NY seeks 'fat tax' on sodas to fight rising US obesity

State Health Commissioner Richard Daines took up the issue Monday, speaking of a "golden opportunity" to create the tax.

"The dramatic underpricing of sugar-sweetened beverages, their widespread availability, and the ceaseless marketing of these products constitute a stumbling block to good health and are a clear and present danger to the future of our children," Daines said.

Read more>>

Beverage group is wrong to argue against ignition locks

In arguing against Maryland's proposed law that would require first-time drunk-driving offenders to use ignition interlocks, the American Beverage Institute worries that the law would inhibit people from having a second drink when dining out or attending sporting events ["Md., Va. consider ignition breathalyzers for first offense," Metro, March 2]. ABI managing director Sarah Longwell said, "We don't think that they should be punished to the same degree as somebody who has 10 drinks and then drives."

Read more>>

Soda tax back on the table

The fat tax is back.

A year after Gov. David Paterson abandoned his controversial proposal to tax soft drinks, the plan is enjoying a second wind, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg endorsing it Sunday as a way to raise money and save lives.

But bodega owners say the tax would kill their businesses, support in Albany is far from assured and New Yorkers chaffed at the idea of yet another tax.

Read more>>

New Web Site Set To Dog Humane Society

The farming sector has received negative press of late concerning food contamination cases, recalls, antibiotics overuse and, more recently, calling into question animal agriculture as a threat to animal welfare and global climate change.

Ask a farmer involved in livestock production and he’s likely to say that much of the bad publicity is the work of animal rights activists. It’s a fight that’s been going on for years.

Read more>>

Pet donations: What to know before you contribute

The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom took out another ad recently in a national newspaper criticizing the way the Humane Society of the United States doles out its dollars. The headline says "Shouldn't the Humane Society do Better?'' Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of HSUS, said Wednesday the attack is "unjustified and fraudulent."

According to the advertisement, HSUS gives less than one-half of one percent of its $100 million budget to hands-on pet shelters. Pacelle says working with shelters is only a small part of what HSUS does for animals.

Read more>>

Lawmakers consider ignition interlock for all DWI offenders

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The state Senate's transportation committee heard testimony Tuesday from supporters of a bill that would require ignition interlock systems for all drunken driving offenders -- even first-time offenders.

Ignition interlock forces drivers to blow into a machine and prove they haven't been drinking before their vehicles will start.

"This is a good bill," Tim Leslie of the state's Public Safety department told lawmakers. "It provides both public safety on our roadways and legal driving opportunities for DUI offenders."

Read more>>

Ignition locks are debated

Advocates for a crackdown on drunken driving squared off against the alcoholic beverage industry Thursday over an O'Malley administration-supported bill that would require court-determined drunken drivers to install devices that would prevent their cars from being started if they have been drinking alcohol.

Proponents of the so-called ignition interlock technology went into the Senate hearing with high hopes that they can win passage of at least a compromise version of a bill that has failed in previous years. But the measure, which would make the program mandatory for even first-time offenders, still faces a steep climb - particularly in the House of Delegates.

Read more>>

Sign is one of a kind at local McDonald's

Order a Big Mac at the McDonald’s in Texas Children’s Hospital, and it will set you back 540 calories. A Quarter Pounder will cost you 26 grams of fat.

Along with prices on the burger joint’s menu board in the hospital, consumers can now see how many calories and grams of fat and carbohydrates their meal will include.

It’s the only McDonald’s in Texas to have the features, which the hospital hopes will help consumers make healthier choices.

Read more>>

Humane Society Spars With Consumers Group

The Humane Society of the United States is barking back after the start of a high-profile campaign that includes a new Web site attacking its work.

The Web site, HumaneWatch.org, was created by the Center for Consumer Freedom, a nonprofit group run by Washington lobbyist Richard Berman that advocates in behalf of restaurants and other companies.

The Center for Consumer Freedom ran a full-page advertisement in Tuesday's New York Times announcing the new Web site and saying that "the dog-watchers need a watchdog."

Read more>>

New Center for Consumer Freedom website targets Humane Society of the United States

Anyone who's ever glanced at the website PETAKillsAnimals.com is familiar, whether they know it or not, with a group that calls itself the Center for Consumer Freedom.

The Center for Consumer Freedom -- headed up by a lobbyist for the food, alcoholic beverage and tobacco industries named Richard Berman -- has long been at odds with groups like PETA and the Humane Society of the United States. (For the record, though, it has also worked to discredit non-animal-related advocacy groups including Mothers Against Drunk Driving through its ActivistCash.com website. Another of its websites, ObesityMyths.com, attempts to debunk what it describes as "myths" about human health. Among those "myths": "Obesity will shorten life expectancy" and "Obesity has made diabetes epidemic.")

Read more>>

Barnyard brawl a-comin': Food sector lobbyists launch website aimed at the Humane Society

Get ready for a food fight.

Animal rights groups have long kept a sharp eye (and a bounty of hidden cameras) on livestock farmers and others who raise animals for meat production. Now, the food producers are turning the tables: They’re siccing their own watchdog on the animal world’s largest guardian – the Humane Society of the United States.

Read more>>

Consumer Freedom Publishes Petty Attack Ad Against Humane Society

Please ask, who paid for that attack ad against The HSUS in today’s New York Times? What is the so-called “Center for Consumer Freedom” and what corporations fund this shadowy organization?

Read more>>

New watchdog for Humane Society

Animal rights has be come a key phrase for raising money, and some groups such as the Humane Society of the United States raise tons of it saying they save pets and animals.

The question is, where does all this money go?

The Center for Consumer Freedom is announcing the launch of HumaneWatch.org, a watchdog project dedicated to analyzing the activities of the Humane Society of the United States, the largest anti-hunting and fishing group in the country.

Read more>>

Believe a simple fact: Alcohol ignition interlocks save lives

I read with great concern the opinion in The Tennessean on Feb. 18 written by the managing director of the American Beverage Institute regarding life-saving alcohol ignition interlocks ("MADD's interlock proposal lumps all drinkers in same category").

The institute has a long, sad history of fighting to keep drunken drivers on the road. Over the past 20 years, this Washington-based organization has opposed nearly every measure proven effective and widely accepted by the public to stop drunken driving and save lives.

Read more>>

SPECIAL REPORT: DUI Checkpoints...Do They Work?

PALM SPRINGS - In 2010 over 1,000 people will die in drunk driving crashes in California. Local police believe DUI checkpoints are a way to save lives while a national organization says there are other more efficient ways. Palm Springs driver, Holly Connor says they are all over the place. Allan Borges of Palm Springs said he went through one on Super Bowl Sunday.

Read more>>

Two bills, two targets close to home: Sugary drinks and cell-phone radiation

SACRAMENTO — Enjoy a sugary drink every now and then? Unless you switch to diet, it could cost you a few extra pennies.

And are you thinking of buying a new cell phone? If you're the nervous type, better do it now — before California requires retailers to display in big numbers how much radiation the devices emit.

A pair of bills unveiled in the Legislature on Thursday seek to dramatically shift our relationships with two American staples: our pop cans and our phones.

Read more>>

Rick Berman Attacks the Humane Society

Front group man extraordinaire Rick Berman and his attack group, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), have launched a new Web site, HumaneWatch.org, to harass the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the country's largest animal welfare organization. In pursuing its mission of stopping animal cruelty, HSUS has apparently run afoul of some large, wealthy business interests, and now it is getting some major pushback.

The Humane Society works to stop egregious, ongoing animal abuse, particularly in money-making enterprises like puppy mills, factory farming, dogfighting, cockfighting, and unsporting hunting practices like "canned hunts," where hunters pay to shoot at captive, domestically-raised, exotic animals.

Read more>>

Letter: 'Health care is not a commodity'

In response to the Jan. 28 letter to the editor "Wrong numbers fuel poor policies "by Kristen Lopez Eastlick, it's interesting to note the letter writer's affiliation.

Eastlick is paid by the Economic Policy Institute which lobbies on behalf of hotel, alcoholic beverages, tobacco and restaurant industries. This group opposes any minimum wage laws and living wage ordinances. Since 1991, it has argued against any health care reform and either cherry picks or cooks data to support its positions.

Read more>>

Smashing ACORN: Scandal 'the last straw' for advocacy group in Michigan

You haven't seen Carrie Guzman on the television shows hosted by archconservatives Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck. Her name hasn't appeared on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal. And she hasn't shown up in any surreptitiously videotaped sting operations conducted by youthful right-wing zealots.

In fact, Guzman represents a face of the group ACORN that has been largely absent from the media in general since various factions of the right wing set out to discredit and cripple the anti-poverty organization.

Read more>>

The Other Political Super Bowl Ad

Watching TV in Washington, DC--particularly cable news--carries the distinct drawback of exposing District viewers to more political ads out of election season, commonly run by interest groups seeking to influence the national discussion by gaining the ear of opinion makers.

The Super Bowl was no different: to the surprise of anyone consumed by anticipation of the Tim Tebow abortion ad, CBS's DC feed carried a political ad criticizing U.S. debt, featuring American children pledging allegiance to the Chinese government.

If the Tebow ad was demurely apolitical, this ad was anything but.

Read more>>

Industry front maligns work of Humane Society

A letter writer from Billings gets it wrong when she falsely characterizes the work of The Humane Society of the United States (“Local donations will result in aid reaching animals,” Jan. 30). She relies on false information from the misnamed Center for Consumer Freedom, an industry front for tobacco, alcohol and agribusiness, which serves no function other than to attack organizations that promote food safety, public health or animal welfare.

Read more>>

Is Coke's Fizz Going Flat?

Like a tobacco company, Coca-Cola primarily sells one product--in its case, sugar water--that is linked to a number of diseases. It's under fire all over the world for its environmental, human rights, and health record. Here at home, it finds itself as the potential target of new taxation, expelled from America's schools, and outflanked by its nimbler competitor, PepsiCo. Angry parents, activist scientists, and wary shareholders are watching the company's every step.

