Free Republic

"A huge fight erupted at a New Jersey wedding this weekend, with 300 guests involved in the tussle as police struggled to control the situation. The wedding-hall brawl, which, unsurprisingly, involved booze"

BOSTON (Reuters) - Forty-six music fans were treated for mostly alcohol-related medical problems at Australian country singer Keith Urban's concert outside Boston on Saturday night, local officials said. Fire and emergency medical personnel dealt with dozens of ill fans during the show at an outdoor arena in Mansfield, Massachusetts, about 25 miles (40 km) south of Boston, the town's police and fire departments said in a joint statement on Sunday. Some 22 people were transported to area hospitals, mostly for alcohol-related illness, and more than 50 people were taken into protective custody by police, who noted that the large number...

*The largest ever study of the effects of the main psychoactive component of cannabis suggests that it can cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals* To discover whether cannabis really does cause paranoia in vulnerable individuals, we carried out the largest ever study of the effects of THC (∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the drug’s principal psychoactive ingredient). We recruited 121 volunteers, all of whom had taken cannabis at least once before, and all of whom reported having experienced paranoid thoughts in the previous month (which is typical of half the population). None had been diagnosed with a mental illness. The volunteers were randomly chosen to...

Thank you Commissioners. My name is Michael LaFaive and I am director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. I am here today to exercise my right to request the partial rescission of two rules, R.436.1625 (1-4) and R.436.1726 (1-2). These are commonly referred to as "post and hold" rules. As you know, these rules mandate posting of price schedules for beer and wine and the holding of those prices for a length of time depending on the product. Research shows that these rules suffocate competition to the benefit of narrow special interests, such...

Egypt’s president has issued a decree raising the sales tax on cigarettes by up to 50 percent and on beer by 200 percent. […] President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, former military chief elected last month, vowed to take tough decisions to address the country’s battered economy. This weekend, el-Sissi also partially lifted subsidies on fuel, a politically sensitive issue that Egypt’s previous leaders had avoided. …

The can comeback, led by brands like Ska Brewing, Oskar Blues and New Belgium, has opened up a 360-degree canvas for label designers typically restricted to the few stickers on a beer bottle. Thrillest has (with the help of CraftCans.com guru and Canned! author Russ Phillips) created a handy gallery of its picks for the "10 coolest-looking beer cans in America." And while I was glad to see a few of my personal favorites on the list (including my friends and neighbors at Good People Brewing in Birmingham, Alabama), I feel like they left off a few brews that are...

Your beer and wine costs more than it should because Michigan has anti-competitive rules that benefit wholesalers instead of consumers. That's because of "post and hold" rules that mandate that alcohol wholesalers and manufacturers post price changes for beer and wine and then leave them in place for a specific amount of time, said Michael LaFaive, director or the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Locking in prices allows companies to coordinate pricing with their so-called competition, he said. At the Michigan Liquor Control Commission's semi-annual public hearing on Thursday, the Mackinac Center submitted a...

As a flotilla of naval vessels from around the world participates in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) to sustain relationships in the maritime community, a century ago this week international navies converged for a remarkably different occasion—to drink the last of the U.S. Navy’s supply of alcohol. On July 1, 1914 the ships of the U.S. Navy officially became dry under General Order No. 99.

Massachusetts General Hospital plans to begin questioning all patients about their use of alcohol and illegal drugs starting this fall, even if they are at MGH for a totally unrelated issue. Four questions will be posed, including “how often have you had six or more drinks on one occasion,” and “how often have you used an illegal drug in the past year?” Enough “yes” answers could prompt a special team to conduct what’s being called a “bedside intervention” and possible treatment. The mandatory treatment plan comes amid soaring numbers of opiate addiction across Massachusetts and the region, with many hospitals...

The thing with Obama is that he can’t be bothered, and there is no hand on the tiller half the time,” Mrs. Clinton reportedly said. “That’s the story of the Obama presidency. No hand on the [expletive] tiller. Obama has turned into a joke.” Mrs. Clinton reportedly ranted about the IRS targeting of the tea party and the Justice Department’s tapping of phone records ... “All these scandals .. Obama’s allowed his hatred for his enemies to screw him the way Nixon did. … [He’s] incompetent and feckless.”

