johnson had 27 points for the Raptors and Kyle Lowry scored 22 with nine assists. James Johnson managed 11 off the bench and those were the only three Toronto players in double figures. James and Kyrie Irving combined to score 17 in the third quarter and the Cavs led by as many as 14. They never let the Raptors get closer than six in the fourth. They were hitting on all cylinders, and they were executing as well as you could ask for, said Raptors coach Dwane Casey. I would say that I know this team tonight wasnt us. Sometimes in the NBA schedule (with) the first game back from a West Coast trip, the worst team you want to see is a team as talented as Cleveland. But again, hats off to them; they spanked us. The Raptors will get their chance for revenge on the Cavaliers when the two teams meet at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday. The Nuggets lost their third in a row on Sunday afternoon, a 96-84 setback in Atlanta to the Hawks. Wilsonn Chandler led the Nuggets with 29 points and 10 rebounds.dddddddddddd Timofey Mozgov chipped in 14 points with 11 rebounds, and Alonzo Gee added 14 points on 7- of-9 shooting off the bench. Atlanta completely shut down the Denver offense in the second quarter to jump out to a 57-36 halftime lead. The Nuggets shot 0-for-8 from beyond the arc, and they shot just 28.6 percent from the field in the quarter. However, the script flipped in the third quarter as the Nuggets were able to get back in the game. While they made just 1-of-8 3-point shots in the quarter, they were 12-of-16 from inside the arc. In the final 12 minutes, Denver cut the Atlanta lead to single digits four separate times and got it down to as little as seven with 3:35 remaining. On the next two possessions, Kyle Korver nailed a 3-pointer and Jeff Teague hit a layup to rebuild the Hawks lead to 92-80. Atlanta cruised from there. We played better defensively in the second half, said Nuggets coach Brian Shaw. The common denominator in terms of how that turned around is Alonzo Gee. We ended up getting 11 turnovers on them in the second half. The two teams have split the last six meetings, but the Nuggets have won five of their last six appearances north of the border. ' ' '