Read more>>

Campus Right Unbowed by Okeefe Scandal

When James O’Keefe applied for a grant to fund a conservative newspaper at Rutgers University, he appealed to people like Sarah Longwell. As the senior program officer at the Collegiate Network, she toured campuses across America to help conservative and libertarian students start newspapers or keep their publications running. She “read basically every conservative college paper,” and got to know the sort of people attracted to the unpaid work of right-leaning campus muckraking.

Read more>>

Smashing ACORN

You haven't seen Carrie Guzman on the television shows hosted by archconservatives Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck. Her name hasn't appeared on the op-ed page of The Wall Street Journal. And she hasn't shown up in any surreptitiously videotaped sting operations conducted by youthful right-wing zealots.

In fact, Guzman represents a face of the group ACORN that has been largely absent from the media in general since various factions of the right wing set out to discredit and cripple the anti-poverty organization.

Read more>>

Emblem: Corporate lobbying arms ‘the power to change the debate’

“Propaganda” is a form of communication aimed at emotionally influencing the public’s attitude toward some cause or position as opposed to impartially providing information.

There are grassroots, tax-exempt organizations that actually educate and open up public dialogue with information to allow for well-informed decisions. There are also others with grassroots-sounding names fueled by corporate lobbyists who use the powerful and effective tools of fear and distrust to swiftly shut down debate. Some of these “public policy” sounding organizations claim to be non-partisan “think tanks” but are puppet organizations of corporate lobbyists.

Read more>>

Oregon teen unemployment third highest

Not only does Oregon have one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation at 11 percent, the state’s teen unemployment rate is now the third-highest.

Analysis of preliminary data by the Washington, D,C-based Employment Policies Institute shows that the teen unemployment rate in Oregon has averaged just over 31 percent over the last year. This is nearly 28 percent higher than the national teen average, and the third-highest average state teen unemployment rate in the nation.

Read more>>

Government union rolls grow as layoffs hit private sector

WASHINGTON — A majority of union members now work for the government, partly because of huge numbers of layoffs during the prolonged recession, which has accelerated the downward spiral of union dues-paying members in private business.

Local, state and government workers make up 51.5 percent of all union members, becoming the majority of organized labor for the first time, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.

Read more>>

Most U.S. Union Members Are Working for the Government, New Data Shows

For the first time in American history, a majority of union members are government workers rather than private-sector employees, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced on Friday.

In its annual report on union membership, the bureau undercut the longstanding notion that union members are overwhelmingly blue-collar factory workers. It found that membership fell so fast in the private sector in 2009 that the 7.9 million unionized public-sector workers easily outnumbered those in the private sector, where labor’s ranks shrank to 7.4 million, from 8.2 million in 2008.

Read more>>

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare $12 Trillion?

Times Square was hit by a flash mob of "homeless" Uncle Sams today, who were there giving the Naked Cowboy a run for his money, asking passerbys if they could spare some change —$12 trillion, to be exact.

No, that’s not a typo. It was a stunt by the Employment Policies Institute, part of their “Defeat the Debt” campaign to try to educate Americans about just how big the U.S. debt is a day before Congress is scheduled to begin debate on raising the debt ceiling.

Read more>>

Humane Society proud of its record of helping

Re: David Martosko’s Jan. 19 letter, “Be more humane”:

Martosko is the director of research for the Center for Consumer Freedom in Washington, D.C., an industry front for tobacco, alcohol and agribusiness. It serves no function other than to attack organizations that promote food safety, public health and animal welfare.

The CCF was started with a $600,000 grant from tobacco giant Phillip Morris. It has even attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Read more>>

Getting the facts straight on New Mexico’s DWI interlock law

In response to Sarah Longwell’s letter to the editor, the first mandatory interlock law actually went into effect in New Mexico on Jan. 1, 2003, not in 2005 as you state.

In 1999, it was optional for all second and third DWIs. In 2002, it was mandatory for all aggravated and subsequent DWIs. 2003 was when the Ignition Interlock License Act was in place as an alternative to license revocation. 2005 was when mandatory interlocks were for all DWIs.

Read more>>

UPDATE 1-New York City leads drive to cut U.S. salt intake

NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) - New York City, which has banned smoking and artificial trans fats in restaurants under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is taking on another enemy of healthy living: salt.

The city's Health Department announced on Monday that it is coordinating a nationwide effort to reduce salt in restaurant and packaged foods by 25 percent over five years.

Read more>>

Society's quest is noble

What the Humane Society of the United States stands for, and what it does, is plain for everyone to see. We are against the mistreatment of animals, and we battle on many fronts to bring it to an end.

That's been our story for more than a half-century. You can read about us, about our finances, about our field work, about our staff and our far-flung legions of supporters at humanesociety.org.

Read more>>

Help Wanted: Ohio Teens Find It Harder Than Ever To Land A Job.

It's hard for anyone to find a job right now. But on this week's upside / downside one group's having an even harder time than most. For teens, finding a job is always harder. But in the recession, even the few jobs that normally go to the young and inexperienced are being snatched by workforce veterans. ideastream®'s Ida Lieszkovszky has this the latest installment in our ongoing series on unemployment...Help Wanted.

Read more>>

Another defeat for California lawmaker's alcohol fee

SACRAMENTO — A South Bay lawmaker's plan to chase every alcoholic drink served in California with a 10-cent fee was officially put on ice Tuesday, failing for the second time in a year to win support from his colleagues.

The charge, sought by Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, would have raised $1.44 billion a year to help pay for some of the billions in criminal justice and public health costs associated with alcohol abuse.

Read more>>

Cap high interest rates on payday loans

Sarah Longwell and the Center for Consumer Freedom shouldn't be interfering with the efforts of the Des Moines City Council to reduce the prevalence of predatory and abusive lenders in the city (Dec. 9 letter).

Longwell fails to realize that payday lending is anything but a "valuable financial tool." The idea that payday lending regulation limits consumer freedom seems like a cruel joke that mocks the thousands of Iowans each year whose financial freedom is stripped away when they are ensnared in a payday loan cycle.

Read more>>

Tobacco Lobbyists Join Wall Streeters on Debt Crusade

Millions of people around the country have been treated to the anti-debt ads run by one-time tobacco industry lobbyist Richard Berman. Mr. Berman, who has also worked to thwart minimum wage increases and managed to get on the opposite side of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is now working alongside the Wall Street types who wrecked the economy.

Wall Streeters, like billionaire fund manager Peter Peterson, want to use the government debt burden created by the collapse of their credit bubble as an excuse to slash Social Security and Medicare.

Read more>>

Corporate W**** Rick Berman Smacked Down by Court for Anti-Health Care Ad

It’s nice to see the purveyors of corporate activism get their comeuppance.

A federal court ordered the latest Rick Berman front group to take down its anti-healthcare ad because of trademark violations. Berman’s group falsely claimed several doctors’ groups opposed “government health care,” and those groups weren’t too happy.

Read more>>

Is that Right? Facebook disses dairy?

I enjoy reading the e-mails I receive from the Center for Consumer Freedom, a group that rails against regulation and taxation and argues that consumers should be left to make their own decisions about what they put in their mouths. One of the Center's chief bugaboos, for instance, is the move toward imposing a tax on sweetened soft drinks as a means of combating obesity.

Read more>>

Payday lenders don't sell affordable credit

I was appalled to read Sarah Longwell's Dec. 9 letter in which she sings the praises of the payday lending industry. Longwell is identified as the director of communications for the Center for Consumer Freedom. I think I can guess who funds that outfit.

In reality, payday loans trap hard-working Iowans in a vicious cycle of debt with interest rates that can exceed 400 percent. The average $300 payday loan costs the borrower $800.

On top of that, nearly $40 million in fees alone leave Iowa for corporate payday lending headquarters in other states.

Read more>>

Health Reform Foes' New Dirty Tricks (VIDEO)

What does the popular wing restaurant Hooters have to do with health reform? Gift certificates to that fine establishment are one of several prizes you can obtain in exchange for simply signing up for free e-mails from anti-health reform advocates. This comes on the heels of reporting last week where we showed that gamers playing a popular Facebook game were being offered virtual money to spend in that game if they filled out a health reform-related survey.

Read more>>

Court forces health care foes' ad off air

A federal court in Illinois today ordered that an ad opposing health care legislation be taken off the air and removed from the Internet after a leading medical group complained that the ad miscast its stance on the bill and misused its trademark.

Read more>>

Surgeons groups want names pulled from ad (UPDATED)

A leading medical group is demanding its name be removed from a an ad attacking health care legislation.

The American College of Surgeons has asked the group "Rethink Reform" to to remove the college's name from a scrolling list of "Doctors Against the Plan" in an ad that says doctors "understand that under the proposed rules there will be longer waiting times and rationing of care for seniors."

Rethink Reform is one of many campaigns run by the wide-ranging business lobbyist Rick Berman, and isn't required to disclose its donors.

Read more>>

DUI check stops 633 cars; nets 1 arrest

SARASOTA COUNTY - For more than four hours last weekend, two dozen deputies and officers set up a sobriety checkpoint and stopped every car going south on U.S. 41 in North Port.

Out of 633 cars stopped, police made only one DUI-related arrest.

The lack of arrests gives fuel to a long-standing criticism of DUI checkpoints that are usually set up during holidays.

"They're just not a particularly effective way to spend law enforcement dollars," said Sarasota defense attorney Tom Hudson, who has studied the results of the checkpoints in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

Read more>>

Ad wars: Industry overwhelms labor, advocacy spending

The media tracking firm TNSI-CMAG finds a continued flood of health care spending in the month of November, in its latest report, and also found that industry backed foes of health care legislation -- led by the Chamber of Commerce -- widely outspent its backers, with industry dollars on both sides swamping ads from unions and liberal advocacy groups.