A 19-year-old University of Maryland lacrosse player was arrested at an outdoor concert in Virginia Sunday night after allegedly groping a 49-year-old mother passed out on the lawn. Prince William County Police say the woman fell asleep on the Jiffy Lube Live lawn during a Zac Brown Band concert, when she woke up to find teen Benjamin Chisolm touching her inappropriately. Chisolm walked away after the attack but was later arrested for public intoxication and now faces additional charges of aggravated sexual assault. The victim, identified as 'Donna', has come forward to dispute details of the police report and reveal...

by Jason DeWitt | Top Right NewsOne thing we love about Mike Rowe, the former “Dirty Jobs” TV host and current head of Mike Rowe Works, is that he always speaks his mind. Monday, he did so once again — and took on a lawyer in doing so.Mike hit his local liquor store last week and noticed a picture near the front of the shop: a man in a white shirt that the store was identifying as a shoplifter. “Good for you,” Rowe says he told the owner, as he retold the story on a Facebook post: “I wish every store in the country did...

NEW YORK — The King of Beers is bowing down to a food blogger. Anheuser-Busch unveiled the ingredients of Budweiser and Bud Light for the first time Thursday, a day after a popular food blogger started an online petition to get major brewers to list what’s in their beverages. Anheuser-Busch, which also makes Beck’s, Busch and Michelob beers, said it will list the ingredients for all of its other brands online “in the coming days.” On its website, tapintoyourbeer.com, Anheuser-Busch lists the same ingredients for Budweiser and Bud Light: Water, barley malt, rice, yeast and hops. The company said it...

A drug abuse counselor who drove drunk and struck a pedestrian — then drove around with the dying man on her windshield — bawled her eyes out in court as she was sentenced to 55 years to life in prison on Thursday. A teary-eyed Sherri Lynn Wilkins, 53, was convicted of second-degree murder, drunken driving and a hit-and-run — after killing Phillip Moreno in an LA suburb in 2012. After plowing into him, Wilkins drove for two miles with Moreno on her windshield, until other motorists swarmed her car at a traffic light and called the cops, prosecutors said. Her...

A woman charged in November's deadly head-on collision on the Sawgrass Expressway was served two large fish bowl-sized margaritas earlier that evening and tweeted "2 Drunk 2 Care" just minutes before the crash, according to a report by authorities released this week. The Florida Highway Patrol’s investigative report says that Kayla Mendoza, 20 at the time, was driving a white Hyundai the wrong way on the highway last November when she slammed into a red car being driven by Kaitlyn Ferrante and her best friend Marisa Catronio, who both died. According to the report, before the crash, Mendoza had gone...

HOLMES BEACH, FL — With the help of new technology and federal grant money, police are preparing to warrantlessly search people’s refreshments as they visit the beaches of Florida. New passive alcohol detectors can simply be hovered above a person’s beverage to detect whether it contains alcohol. Similar devices can detect alcohol on someone’s breath. “We can go up to anybody we want, OK? If we see something that looks like alcohol.” On Holmes Beach, even the mere possession of sealed alcohol containers is illegal. Police are using that as an excuse to inspect anyone’s beverage they choose. “We can...

SNIP As you've probably realized by now, we have a weakness for extremely quirky food combinations -- hello, Cronut and Ramenburger -- and extraordinarily large things, like the 4,000-pound chocolate cake Guittard made for Beverly Hills' centennial. So how could we not tell you about the Screamin' Pizza Burger? According to Nick, the blogger behind DudeFoods -- and the man who brought the concept of bacon-lattice into the public consciousness -- all you need to make one is two full-size frozen pizzas, one four-pound beef patty and a spatula of mind-blowing proportions. Find instructions and photos -- and details on...

ROSEMOUNT, Minn. (KMSP) - It's yet another instance of a neighbor puling a gun on a neighbor. This time, it happened in Rosemount, Minn. while a father was teaching his 7-year-old daughter how to ride a bicycle. Gary Drake, 61, is facing second-degree assault and terroristic threat charges after he was accused of brandishing a shotgun on Daytona Way last week. It's an idyllic street, but neighbors there like to talk. When Jeanne Helgeson heard rumors that a well-known neighbor had threatened someone with a gun, she didn't believe it -- until her next-door neighbor confirmed the details, that is....

<p>One of the oldest distilleries in the country is warning of what some observers are calling a “whiskey apocalypse.”</p> <p>“Despite the increase in distillation over the past few years,” says Buffalo Trace, “bourbon demand still outpaces supply.”</p> <p>The apocalypse is looming, explains Esquire, because whiskey has become trendy overnight.</p>

Is Hillary Clinton’s health an issue for 2016? You bet it is, and well it should be. -snip- On Dec. 7, 2012, she disappeared from view — without a word. Three days passed before the State Department said the secretary of state was “under the weather” as it announced she would cancel a planned trip to the Middle East. -snip- And this wasn’t her first episode. In 1998, she was treated for a blood clot in her leg. She fainted during a 2005 speech in Buffalo, N.Y., broke her elbow in an unexplained 2009 fall in the State Department garage,...