46 cheddar cheese was down 15 cents to 4

While it is truly a sad situation, I think the Chris Henry situation will motivate the Bengals and I expect them to completely shut down the Chargers' running game and then move onto stopping Rivers. Ochocinco scores, loses in a fight to Merriman and the Bengals get within a touchdown.Green Bay Packers (1) over Pittsburgh Steelers: The Steelers just are not the same team that won the Super Bowl last season. Meanwhile, the Packers are playing great football and are getting a point in this matchup. The key is how well the Packer offensive line protects Rodgers.

If they do an adequate job, expect the Green Bay offense to click. I will take the away team and the points.Seattle Seahawks (-6.5) over Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Four of Seattle's five wins have come at home, and Tampa Bay is just not a very good football team. Do not expect much from the Buc's offense, even against a poor Seahawk defense. Seattle should be able to cover the 6.5 at home. Sunday 8:20 PMMinnesota Vikings (-9) over Carolina Panthers: This is a tough game to pick, but I think Minnesota should be able to get a double-digit win in Carolina. The Vikings should be tough for the Panthers to run on, and the return of Antoine Winfield in the secondary will make the difference here. Monday 8:30 PMNew York Giants (-3) over Washington Redskins: I am quite surprised to see the Giants only giving three, even in Washington. The Redskins have played well as of late, but keeping within three of New York is too much to ask here.

Look for them to put up somewhere in the 27-35 range in Washington. . MUMBAI (Reuters) - Dow Chemical Co (DOW.N) expects its portfolio of specialty chemical products to drive its growth in India and estimates that its 2008 annual sales in the country rose 25 percent from a year ago, a company official said on Wednesday. DealsRamesh Ramachandran, head of Dow's operations in India said the company currently expects 2008 sales of about 25 billion rupees, or about $512 million. In 2007 the company posted sales in the country of 20 billion rupees, or about $410 million.Dow, the largest U.S. chemical maker, has operated in India for more than 50 years and markets chemicals used in paints, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, cosmetics and other products."Across the gamut the specialty portfolio has provided the impetus for growth," said Ramachandran in an interview with Reuters.Midland, Michigan-based Dow is currently targeting sales of $1 billion in India by 2010 and it is confident of achieving sales growth despite the global economic slowdown.Dow and other chemical companies are struggling because of a recession in most developed countries and a sharp slowdown in many emerging economies.The company said last month it would close 20 facilities, divest several businesses and cut 5,000 jobs to cope with the slump.If anything, the global economic slowdown has reinforced the notion that geographic diversification, needs to be a critical component of the strategy, said Ramachandran.JOINT VENTURE STRATEGYThe chemical maker is currently in discussions with potential joint venture partners in India, said Ramachandran."There are areas in India where we may not have the market expertise, but have the technology and those are the areas that we would look into a joint venture model," he said.Last year, the company signed a 50:50 joint venture agreement with Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Ltd to set-up a manufacturing facility in Gujarat at a total cost of about $250 million.The facility, which is due to be operational by 2011, will produce chloromethanes, which are used as a solvent in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products and other chemical processing applications.Dow is following a joint venture strategy to grow its highly cyclical and low margin commodity chemicals business, while investing heavily in more profitable specialty chemical products.However, this strategy was partially derailed last month when Kuwait scrapped a deal to form a $17.4 billion petrochemical joint venture with Dow, potentially upsetting Dow's plan to buy specialty chemical maker Rohm & Haas Co ROH.N. Dow planned to use the proceeds from the Kuwaiti joint venture to pay down debt that would have been used for the Rohm & Haas Co acquisition.BHOPAL TRAGEDY WEIGHSDespite, strong sales growth, Dow also has faced a great deal of opposition in India.Many Indians link Dow with the catastrophic industrial accident, which occurred in Bhopal in central India in 1984, when tonnes of toxic gas leaked from a pesticide plant owned at the time by Union Carbide.Nearly 3,800 people died soon after exposure to the gas, while tens of thousands of others fell ill Union Carbide later became a subsidiary of Dow. There is still argument over who should clean up the site, which remains polluted.Dow's plans to construct a $100 million research and development center about 200 km (120 miles) from Mumbai were put on hold after protesters, worried about industrial pollution, set fire to the construction site in July."To find that a science and technology investment can run into activism issues sends a very dangerous signal," said Ramachandran."Growth in India purely by building roads and bridges is not sustainable.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Americans got a little relief at the supermarket over the holidays with grocery prices down 1 percent in three months, but the new year is not expected to bring steep price cuts, the largest U.S farm group said on Wednesday. U.S.An informal survey conducted by the American Farm Bureau Federation in October found the cost of 16 basic grocery items to be $48.19, down 49 cents from August but up 7 percent or $3.16 from the beginning of 2008."Despite the recent collapse in oil prices and steep declines in farm commodity prices, food prices have not yet declined significantly and may not for quite some time," Farm Bureau economist Jim Sartwelle said.He added, "Sticky prices, once a somewhat obscure economic concept to most food consumers, are the new reality as we move into 2009.""Sticky" is a term used in economics to describe a situation in which variables, such as wages or prices for goods, are resistant to change despite external forces.Mayonnaise and toasted oat cereal showed the largest retail price increases in the fourth quarter, with a 32-oz jar of mayonnaise up 30 cents at $3.57 and a 9-oz. box of toasted oat cereal increasing 16 cents to $3.13.But food prices fell for 11 of the 16 items. Apples saw a 29 cent drop to $1.51 per pound, a five-lb bag of flour was down 16 cents to $2.46, cheddar cheese was down 15 cents to $4.76 per lb and bacon fell 14 cents to $3.37 per lb.Sartwelle said ground chuck, sirloin tip roast and pork chops also dropped in price, reflecting "weakened retail demand for these meats during the end-of-year holidays.""Whole milk is the only item in the basket that is less expensive now than it was during the same time in 2007," he said.A half-gallon of whole milk was down 19 cents at $2.38 while a whole gallon fell 10 cents to $3.82.A total of 133 volunteer shoppers in 37 states participated in the latest survey.Sartwelle said grocery prices could moderate this year if economic turmoil continues globally, lowering demand for U.S commodities.The U.S. Agriculture Department recently lowered its food inflation forecast for 2009 by 0.5 percentage point to 4 percent. (Podcast is posted on 4SportBoston )It's that time of week again kids.The crew from 4 Sport Boston got together with Nick from North Station Sports once again and made sweet harmony on the virtual airwaves.This week we had a lot to talk about with the teams all being extremely active over the past week and being in the midst of the holiday season.