In sum:

Read more>>

Facebook to lift ban on promotion of dairy products

Guns, dairy and prescription drugs. They're not often in the same category.

But the promotion of dairy products — along with firearms, cigarettes, gambling, tobacco, prescription dugs and gasoline — was banned on Facebook.

"When you looked at the list of products they have banned, it just didn't make any sense," said Patrick Geoghegan, senior vice president of corporate communications with the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board in Madison. "So we poked around and were later told they took dairy off the list."

He didn't know why dairy was on the list to start with.

Read more>>

Conservative Groups Load Up For Major Anti-Health Care Ad Push

A host of conservative groups are ramping up their efforts to derail health care reform in Congress, spending more than $3.91 million for a fresh wave of ad buys in key states, according to data provided by a Democratic ad tracker.

Read more>>

The Great Dairy Compromise: Facebook No Longer Lactose-Intolerant

Raise your milkshakes, dairy lovers -- a Facebook ban on dairy promotions has been partially lifted.

The social-networking giant had banned certain items from promotions: gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs, gasoline and dairy.

One of those things is not like the other, said Center for Consumer Freedom research director David Martosko.

Read more>>

Health reform foe may keep eye on bottom line

I read with great interest the editorial titled "High premium talk is hot air," published Dec. 2. After being constantly barraged with the TV ads by Re-think Reform, I wanted to know who really was behind such a massive effort to discredit any meaningful health care reform efforts.

Lo and behold, the sponsoring entity is the Employment Policies Institute. EPI is one of several front organizations created by Berman & Co., which is owned by Rick Berman who lobbies for the tobacco, restaurant, alcoholic beverage and hotel industries.

Read more>>

'Consumer' group's attack on physicians committee's nutrition recommendations is disingenuous

It's no surprise that David Martosko doesn't like the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine's work to promote healthful diets ["I'll take turkey," cleveland.com, Wednesday]. Martosko's employer, the so-called Center for Consumer Freedom, has been exposed in The Washington Post as a corporate front group that has taken millions of dollars from fast-food chains, tobacco giant Philip Morris, corporate meat producers and other companies selling unhealthy products. Martosko's group has attacked virtually every public health advocate in America, from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to our organization, which has more than 9,000 physician members.

Read more>>

Get real facts before believing biased TV ads

Central Indiana viewers have been bombarded recently with advertisements regarding health-care reform. It is important for viewers to understand who is funding these advertisements. The ads urging us to "rethink health-care reform" come from an organization called the Employment Policies Institute, a conservative pro-business group that opposes minimum wage increases and any requirement for employers to insure their employees.

Read more>>

Movie popcorn: greasy buckets of death

Yoicks! Just in time to cripple our holiday fun.

Gigantic spoilsports at the Center for Science in the Public Interest announced on Nov. 18 that movie popcorn will kill you.

Read more>>

Is your teenager jobless? An adult likely took the position

Alissha Marcum can't find a job -- "There's nothing," the 19-year-old said.

Marcum recently moved back to Belleville after she lost her job in Bloomington, Ind. "I was working at Steak 'n Shake," she said.

Marcum and others her age are finding fewer jobs than ever before. According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research organization Employment Policies Institute has cited that the nation's unemployment rate among those 16 to 19 years old soared to a record 27 percent last month.

Read more>>

Tough road to adulthood for jobless teens

ROCKFORD — When Michelle Morgan was 15, she worked at the now-closed Hamilton Center True Value store as a cashier.

The job taught the Machesney Park resident a lot — how to work with people, how to deal with the public, how to handle money. All are skills she still uses as an adult, and they’re skills she fears her 16-year-old son, Brandon, will never get.

Brandon has been looking dutifully for a part-time job since the summer, but has had only one interview out of the dozens of applications he’s submitted.

Read more>>

More breath devices may curb offenses

They are a key weapon in the fight against drunken driving, and next year a lot more of them will be on the roads.

A tough new state law enacted this month will require everyone convicted of misdemeanor or felony DWI to spend at least six months driving with an ignition interlock device that requires them to blow a breath free of alcohol before a car will start.

That requirement will come after they finish any jail or prison time and regain their driver's licenses.

Read more>>

DUI checkpoints net offenders, but remain controversial

Drivers slowed as they pulled to a stop on a dark section of Route 13 in Bristol Township. When they rolled or thumbed down their window, a cop's head popped in.

The officers - eight of them stopping sets of four cars at a time - leaned into the open windows and asked to see a driver's license. They explained that it was a DUI checkpoint and, hopefully, the drivers would be on their way again in seconds.

Not everyone got to drive away, though.

Read more>>

Ads Add Heat to Healthcare Debate

For weeks, Sen. Blanche Lincoln has been attacked as a "flip-flopper" or an obstructionist in television ads aimed at Arkansas voters, who will decide next year if she gets to keep her job.

This week, she and other moderate Democrats who made a politically risky vote to start debate on the Senate's health care bill may get a bit of positive support from two campaigns, funded by reform advocates, highlighting their votes to allow debate on the Democrats' bill.

Read more>>

Who the hell is Monica Wehby and why is she spouting nonsense?

Monica Wehby is the star of a new commercial presented by rethinkreform.com.
Wehby claims to be a Doctor, and she actually is one. Bingo, there is one truth. Monica claims to oppose the health reform plan as currently constituted. Bingo, I guess that is true. She would have no reason to lie, right?

Read more>>

DUI Sobriety Checkpoints Don't Work

DUI sobriety checkpoints do not work in stopping drunk drivers. This is the message from the American Beverage Institute in a press release today urging law enforcement agencies to forego the practice of DUI sobriety checkpoints over Thanksgiving weekend and, instead, focusing their time, effort and money toward the more effective roving DUI patrols.

Read more>>

Group wants to do away with DWI checkpoints

JEFFERSON CITY -- Beginning Wednesday, mid-Missouri law enforcement will be out of in force to watch for drunk drivers over the holiday weekend.

But what's the best way to catch drunk drivers?

The American Beverage Institute says the answer isn't DWI checkpoints, which they call ineffective and a waste of money.

"There's no proof that [checkpoints] deter drunk drivers," said Sarah Longwell with the ABI. "When they talk about deterrent, I think of it more as a publicity stunt."

Read more>>

Ohio Teens Hit Hard by Job Loss

WASHINGTON -- New unemployment numbers show Ohio teenagers are hit particularly hard by the lagging economy.

The state unemployment rate in Ohio was 10.5% in October, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, and the teen unemployment rate was 31.2%, three times as high as both the state and national unemployment rates.

According to analysis from the Employment Policies Institute, Ohio has the 10th highest teen unemployment rate in the nation. Since October 2008, Ohio’s teen unemployment rate has increased nearly 38%, from 22.6% in 2008.

Read more>>

NY DWI offenders now face toughest penalties in nation

Not only will drunk drivers who have a child passenger face more stringent penalties, but all convicted DWI offenders will also face stricter punishments under a new law Gov. David A. Paterson signed last Wednesday.

The bill (A.40008/S.66008, Governor's Program Bill 204) known as "Leandra's Law" is aimed at preventing the death of child passengers, anyone 15 years old or younger, due to the driver being intoxicated. Leandra Rosado was an 11-year-old who died in a drunk driving accident.

Read more>>

Letter writer has written to many newspapers across the country

I've been following the diatribes incited by Marc Guthrie's Nov. 11 view "Supporting health care is vote for common good." What finally motivated me to write was the letter by Kristen Lopez Eastlick. I decided to learn more about her since we don't have a large number of economic analysts in Licking County and she purports to be one. (I know that Marc lives in Licking County.)

Read more>>

Tougher DWI penalties signed into law; not all pleased

ORISKANY, N.Y. (WKTV) - The penalties for DWI in New York State just got a bit tougher Wednesday.

Governor David Paterson signed legislation Wednesday afternoon that stiffens the penalties for those convicted of DWI who have children in the car, and makes even first-time offenders use the ignition interlock program. The charges will be raised from misdemeanor to felony, and now anyone convicted of a DWI is subject to blowing in a breathalyzer before they start their car.

Michael Calengelo, the coordinator for the Oneida County Stop-DWI program calls Wednesday's bill a step in the right direction.

Read more>>

Senate takes up health care

WASHINGTON — With the U.S. House approving a health-care plan, all the attention now turns to the U.S. Senate where U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu is considered one of five votes that could make or break the effort.

Democrats outnumber Republicans in the chamber, 60 to 40. But supporters of the health-care revamp proposed by Senate Democrats will need all 60 Democratic votes to block an expected Republican filibuster.

Landrieu, who opposes the plan in its current form, is one of the Senate’s Democratic moderates whose defection could sink the yearlong effort to pass health-care legislation.

Read more>>

Business Opponents Of Health Overhaul Ramp Up Advertising

Interest groups, including business opponents, are ramping up spending on advertising.

"Business foes of health care overhaul legislation are outspending supporters at a rate of 2-to-1 for TV ads as they grow increasingly nervous over a final bill," The Associated Press reports. "Led by the giant U.S. Chamber of Commerce, opponents of the Democratic health care drive have spent $24 million on TV commercials over the past month to $12 million spent by labor unions and other backers. That's an abrupt reversal from the vast spending advantage supporters enjoyed most of this year, according to Evan Tracey, president of Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks political ads. More than half the opposition spending has been by the chamber." The chamber has also "circulated an e-mail to other business groups asking them to help fund a $50,000 study by a 'respected economist' of the proposed health care overhaul. The study would be used for a letter, ads and other lobbying efforts to argue that the bill 'will kill jobs and hurt the economy,' according to the e-mail" (Fram, 11/17).

Read more>>

K Street Files: ‘Dr. Evil’ Takes On Health Care

A group run by sharp-edged lobbyist and public relations maven Richard Berman plans to saturate the airwaves in six states starting today with television ads warning about the high cost of proposed health care reforms.

