Mark Memmott

Saying that "I have made terrible mistakes and have hurt the people I care about the most," a tearful Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) just admitted lying about a lewd photo he sent to a young woman and to having "inappropriate conversations" over social media and on the phone with "six women over the last three years."

He also said he is not going to resign from office.

"I didn't at any time yell. ... I didn't go on a rant. I wasn't irate."

So says Jason West, the Utah man who's at the center of a tale about 2,500 pennies and how he used them to pay a disputed $25 medical bill — and now faces a potential fine of 14,000 pennies ($140, that is).

After nearly two years in prison on a gun charge, former New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico Burress was released this morning.

Now, the watch is on to see if he plays in the National Football League again.

There is, of course, recent precedent to cite. After nearly two years in prison on a conviction related to dog fighting, quarterback Michael Vick, once a star with the Atlanta Falcons, returned to the league in 2009 and to stardom with the Philadelphia Eagles.

In what The Associated Press decribes as a "strong voice," former International Monetary Fund leader Dominique Strauss-Kahn this morning pleaded not guilty to the charge that he attempted to rape a maid at a Manhattan hotel last month.

As the AP adds, "the 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn is on house arrest under armed guard. The French politician resigned his IMF post after his May 14 arrest."

The deaths of five American troops today in central Iraq makes for an awful milestone. It is "the single largest loss of life for the American military in Iraq in the past two years," The Associated Press notes.

And, "the deaths raised to 4,459 the number of American service members who have died in Iraq, according to an Associated Press count."