The spots are part of a $10 million campaign spearheaded by the Employment Policies Institute, which is financed by Berman’s business clients.

Read more>>

Health-care debate heats up in Senate

BATON ROUGE — Now that the U.S. House has passed a controversial health-care-reform bill, Louisiana’s two senators find themselves on the hot seat.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he will bring the legislation to the floor this week.

And beginning today, the Employment Policies Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit research group that leans Democrat, will be airing advertisements in the Houma-Thibodaux area.

Read more>>

Business group unveils $10 million campaign against health reform

A group that helped defeat President Clinton’s healthcare plan is set to launch a $10 million campaign against the pending legislation.

A pro-business group that helped defeat President Bill Clinton’s healthcare plan announced Thursday a $10 million campaign against the pending healthcare legislation.

The radio and television campaign is part of a wave of ads that advocacy groups have unveiled in the past day.

The Employment Policies Institute said the $10 million campaign would be its largest ever on the issue of healthcare. It will run over the next eight to 10 weeks.

Read more>>

Health-Bill Battle Won't Get a Recess

WASHINGTON -- The fight over the future of the U.S. health-care system is heading outside the Beltway this week, as groups on all sides take advantage of Congress's Veterans Day recess to put pressure on lawmakers.

Conservative groups are using the recess -- one week for the House and three days for the Senate -- to press lawmakers to vote no on the health-care overhaul plans. Groups in favor of the Democratic health plan are equally active, if not more so, after getting caught flat-footed this summer when groups opposing the plans packed town-hall meetings.

Read more>>

Groups Launch Anti-Health Care Reform Ads

The Employment Policies Institute, founded by lobbyist and public relations man Richard Berman, has launched a $10 million television campaign warning about the high cost of proposed health care reform.

The television spots, which will be aired on national cable channels and in six states, are part of the high-priced efforts by both sides to influence the health care debate as the Senate prepares to take up the legislation as soon as next week.

Read more>>

EPI takes on health care reform bills

WASHINGTON (Nov. 12, 2009) The Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research organization that addresses issues affecting restaurants, debuted Thursday a $10 million advertising campaign arguing that current health-care reform legislation will fuel the national debt and hamper job creation.

The EPI’s national campaign kicks off with a television ad featuring Dr. June O’Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, who maintains that the country is facing “an enormous debt crisis” and health care legislation will only add to that.

Read more>>

It doesn't matter how you drink, you shouldn't drive

I could not disagree more with Sarah Longwell's op-ed "MADD's ignition interlock proposal goes to far" (November 4).

Ms. Longwell writes: "A 120-pound woman can reach the legal limit of 0.08 after two 6-ounce glasses of wine over a two-hour period. Under this new mandate, if she drives, she would automatically be punished with an interlock for behavior that, according to studies, is equivalent to driving while talking on a 'hands-free' cell phone."

Ms. Longwell misses the point. The issue here is not in what manner a driver has consumed alcohol but whether the driver can safely operate an automobile.

Read more>>

One Lone Voice Against Animal Welfare

I’ve been encouraged, even heartened, by the swift and broad reaction to The HSUS’s recent undercover investigations of wanton animal abuse at a heinous facility in Vermont that specializes in slaughtering infant calves discarded by the dairy industry and processes them to make “bob veal.”

That is, with one inexcusable exception. So bear with me, because this single wrong-way group of corporate mercenaries deserves to be called out as the champions of cruelty that they really are.

Read more>>

Your Opinion: Group advocates for animals

David Martosko's Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is an industry front for tobacco, alcohol and agribusiness interests, and the group's stock-in-trade involves taking aim at organizations that promote food safety, public health or animal welfare ("Group pursues radical agenda," Oct. 25). It started with a $600,000 grant from tobacco giant Phillip Morris, and CCF has even attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their anti-drunk driving and public health campaigns. CCF has always griped about our work to combat factory farming, puppy mills, the Canadian seal slaughter, commercial whaling and other large-scale cruelties. It's now unhappy about our successful collaboration in Michigan with agricultural leaders in working to pass legislation to phase out intensive confinement practices for animals living on factory farms.

Read more>>

Proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages could generate revenue, reduce obesity rates

A group of medical researchers are proposing a 1-cent per ounce tax on beverages that contain any added caloric sweetener as an attempt to alleviate escalating health care costs and the rising number of diseases related to poor diet.

Read more>>

Interlocks can stop drunken drivers

In response to Sarah Longwell's Oct. 19 letter, "Don't push for interlocks in cars": Statistical mumbo jumbo in regard to drinking and driving is irrelevant. Either you are over the limit, or you are not.

My son Christopher was 16 when he was killed by a drinking-impaired driver. Over the legal limit of 0.08 is just what it is. Interlock devices can stop drunken drivers.

I doubt that the parents of the next child killed by a drinking-impaired driver would be relieved to hear that the driver was only marginally over the legal limit.

Brian Bascom

Rensselaer

Read more>>

Soda's role in dental decay is scientific

Regarding J. Justin Wilson's Oct. 24 letter about pop and obesity: It is important for people to realize that his advocacy group, the Center for Consumer Freedom, represents the interests of Coca-Cola. An editorial writer for USA Today suggested that the organization rename its Web site FatForProfit.com.

My particular bone to pick with soda comes not from obesity, but from my profession - dentistry. I would be glad to debate Wilson on the contribution that this liquid candy plays in the devastating disease of dental decay I see everyday.

Read more>>

We Can't Reform Health Care without Reforming Food

If and when health care reform finally passes, we will have successfully ameliorated only half of the crisis. The treatment half. The next step has to be focused upon doing something about the poisoned filth we've collectively nicknamed "food." Without any real changes in how our food is produced, the health care system will continue to bloat and fall apart. Not unlike the insides of an average American body.

Read more>>

Sugary drink tax overdue to help fund health care

Better get a straw because it's becoming harder and harder to swallow claims being made by a group known as Americans Against Food Taxes.

One of the group's current television commercials features a mom with groceries telling government not to tax her two-liter bottle of cola — because it would hurt her family and ours.

Read more>>

First-time DUI punishment is just

The time has come for our justice system to serve both the crime and the convict.

"Court-mandated" is most certainly not among my favorite phrases. So I pay attention when I hear the words "mandated" and "intrusive" from opponents of current legislation.

Sacramento is one of four counties in California piloting a program that would mandate ignition interlock devices for all first-time DUI offenders.

Effective July 1, 2010, a five-month period of use will be required of all those convicted.

Read more>>

Issue 2: Prevent animal suffering from birth until death

David Martosko's op-ed piece, "Hard-boiled animal activists could threaten vaccine supply" (Sunday), is as misleading as it is heartless.

He attacks the Humane Society of the United States for its support of California's Proposition 2, a ballot initiative that, according to Martosko, required that egg-laying hens be raised without cages. In truth, the passage of Proposition 2 last year by nearly two-thirds of California voters requires only that hens be confined in ways that allow them to lie down, stand up, extend their limbs and turn around freely. Egg producers have until 2015 to comply. In what way is that radical?

Read more>>

Obesity doctors urged to back off soda tax

The annual gathering of the Obesity Society is underway this week in Washington, D.C., and that means the debate over taxes on sodas and other junk food is back on center stage.

Read more>>

Corn syrup 'not guilty'

High fructose corn syrup should be acquitted. It's not to blame for America's obesity any more than sugar or honey, proclaims the latest campaign launched recently on behalf of the often-maligned sweetener.

"A sugar is a sugar," the TV and print ads state. Pictured are a "lineup" that includes people costumed as an ear of corn, a sugar cube and a bear-shaped honey bottle.

The message: They're all the same, including number of calories.

Read more>>

ACORN's Current Woes Years In The Making

ACORN, the community organizing group, is fighting for its survival these days, but its current plight has been years in the making.

Part of the story is the group's own missteps. ACORN was founded to help low- and middle-income Americans, but its edgy tactics and a series of gaffes fed the notion that the group was unreliable.

That image, however, was built in part by a long campaign of attacks and allegations of illegal activities from a host of opponents in the corporate world, the Republican Party and conservative media outlets.

Read more>>

Far From the Tree

When ACORN came to Idaho in 2007, its first act was bringing a traffic engineer to Latah and Nez Perce streets and getting the city to turn the intersection into a four-way stop. ACORN, as the nonprofit Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now is widely known, distributed a flier in November 2007 encouraging Bench neighbors for helping "make a difference." The group assisted tenants in Garden City with water quality and other utility complaints and connected people in default or foreclosure with HUD certified loan counselors.

Read more>>

Whom can you trust? (Anyone?)

We read today that a group called The Cancer Project has filed a class action lawsuit against McDonald's, Burger King and the Friendly's restaurant chain for selling grilled chicken that they knew contained a cancer-causing chemical, a heterocyclic amine called PhIP.

We also received an e-mail from a group called the Center for Consumer Freedom, warning us that the Cancer Project was "deceptive," "sneaky," and "an animal rights group in disguise."

Read more>>

Beverly Citizen uncovers vegan letter scam

Beverly, Mass. - A Lothrop Street, Beverly resident who has supposedly written dozens of letters to the editor supporting being a vegan and opposing eating meat doesn’t exist.

And the Beverly address he was using as his home address is also phony.

A man named Matthew Warden has written at least 24 letters to the Citizen since 2004, according to a search of the paper’s archives. In the letters, Warden often wrote opposing eating meat.

Read more>>

Diet Activists in 'Food Fight'

Not everyone is happy with the ongoing campaign to get people to adopt more healthful eating habits.

Some A consumer freedom movement is fighting efforts by diet activists who, they say, are trying to dictate what people should and should not eat.

FIGHTING FOR FOOD RIGHTS

The Center for Consumer Freedom (C.C.F.) was formed by lobbyist Rick Berman to back those who feel their personal choices are being increasingly threatened.

Read more>>

Outside observers say PETA videos extreme at best, at worst, staged

The animal images are grainy and graphic.

Dairy cows that appear filthy, ailing and abused. Hogs kicked by angry workers. Hens that die in their cages, their rotting carcasses left for days.

Animal-rights activists have filmed these images with hidden-camera videos and made them public. In each case, the activists have gone a step further, condemning the Minnesota corporations that buy the milk, hogs or eggs.

Read more>>

Despite stimulus, teens find little aid in competition for jobs

Chelsea Lipscomb couldn't find a summer job this year, despite filling out applications at several Ross Park Mall stores, local restaurants and supermarkets.

None of the businesses called her. "A lot of places weren't interested in hiring college students because we would be leaving for school," said Lipscomb, 18, a sophomore chemical engineering major at Penn State's Greater Allegheny Campus in McKeesport.

Thousands of other local teenagers faced the same predicament. Teen unemployment has been on the rise, and just-released September's numbers put it at an all-time high, 25.8 percent, nationwide, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The overall jobless rate was 9.8 percent.

Read more>>

US considers taxing sugary drinks

The average American drinks 189 litres of sugary beverages like soft drinks and sweetened tea each year.

One study shows that adults who drink one or more sugary drinks a day are 27 per cent more likely to be overweight or obese.

Some health care experts say a tax would help cut consumption, just as tobacco taxes have helped curb smoking. It could also help to fund America's mounting health care costs.

Read more>>

Agribusiness interests are trying to continue using inhumane practices on farms

Editor, the Gazette:

David Martosko's Center for Consumer Freedom is an industry front for tobacco, alcohol and agribusiness interests ("Issue 2 failure might mean loss of jobs," Oct. 10, Gazette). CCF has even attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. CCF has always griped about our work against factory farming, puppy mills, the Canadian seal slaughter and other large-scale cruelties.

Read more>>

OPINION: Tougher OUI laws send right message

BROCKTON —

The American Beverage Institute would like you to think of some drunken drivers as no more dangerous than someone on a cell phone. They even say there are data to back it up.

That’s why the ABI is against a state bill that would require all first-time drunken driving convictions to include a requirement that the offender have a device installed in their car for six months to prevent them from repeating their crime.

Read more>>

Lunetta passes off lies as fact

It's truly sad that Steve Lunetta's column ("The stench coming from ACORN," The Signal, Oct. 12) is another example of a conservative making up things and passing them off as fact. He then decries the made up situation. His column is both factually incorrect and backed by information provided by an organization that provides "made as instructed" studies.

Read more>>

DUI ignition locks on the way in Sacramento County

Drunken driving convictions are about to get harsher in Sacramento County.

Motorists found guilty of a first drunken driving offense here and in three other California counties will be required to install and use breathalyzers in their cars for five months, under a law signed this week by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The ignition interlock device will keep the car from starting if the driver's breath shows more than a small amount of alcohol in the blood.

Read more>>

Industry works to save high-fructose corn syrup from 'fat' reputation

WASHINGTON: As part of its $1 million marketing campaign, the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) is calling for media outlets to dispel myths that the organization claims unfairly blames high-fructose corn syrup for America's obesity epidemic.

Read more>>

LOSERS OF THE WEEK: 10-11-09

t's been an interesting week of politics and I thought I would list my favorite LOSERS OF THE WEEK! These are people whose actions have contributed in a unique and noteworthy way to the political and social discourse gripping our country!

House Democrats for allowing House Ways & Means Committe Chairman, Charlie Rangel to hold his position of leadership while the investigation into his finances is expanded...again!

Read more>>

Rachel Maddow Takes on Corporate Agribusiness PR. Next Up, the Fight for Food Safety?

Last night Rachel Maddow interviewed the notorious corporate public relations hit man Rick Berman, best known for heading the Center for Consumer Freedom and for starting numerous websites that pose as fact havens while he is most likely being paid by the corporate interests pushing high fructose corn syrup, trans fats, tanning beds, tuna fish and more. Why don't we know who is footing the bill? Because Berman orchestrates a cadre of non-profits to represent corporate political aims, and they do not have to reveal their donors.

Read more>>

Rachel Maddow vs. "Dr. Evil": Smackdown over Rick Berman's Corporate Funding (VIDEO)

Rachel Maddow last night took on corporate PR maestro Rick Berman. Berman has established a bevy of anti-reform "non-profit" websites that enable him to attack everything from ACORN to unions to Mothers Against Drunk Driving while defending trans-fats, lowering the minimum wage and high fructose corn syrup as good for you and the economy. But most critically, Maddow notes, "We're not allowed to know who picks up the bill" for his hit jobs.

Read more>>

Fighting for the Right to Drink Soda

NEW YORK — Depending on what subway car you’re riding in New York these days, you might either see an ad warning that soft drinks are dangerous to your health, or a sardonic opposing ad charging that the government’s campaign against soft drinks threatens your basic freedoms.

Read more>>

Ad Campaign Challenges 'Misinformation' About High Fructose Corn Syrup

WASHINGTON -- The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom has launched a new $1 million ad campaign designed to refute what it calls “the blatant inaccuracies” surrounding high-fructose corn syrup. The campaign communicates to the public that high-fructose corn syrup is nutritionally the same as organic sweeteners like table sugar and honey.

Read more>>

A tax on Coca-Cola and Pepsi 'could make Americans thinner'

They brought the world Coca-Cola and Pepsi, two of the globe's most recognisable brands. Now Americans – not renowned for favouring new taxes – have been told that a national levy on its fizzy drinks could not only wipe out the budget deficits of most US states but significantly reduce obesity and diabetes.

Read more>>

Soda tax could close states' budget gaps, health advocacy group says

The Center for Science in the Public Interest believes that many states might be able to close gaps in their budgets by placing a tax on soda and other sugary drinks.

The health advocacy group released a study this week that estimates budget-strapped states -- including California -- could generate a combined $10 billion a year by levying a tax of 7 cents per 12-ounce can of Coke or other beverage. Currently, 25 states impose special taxes on sugary drinks.

Read more>>

Teen Unemployment Rate Hits All-Time High

While the U.S. unemployment rate continued its steady upward march to 9.8 percent last month, reaching a 26-year record, the jobless rate for teenagers hit an all-time high.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in the year from September 2008 to last month, teen unemployment soared by a third, to 25.9 percent -- the highest its been since the Bureau began keeping records in 1948.

Among African American teens, the jobless figure is a particularly high 40.8 percent -- a 37 percent increase from a year ago.

Read more>>

'Sweet' revenge vs. Mike

Fat chance Mayor Bloomberg's war on junk food would go unchallenged.

The industry-backed Center for Consumer Freedom unleashed a $1 million advertising campaign against Bloomberg and the Department of Health's crusade against sugary soft drinks.

"It's a pushback. When we saw the Department of Health's hyperbolic campaign, we felt it was so over the top and moved into the new territory of demonizing a product," said Sarah Longwell, spokeswoman for the Washington, DC-based center.

Read more>>

New ad campaign to tackle ‘viral urban myths’ about HFCS

The Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) has launched a new advertising campaign in an effort to dispel consumer misconceptions about high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Fears about HFCS were raised in 2004, when an article was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition hypothesizing that the sweetener could be linked to rising rates of obesity. One of the article’s authors Dr Barry Popkin has since said that he was wrong to pinpoint HFCS as obesity’s major cause, but consumer concern has continued nonetheless.

Read more>>

Let's limit our intake of corn-syrup ads

News flash: High-fructose corn syrup isn't to blame for the obesity epidemic.

"High-fructose corn syrup was acquitted today amidst a flood of public apologies by consumers who had singled the corn sweetener out as a unique cause of obesity," newspaper ads declared in what was intended to look like a news story showing a man dressed like an ear of corn being proved innocent.

Read more>>

Letter: Writer chooses to minimize real problem

America’s shortage of health insurance and limits on access to quality health care are far greater than shown by the official Census numbers.

So, let’s clear up a few things about the “Employment Policies Institute” response to my recent letter regarding Congressman Dave Loebsack’s health care Town Hall in Tipton.

First, the 46 million figure I used for the uninsured in this country is, in fact, the best number available. It comes from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, long the standard for this information.

Read more>>

High fructose corn syrup sticks to its defense

High fructose corn syrup should be acquitted. It's not to blame for America's obesity any more than sugar or honey, proclaims the latest campaign launched Tuesday on behalf of the often-maligned sweetener.

"A sugar is a sugar," the TV and print ads state. Pictured are a "lineup" that includes people costumed as an ear of corn, a sugar cube and a bear-shaped honey bottle.

The message: They're all the same, including number of calories.

Read more>>

Here Comes Trumka

He put himself through Penn State while working in the very same southwestern Pennsylvania coal mine where his father labored for 44 years. He's built like a linebacker and has a law degree from Villanova University. He gives fiery, inspirational speeches that bring audiences to their feet.

He's Richard L. Trumka, the AFL-CIO's newest president, and his admirers say HR leaders had better be on their toes.

Read more>>

Will Soda Pop Tax Prevent Obesity?

Legislators are considering the option of food taxes on sweetened beverages, including soda pop, and snack foods in an effort to battle obesity. Forty states are in support of a small tax on soda, while New York and Maine believe a higher tax may be necessary.

Read more>>

Rachel Maddow Blames Corporations, Lobbyist for ACORN Attacks

Recent videos from two investigative reporters, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, with the help of Andrew Breitbart, showed that community-group ACORN engaging in scandalous practices. But MSNBC host Rachel Maddow argued Sept. 24 that wasn’t the story that mattered.

ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, was hit hard by the videos showing employees giving tax avoidance advice to a “pimp” and “hooker.”

Read more>>

Fruitless Labor

A half-century ago, labor unions' prodigious political influence might not have seemed so oversized. Nearly a third of American workers belonged to a union when memberships peaked in 1953. Now these organizations represent only one-eighth of the national workforce, but they've kept lots of lawmaking friends -- including many Republicans.

Read more>>

Unionization effort grows stagnant

Nineteen-year-old Lynette Santiago, a housekeeper in the Environmental Services Department of Yale-New Haven Hospital, met him while grabbing coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts six months ago.

The man was dressed in a union uniform, she recalled — the New England Healthcare Employees Union District 1199, Services Employees International Union. She took his card. (“I didn’t keep it,” she said.) They have not seen each other since.

Read more>>

For ACORN, controversy now a matter of survival

LOS ANGELES — Millicent Hill says God put her in her stucco home on East 92nd Street, but she believes she would have lost the house without ACORN.

Hill's home is a center of after-school activity for kids in the Watts neighborhood in gritty South-Central Los Angeles. Children in her church-supported program can avoid the street, get a snack, work on a computer or get a hug.

Read more>>

AFL-CIO increases political activity to influence working conditions and paychecks

• Nearly 100,000 members

• Comprises 148 local unions

• Peak membership of 250,000 in 1958

• Formerly known as Cleveland AFL-CIO Federation of Labor. Name changed in 2006 when unions in Lake and Geauga counties joined

Harriet Applegate, elected executive secretary in 2007, is the first woman to head the organization.

Read more>>

Defeat the Debt- the TV ad and the American Right

A TV ad that Mr Benjamin A Shobert describes in disturbing detail in Asia Times this week is part of an overall campaign that includes this national television commercial, which is currently airing on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and CNBC. Additionally, full-page ads are running in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Times, The Washington Examiner, The San Francisco Chronicle, and The Las Vegas Review-Journal. Mr Shobert rightly deduces that for the US, China is the financial bogeyman.

Read more>>

Report: Proposed tax on sugar-sweetened beverages would generate revenue, reduce obesity rates

A group of medical researchers are proposing a 1-cent per ounce tax on beverages that contain any added caloric sweetener as an attempt to alleviate escalating health care costs and the rising number of diseases related to poor diet.

Read more>>

Docs Propose Taxing Sweet Drinks to Cut Consumption, Finance Care

Soft drinks and other beverages loaded with sugar should be taxed as a public health hazard, much as cigarettes are, a group of prominent medical researchers says.

Since extensive evidence ties sugary drinks to an epidemic of obesity and related health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes, they should be taxed to curb consumption and help pay for increasing healthcare costs, said David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD, of Children's Hospital Boston.

Ludwig is one of the authors of the sugar tax proposal, published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Read more>>

Soft-Drink Tax Could Pare Waistlines, Cover Health-Care Costs

(Bloomberg) -- A penny-per-ounce tax on soda and other sugary drinks would raise about $150 billion over a decade while slimming Americans’ waistlines, according to a report from public health and economic researchers.

Read more>>

Mayor Bloomberg Feted With Health Prize

Along with researchers studying nuclear reprogramming and physicians who developed a revolutionary leukemia drug, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg won a public service award from the Lasker Foundation today. The honor recognizes Bloomberg's public health policies—from banning smoking in bars and restaurants to eliminating trans fats in city eateries—along with his philanthropic efforts to support public health education and global anti-smoking campaigns.

Bloomberg's public health policies have at times met with resistance.

Read more>>

Drunken Driving Laws

- In a state that's known for its taverns and breweries, the topic of drunken driving laws evokes some strong opinions.

Now there's increasing pressure on lawmakers to make those laws tougher.

Right now penalties in the state for drunken driving range from fines to license suspension to prison time based on the offense and judge's discretion.

But several pieces of legislation could change that.

Representative Tony Staskunas, says "I think people feel they can get away with it because our laws are so laxed."

Read more>>

3 counties might get drunken driving pilot plan

A bill passed by the Legislature would require convicted drunken drivers in Alameda County and three other counties to blow into a device that would unlock their car ignitions only if it doesn't detect much alcohol on their breath.

If approved by the governor, the bill would establish a pilot ignition interlock program from 2010 to 2016 for those convicted of driving under the influence in Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Tulare counties.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not yet taken a position on the bill, a spokesman said Thursday.

Read more>>

California lawmakers pass a raft of bills as session winds down

Reporting from Sacramento - State lawmakers forged into the final 72 hours of their legislative year by passing a flurry of measures Wednesday that included a jab at the Culligan Man, a bow to breast-feeding mothers and an effort to thwart the potential perils of cosmetic surgery.

With the fate of California's biggest issues -- including a potential re-plumbing of the state's water system -- still unresolved, lawmakers churned through scores of bills as the clock ticked toward the end-of-session deadline at midnight Friday.

Read more>>

LETTER: Letter writer's pro-business group thinks underemployment is good for America

From Jeff Hoeft
Hutchinson

Last Tuesday’s Leader Opinion page contained a letter from Kristen Lopez Eastlick, a senior economic analyst for the Employment Policies Institute. In her letter, Ms. Eastlick states the “oft quoted statistic of 46 million uninsured is actually a gross overestimation of the problem, as recent research suggests the number of Americans who cannot currently afford health insurance is much lower.”

Read more>>

Attacks on Sunstein Frustrate Conservative Fans

On January 8, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Harvard Law School Professor Cass Sunstein would be nominated to run the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. It was a surprising choice for a job, created in 1980, that monitors and manages the federal government’s regulatory apparatus.

Read more>>

California bill requiring onboard alcohol sensor for drunken drivers goes to governor

Jumping behind the wheel and getting on the road after knocking back a few drinks may no longer be that easy in California.

Why? Because the car won't start.

The state Assembly, by an overwhelming 56-0 vote, approved a bill Wednesday that would require ignition interlock devices in all vehicles of owners convicted of driving under the influence in Alameda and three other counties. The pilot program would start next July and run until 2016, at which time it could become statewide law.

Read more>>

President Obama says 'sin tax' on sodas is food for thought, despite Gov. Paterson's failed proposal

Gov. Paterson's proposal to tax soda in New York fizzled, but President Obama says it's an idea whose time may come.

The President, in an interview with Men's Health magazine released yesterday, said he thought taxing soda and other sugary drinks is worth putting on the table as Congress debates health care reform.

Read more>>

Restaurant Industry Assails Fast-Food Ban Idea

WASHINGTON – The restaurant industry is attacking a recently published report that recommends creating so-called health zones that ban quick-service restaurants from having locations near schools or in particular neighborhoods, Nation’s Restaurant News reports.

Read more>>

Don't let the lobbyist in sheep's clothing fool you

RE: "Accurate information yields informed decisions," Sept. 2

Kristen Lopez Eastlick wrote as though she might be the woman next door. But her "facts" were not pertinent to The Daily Times readers. Her Washington, D.C. address made me suspicious. So I googled her.

She is an employee -- a feminine mouthpiece, if you will -- of Richard Berman, a hired gun lobbyist who defends his corporate clients against public interests. In other words, she's a shill in Salisbury clothing.

Read more>>

Locked When Loaded

The four friends were on their way home from Applebee’s in Farmingdale for a farewell dinner after their Thanksgiving break from college when an SUV crossed into oncoming traffic. There was no time to react. Their convertible was hit head on, killing the driver, Jason Shein, and critically injuring passenger Eric DiGiovanna, while the two others walked away with minor injuries.

Read more>>

John Galt Not Hiding From The Public Eye

One of the strangest—but perhaps, predictable—trends that has accompanied the recession is a resurgence of interest in the writings of Ayn Rand and especially, the book Atlas Shrugged. Sales of the book have apparently soared over the last year. The book's hero, John Galt, has become a rallying figure for anti-big-government activists.

Read more>>

Dr. Evil's Payday

Early one morning in late April, as the Today Show broadcast live from Rockefeller Center, a group of onlookers gave Matt Lauer a T-shirt emblazoned with the Web address Econ4U.org. "Scored a T-shirt here from these folks promoting economic literacy, which is really nice," the good-natured anchor said, displaying the shirt to nearly 6 million viewers. Little did Lauer know, but he'd been duped into providing that free advertising for a group that promotes payday lending—an industry long accused of preying on low-income Americans with short-term loans carrying huge interest rates.

Read more>>

Business-Linked Group Assails Growing Debt

The Employment Policies Institute, a conservative research group with close ties to business, has started a new advertising campaign focused on the growing national debt.

The group will spend about $1 million on the first part of the campaign, which includes a Web site, DefeatTheDebt.com, and this advertisement that began running on cable on Tuesday.

Read more>>

YOUR SAY: Telegraph leaning too far to the right

Seriously, editors, this is not The Telegraph I once believed to be relatively nonpartisan. In the Aug.14 edition, on the opinion pages, there was not one single piece by a moderate to liberal writer. While Erick Erickson’s piece was about local issues, those issues were framed on an obvious right-left continuum. There was Kathleen Parker’s rather reasonable post on the death panels controversy resulting from vague language in HR 3200 but also containing the expected gibe that “even Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Barack Obama will be elderly someday.”

Read more>>

The Cost of Progress: Mercury in Every Stream and Fish

After eight years researching mercury levels in the nation’s streams, scientists at the United States Geological Survey unveiled some bad news yesterday: Every fish taken from nearly 300 streams between 1998 and 2005 tested positive for Mercury, a neurotoxin, with 27 percent containing levels deemed unfit for human consumption. The Associated Press lays out both the dangers, and the sources of contamination:

Read more>>

DUI checkpoints important

Editor: Wow, what a big surprise! Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute (read: booze lobbyist) thinks DUI checkpoints are not useful (letter to the editor, Aug. 13).

Tell that to the thousands of families who have lost loved ones to drunken drivers. Her math may be correct regarding the stopped cars to amount of arrests ratio, but her logic stinks.

Are four arrests worth the time and effort? In a town this small, the answer is you betcha. Those four individuals could have killed or seriously injured an innocent Petaluma citizen.

Read more>>

Anti-meat PETA billboard in Jacksonville stirs controversy

Animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals chose Jacksonville as the one place to put a billboard associating meat-eating with obesity. But the reaction since the billboard went up Aug. 3 has spread nationwide.

The billboard shows part of the body of a cartoon obese woman in a bikini. The messages, “Save the Whales” and “Lose the blubber: go vegetarian” are superimposed over the beach background.

Read more>>

Mercury found in all fish caught in U.S.-tested streams

Sports fishermen take heed: A government test of fish pulled from nearly 300 streams in the USA found every one of them contaminated with some level of mercury.

The U.S. Geological Survey's research marks its most comprehensive examination of mercury contamination in stream fish. The study found that 27% of the fish had mercury levels high enough to exceed what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for the average fish eater, those who eat fish twice a week.

Read more>>

YOUR SAY: Minimum wage opinion was misleading

As my interest was piqued by your lead story title on page 1 of Sunday’s Perspective/Business section, “Minimum wage law hurting early jobs” I turned to page 4F, which, lo and behold, turned out to be an opinion article titled “Minimum wage hike: What’s next?” by Kristen Lopez Eastlick, identified as the “senior economic analyst at the Employment Policies Institute, a nonprofit research organization.”

Read more>>

Consumer Group Lashes Out at "Fringe" PETA's Camp Pendleton Protest

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is a "fringe group" that is hypocritical about euthanizing animals, charges a Washington, D.C.-based consumer group that also denounced today's PETA protest against Camp Pendleton's use of live pigs in medical training for troops.

The Center for Consumer Freedom was reacting to today's preview of the PETA protest by the Orange County Register's Vik Jolly, who quoted animal-rights activists saying the medical trauma training outside of Camp Pendleton antiquated and Marines officials calling it necessary.

Read more>>

PETA members protest outside of Camp Pendleton over military's use of live pigs

CAMP PENDLETON - Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protested outside the main gate of Camp Pendleton today over the military's use of live pigs in trauma training exercises.

“Shooting and stabbing pigs in order to train medical personnel how to treat human injuries is archaic,” PETA's Kathy Guillermo said in a statement. “The animals – and our soldiers – deserve better.”

Protesters carried signs that read “Support Our Troops: Reject Animal Tests” and “Camp Pendleton: Stop Torturing Animals.”

Read more>>

Health care debate heats up

So what's stalling reform?

In last Sunday's paper, a letter was submitted titled "Health care is a basic right."

While we can debate and discuss that statement, I found it very interesting that the letter contained the following sentence: "Republicans don't want reform, they just want to make sure, for political reasons, that the Democrats fail."

I submit that all Americans believe there needs to be reform; it is a matter of how it is delivered.

Read more>>

LETTER: Providing aid to animals

In response to David Martosko’s letter, “Sad but typical,” in Tuesday’s Standard-Times: Martosko’s Center for Consumer Freedom is an industry front for tobacco, alcohol and agribusiness interests, and the group’s stock-in-trade involves taking aim at organizations that promote food safety, public health, or animal welfare.

It started with a $600,000 grant from tobacco giant Phillip Morris, and CCF has even attacked Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for their anti-drunk driving and public health campaigns.

Read more>>

Mercury Rising

The debate over the possible/probable mercury contamination of seafood rages on in scientific, medical, governmental, consumer-protection and seafood-industry circles, with no clear end in sight.

The nonprofit Center for Consumer Freedom, in Washington, D.C., for example, has accused the U.S. Geological Survey of conducting a misleading study, published in May 2009, about mercury in the Pacific Ocean. The dispute centers on the argument that the study may have tested ocean water, but didn't measure mercury in any actual fish, leaving consumers confused about seafood-consumption practices.

Read more>>

U.S. may require anti-DWI locks on vehicles

A national campaign against first-time drunken-driving offenders is gaining ground as states and the federal government weigh mandatory use of devices requiring violators to prove their sobriety before their engines start.

Three more states have enacted laws this year requiring all violators to install devices called alcohol ignition interlocks, bringing to 11 the number of states with such rules. The instrument blocks a vehicle engine from starting if it detects alcohol on the breath of drivers.

Read more>>

Soda tax idea losing its fizz

A consumer group is blasting health officials and politicians who are proposing a regulatory approach to curbing obesity in the United States.

Centers for Disease Control chief Dr. Thomas Freiden stated recently that increasing the price of unhealthy foods and drinks "would be effective" at combating the nation's obesity problem. The Senate Finance Committee has floated the idea of taxing sodas and other sugary drinks as a way to pay for President's Obama's healthcare reform plan.

Read more>>

Minimum Wages To Rise In 31 States

Minimum-wage earners in the District of Colorado and 31 states — not Colorado — can soon expect slightly bigger paychecks thanks to the third and final installment of a federal rate hike that raises the wage floor from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour effective last Friday.
The latest federal bump will enlarge roughly 4.5 million workers’ paychecks by about four cents an hour in some states to almost $1 an hour in others, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington, D.C. that supported the increase.

Read more>>

Obama czar pick: 'Raving animal rights nut'

President Obama's friend and nominee for "regulatory czar" is a "raving animal rights nut" who has a secret agenda, according to one consumer group.

David Martosko, director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, told Fox News' Glenn Beck that Cass Sunstein, the Harvard Law professor nominated by the president to become the administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is a "raving animal rights nut" and devout disciple of Peter Singer.

Read more>>

Lawsuit Filed Against Hot Dog Manufacturers

On behalf of three New Jersey residents, The Cancer Project is filing a lawsuit against Nathan’s Famous, Kraft Foods/Oscar Mayer, Sara Lee, Con Agra Foods, and Marathon Enterprises for failing to warn consumers that hot dogs increase the danger of colorectal cancer.

“Just as tobacco causes lung cancer, processed meats are linked to colon cancer," says Neal Barnard, M.D., president of the Cancer Project. "Companies that sell hot dogs are well aware of the danger, and their customers deserve the same information."

Read more>>

Tipped Workers Left Out as Minimum Wage Rises

On Friday, the federal minimum wage will rise to $7.25 per hour. But as a new report from the National Employment Law Project points out, the increase will not apply to tipped employees, like bartenders and waitresses.

Their minimum wage will remain at $2.13 per hour — a level that has remained unchanged for 18 years.

Read more>>

New Jersey Residents Sue for Cancer-Risk Labels on Hot Dog Packages

NEWARK, New Jersey, (ENS) - Three New Jersey residents are asking the courts to decide whether or not eating America's favorite ball park food increases their risk of colorectal cancer.

The class-action consumer fraud lawsuit was filed today in Superior Court in Essex County seeking to compel five companies to place cancer-risk warning labels on hot dog packages sold in New Jersey. The labels would read "Warning: Consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer."

Read more>>

Obama Regulatory Czar's Confirmation Held Up by Hunting Rights Proponent

WASHINGTON -- President Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar" has hit a new snag in his Senate confirmation process -- a "hold" by Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who's says he's not convinced that Harvard professor Cass Sunstein won't push a radical animal rights agenda, including new restrictions on agriculture and even hunting.

Senators are permitted "holds" to prevent a vote on a nominee from coming to the floor. They are often secretive and for very specific reasons.

Read more>>

Forum: Drunken driving shouldn't be tolerated

This is in response to a forum written by Sarah Longwell, managing director of the American Beverage Institute.

Longwell argues that compelling an individual convicted of drunken driving to utilize an ignition interlock system is unreasonable and an infringement upon the rights of the rest of the alcohol consuming public. I disagree.

Longwell's central argument seems to be that a distinction should be made between an individual who was only slightly over the legal limit but legally intoxicated and those who are ridiculously over the legal limit and obviously intoxicated.

Read more>>

Sobriety checkpoint

New Hampshire State Police will hold a sobriety checkpoint in Bow a few days before Nashua police do the same thing downtown.

State Police will operate a checkpoint in the Bow area in an effort to nab drunk drivers because the incidence of drinking and driving is increasing and those drivers are causing an "alarming number" of deaths and injuries, according to Sgt. Christopher Scott.

The checkpoint will be July 20, five days before the Nashua police hold a similar checkpoint in the city. A Hillsborough County Superior Court judge approved the Nashua police application last month.

Read more>>

Letter misleading

PITTSBURG — Dear Editor:
The Letter to the Editor in The Morning Sun (7/15/09) from Kristen Lopez Eastlick was quite interesting, but misleading on several fronts. But, first one must look at "where she's coming from."

Read more>>

Group questions DUI-offender provision

The restaurant and beverage industry is pushing back against a bipartisan proposal in the House highway bill that seeks to punish states that fail to require ignition locks in cars driven by convicted drunk drivers.

Read more>>

SEIU Demands Nebraska, Arkansas TV Stations Pull Down Misleading "Employee Forced Choice Act" Ads

The Service Employees International Union is demanding that television stations in Arkansas and Nebraska pull down ads calling on Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Ben Nelson (D-NE) to vote against the "Employee Forced Choice Act."

"Your news network is running an advertisement sponsored by the Employee Freedom Action Committee," reads a letter the union sent to networks in both states, "which is demonstrably false and maliciously misleads viewers about unions and the Employee Free Choice Act."

Read more>>

Do the Numbers Behind Calorie Counts Add Up?

My print column this week considers nutritional labels on menus at restaurant chains, which are now required in New York and about a dozen other localities, and are proposed as part of the Senate’s health-care bill.

Read more>>

Whose side are health advocacy groups on?

Obesity is a national health crisis -- or it isn't. Vaccines cause autism -- or they don't. Think of any current health controversy, and you can be sure that plenty of experts have already taken opposite sides.

Some of the most influential and vocal health experts belong to advocacy organizations such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest and the American Council on Science and Health. These groups have well-oiled publicity machines, connections in Washington and a proven ability to show up in news stories. But who are they, and what do they stand for?

Read more>>

Labor's Last Stand

On a Monday morning this past April, a few dozen Arkansans from that state's Chamber of Commerce could be found holing up in a Marriott hotel in Crystal City, Virginia, less than a mile from Washington's Ronald Reagan National Airport. They assembled in the hotel's Jefferson Ballroom, on one wall of which hangs a portrait of the third president standing before a giant Declaration of Independence. Despite the early hour, the visitors were cheerful, sipping from big Starbucks cups as they gathered up political literature and hard candies and waited for their program to begin.

Read more>>

Alcohol detector would prevent car from starting if driver is drunk

WASHINGTON -- Drunken driving kills. And now the auto industry and federal government are collaborating on research they hope will kill drunken driving.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are spending $10 million over five years to develop high-tech "passive" alcohol-detection devices that would keep a car from starting if a driver is drunk.

Read more>>

New Million Dollar Ad Campaign Urges Sen. Ben Nelson to Stop the Employee Free Choice Act

WASHINGTON, July 1, 2009 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Today, the Employee Freedom Action Committee (EFAC) opened a new front in the campaign to stop the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), by releasing TV ads in Nebraska urging Democratic Senator Ben Nelson not to compromise on EFCA. The campaign is scheduled to move beyond Nebraska next week. The bill is currently pending before Congress.

Read more>>

Coming Soon: A Breathalyzer in Every Car?

Nearly 13,000 Americans die in traffic accidents every year. Now Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is opening a new front in its war on drunk drivers, and it's getting help from the Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

A new highway bill pending before Congress would instruct all 50 states to require all motorists convicted of driving under the influence to equip their cars with interlock systems that shut down a vehicle when a measured amount of alcohol is detected.

Read more>>

Front group for industries is hardly pro-consumer

You should be ashamed to have printed David Martosko's June 19 letter blasting the documentary film "Food Inc." without explaining what the organization for whom he works — the Center for Consumer Freedom — actually is.

The center is another of the many right-wing organizations with names chosen deliberately to mislead the public. SourceWatch describes the center as follows:

Read more>>

Food industry is funding so-called consumer center

It's interesting how David Martosko (Letters, June 19) wants us to believe that the new film "Food, Inc." is a propaganda piece that doesn't ring true. He works for the Center for Consumer Freedom, funded by KFC, McDonald's, Tyson Foods and Coca-Cola, to name just a few.

Read more>>

Sarah Longwell: DUI roadblocks are avoided

To the editor:

The sobriety checkpoint planned for Craig this weekend will serve to funnel limited state and federal grant money away from measures that have proven to be most effective in combating drunk driving (State Patrol: DUI checkpoint coming Saturday, Craig Daily Press, June 16).

Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today’s drunk driving problem.

Read more>>

Industry fights hike in alcohol tax

The hospitality industry is fighting an effort to raise the state's alcohol tax.

The American Beverage Institute will run full-page advertisements this week in the state's largest newspapers that are critical of the proposed 5 percent increase in the alcohol tax, now being considered by the N.C. General Assembly.

The ads contend that North Carolina's liquor prices are already 30 percent higher than South Carolina's. An increase would just drive more business across the border, they say.

"The hospitality industry is already hurting," said ABI Managing Director Sarah Longwell.

Read more>>

Teens hunt (and hunt and hunt) for summer work

Randolph Shadley came home May 9 from his freshman year at Virginia State University. Two days later, he started the hunt for a summer job.

He's still looking.

"I expected it to be hard," said Shadley, 19, of Chesapeake, "but things are moving kind of slow."

Shadley, a psychology major who plays middle linebacker for Virginia State's football team, said he's put in applications at more than 20 businesses, from McDonald's to Macy's. No luck.

Read more>>

Do DUI checkpoints work?

You're out for a Friday night celebration and having a few drinks with friends.

The evening is coming to an end, and you and your responsible group - who have only had a couple of drinks in between the lively conversation at a local bar - get into your cars and drive home.

It's now 1:30 a.m. and you're 10 minutes from home but traffic on the major street you're traveling on is coming to a stop.

That's when you notice the lights, the police officers, the makeshift holding stations, the tow trucks - you've been caught in a state-sponsored DUI checkpoint.

Read more>>

Better Business Bureau's new grading system under fire

For decades, the Better Business Bureau has been a key source for consumers seeking to find reputable companies.

Now the agency's new system of rating companies - switching from satisfactory and unsatisfactory ratings, to a letter grade system from A to F - has come under fire.

Richard Berman, whose Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm represents restaurants and other entities across the country, has launched a one-man campaign to alert consumers about the new grading system.

Read more>>

Do we still need organized labor?

North Attleboro police officers, forgoing raises for fiscal year ending June 30, 2009, in a contract OK'd by the union and the town are, for sure, marching to a unique drummer.

"They are the only unions that have sacrificed with zero percent pay raises," Selectmen Chairman Paul Belham noted to Sun Chronicle staff writer Amy DeMelia last week.

The move is meant to eliminate cuts in hours. Agreement was reached the same week that several MBTA unions gave up raises to help close a $160 million budget deficit, the Boston Globe reported.

Read more>>

DWI patrols on tap for weekend

The Memorial Day weekend means extra Louisiana State Police troopers patrolling highways and roads searching for impaired drivers.

Although there are no planned sobriety checkpoints in the Troop A area this weekend, Troop A spokesman Russell Graham said “aggressive DWI enforcement” started Thursday and will continue to Tuesday.

Extra patrols are exactly the kind of DWI enforcement pushed by the American Beverage Institute.

Read more>>

Support Grows for Alcohol Interlocks on Cars

A campaign to stop drunken driving by putting some form of alcohol interlock in every new car is picking up support.

As Congress considers highway spending for next year, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers suggested spending $30 million a year on developing devices that would sense alcohol in a driver. The idea comes from Mothers Against Drunk Driving and is also backed by the auto insurance industry [pdf] and a former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Read more>>

300 Million Patients

When the H1N1 swine flu reached the United States last month, no one had any idea whether it was going to be mild or a lethal pandemic. It fell to Dr. Thomas Frieden, head of New York City's Department of Health, to sort out the local response. Calmly and methodically, Frieden and his team worked around the clock, seven days a week, trying to size up the new virus, keep the public informed and determine which schools needed to be closed to limit the contagion. Though H1N1 is still spreading—and one assistant principal in New York City just died—many have praised his level-headed approach.

Read more>>

'Card-check' opponents

The opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act, a major priority of labor that is also known as "card check," formed a well-coordinated army during 2008. Today the force includes more than a dozen organizations that together provide tens of millions of dollars for advertising and organizing in nearly every state. Here's a look at six leading players.

Read more>>

Corporate Front Man: Richard Berman manages the news on key labor-backed bill

Richard Berman, a prominent lobbyist for the food and restaurant industry, is one of the leading opponents of the hotly-debated Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would make it easier to organize labor unions. Berman is the sole owner and executive director of Berman and Company, a for-profit management firm that runs fifteen corporate-funded groups. He holds at least sixteen positions within these interlocking organizations.

Read more>>

Where Humane Society Donations Really Go

ATLANTA -- A Channel 2 investigation is looking into millions of dollars in donations given to the Humane Society of the United States.

A national consumer organization says the society solicits pet-lovers for money, but little to none of that money ever goes to help local shelters.

Critics tell Channel 2 Action News reporter Amanda Rosseter that this isn't just consumers misunderstanding who they are giving to -- but an organization actively misleading donors to get money.

“They do their marketing very well, that's for sure,” said Trey Burley of PAWS Atlanta.

Read more>>

Car breath tests for 1st-time DUI offenders?

Some Ohio lawmakers and Mothers Against Drunk Driving want the state to require anyone convicted of a drunken-driving offense to blow into an alcohol tester before his or her car can start -- the first step, opponents say, in requiring all drivers to submit to such a test.

MADD's national president, Laura Dean-Mooney, testified at the Ohio Statehouse yesterday in favor of a bill that would require ignition-interlock devices for first-time DUI offenders.

Read more>>

Debate Heats Up Over Ignition Interlock

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Opponents and proponents sounded off Wednesday about proposed legislation that would require first-time drunken-driving offenders to install an ignition interlock on each car they drive.

An ignition interlock is a device similar to a breathalyzer. A driver blows into a tube and the device performs a breath-alcohol test. If the device detects a certain level of alcohol, the vehicle cannot be started.

Read more>>

DUI Interlock Devices For First Time Offenders Clears Hurdle

A state measure to make it harder for drunk drivers to commit the same crime passed its first speed bump today.

The House Science and Technology Committee signed off on a bill to expand the use of interlock devices on cars.

There is a fight over this bill designed to save lives.

A simple voice vote breathes life into North Carolina’s breathalyzer bill.

If adopted, devices like this would become mandatory on all cars driven by all D.U.I. offenders in the process of getting their licenses reinstated.

A positive alcohol test won’t let a car start.

Read more>>

McGovern says the secret ballot is 'a matter of principle'

George McGovern’s name has long been synonymous with the kind of principled, doctrinaire and politically suicidal liberalism that Democrats from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama work to avoid.

But McGovern, 87, has reemerged in recent months on the other side of the political spectrum, as a prominent foe of a key piece of the progressive agenda: the labor-backed Employee Free Choice Act.

Read more>>

George McGovern on the Employee Free Choice Act

Read more>>

Revisiting Sen. Scarlett O’Hara

Prissy: “Mammy, here’s Miss Scarlett’s vittles.”
Scarlett: “You can take it all back to the kitchen; I won’t eat a bite.”
Mammy: “Yes’m you is, you’s gonna eat every mouthful of this.”
Scarlett: “No… I’m… NOT.”