Free Republic

President and first lady Michelle Obama's bid to cut kid obesity through new demands for more costly but healthier food is financially crushing the nation's school cafeterias, forcing staff cuts, boosting waste and killing plans to buy new equipment, according to an industry association. A new survey from the School Nutrition Association reported that 70 percent of the nation's lunch programs have been financially "harmed" by the new low-salt, low-sugar menus and that a stunning 93 percent report fewer students buying the chow. "Meeting these mandates has harmed the financial health of nearly 70 percent of school meal programs surveyed,...

From the moment Michelle Obama burst on to the national scene back in 2008, she inspired a level of right wing loathing only slightly less intense than that visited on her husband. Indeed, there have been times it has seemed as though they hated her even more. ... [Snip] Obama has been an exemplary first lady and is extremely popular with the public, having shown good humor and style throughout her tenure; so it’s been very difficult for the right to find anything to criticize.That hasn’t stopped them, of course. There is nothing even remotely controversial about her work with...

One Marin County school district hopes to set a national example when it comes to healthy eating. Sausalito Marin City School District started serving only organic and GMO-free meals to students this week, becoming the first school district in the nation to do so. It's an extension of what is considered to be a successful pilot program begun in 2013 at Bayside MLK Jr. Academy in Marin City. The other school in the district, Willow Creek Academy in Sausalito, has now joined Bayside MLK Jr. Academy in installing a permanent program. “The results speak for themselves,” Steve Van Zant, superintendent...

Bestselling author Edward Klein's bombshell claim that Michelle Obama and top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett have become so close they may live together in Europe after President Barack Obama finishes his second term has sent the rumor mill into overdrive. But Klein, who made the startling assertion on his website, told Newsmax TV on Friday that the relationship between the high-powered women definitely does not involve physical intimacy. "There's nothing sexual. A lot of people ask me that question. No, there's nothing sexual at all," Klein — author of "Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas" — said in...

Am I the only one who "feels" that Michelle is missing from the "news" more than ever? Perhaps prepping for her run at the Presidency? * * 1. Woman 2. Black 3. Obama Name 4. A committed communist, socialist, "community" organizer or whatever. * * As such, she would be uncriticizable by almost all media, politicians, and serfs. She could be counted upon by Obama to carry on the "transformation of America" which he began, especially as regardds the military, whites, Christians, and those not of his "Party." Perfect. Am I right?

And on the Democrat side, there’s surging support for a self-avowed socialist who is challenging Hillary Clinton, who thought she was the anointed candidate in 2008, only to be knocked off her pedestal by upstart Barack Obama. She considers herself anointed now, but finds her support fading quickly. So how about the gauntlet being thrown down by … Michelle Obama?

If Michelle Obama weren’t first lady, she knows exactly what she would do. In an Instagram posted Friday, rapper Wale asks the first lady, “If you had the opportunity to have a different occupation, what would it be?” “I would be Beyonce,” she responds.

Sen. John McCain is right. Code Pink protesters are low-life scum as he called them Thursday morning when the group disrupted a Senate hearing to protest former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Saddam Hussein, Ayatollah Khamenei, Fidel Castro, Raul Castro, al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban. These are some of the terrorists and state sponsors of terrorism Code Pink has given political, financial and/or material aid to since the group’s founding in late 2002. All that time Code Pink has also worked with and funded the Democratic Party,...

First Lady Michelle Obama said on Thursday at a tribal youth gathering at the White House that the United States is “finally” embracing the wisdom of Native Americans on conservation and climate change, and claimed that America’s founders modeled the U.S. government partly on the “Iroquois Confederacy.” “Today, on issues like conservation and climate change, we are finally beginning to embrace the wisdom of your ancestors,” Mrs. Obama said at the event where youth from 230 tribes from 42 states participated. “Now, long before the United States was even an idea, your ancestors were harvesting the crops that would feed...

The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA), originally passed in 2010 and heartily endorsed by First Lady Michelle Obama, is set to expire in September unless Congress acts to renew it. You may recall some of the details of that initiative including forcing all grains to be “whole grain rich” (whatever that means) and wiping out most of the salt in foods. Given the less then spectacular reception the program has received from schools – not to mention students – the GOP is looking at scaling back or at least modifying the rules. But The Hill was quick to characterize the...

Nine-year-old Shreya Patel of Schaumburg will be among the young winners of Michelle Obama’s “healthy lunchtime challenge” who’ll get to dine with the first lady at the White House later this week. Her garam masala quinoa burger with raita was chosen as the winning recipe entered from Illinois, winning her a spot at the awards luncheon Friday. Entries had to be healthy, affordable and tasty. Shreya wrote in an essay accompanying her entry that she’s been cooking since she was 3 and said she loves to “mix, measure, chop and even clean up afterwards.” Here’s her recipe: GARAM MASALA QUINOA...

On Friday, even the hosts of NBC’s Today had enough of Michelle Obama’s effort to micro-manage people’s food choices as they mocked the First Lady’s attempt to create a healthy version of s’mores. At the top of the 9 a.m. ET hour, co-host Willie Geist explained: “So the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, and the USDA have teamed up for this program called ChooseMyPlate.gov. It's an initiative proposing a makeover, for among other things, this classic campfire treat. So instead of graham crackers with chocolate and marshmallow, they propose graham crackers with, want-wa, strawberries and low-fat yogurt.”...

Mountain View, Calif. (CBS SACRAMENTO) — Google was forced to apologize after its Photos program identified two black users as “gorillas.” Jacky Alcine, 21, of Brooklyn checked his Google Photos account Sunday and found that the program had automatically generated and labeled a folder titled “Gorillas” for a photo of himself and a friend taken in 2013, Yahoo Tech reports. The Google Photos image recognition software is intended to identify a photo and automatically file photos into groups with similar images – a photo of a tree would automatically be placed in a folder filled with other photos of trees....

First Lady Michelle Obama is thankful for her life. At the More magazine Impact Awards at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., the first lady credits her good life--and independence--to education. "Growing up -- and I remind these girls all the time -- I wasn’t any smarter, I wasn’t more talented than they are. But instead of having to work to support my family, or being married off to a grown man and forced to bear children before I was ready, I got to go to school so I could support myself, so I could make my own choices about my...

DETROIT (WXYZ) - Detroit and Michigan State Police are investigating after finding a 500 pound pig trapped inside the basement of a Detroit home. According to Assistant Police Chief Steve Dolunt, an anonymous tip brought investigators to a house in the 10400 block of Orangelawn. They found the pig in a basement standing in feces. "No pun intended but it looks like a pigsty," Dolunt said. "There's two feet of feces down there." Dolunt said the caller told police the pig had been fed human remains. However, police did not find anything suspicious. Neighbors said the man who lived in...

(CNSNews.com)-- The School Nutrition Association (SNA), which represents 55,000 school nutritionists nationwide, is pointing to data published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to draw awareness to the fact that “after 30 years of steady growth in the National School Lunch Program, student participation is abruptly down in 49 states."The nutritionists attribute the drop to new nutrition standards that were instituted by USDA in 2012.Total national participation in the School Lunch Program peaked in 2010 and 2011 at 31.8 million, according to USDA. In 2012, it was 31.7 million. But in 2013, it dropped by 1 million participants, to 30.7...

Artist’s impression of a black hole feasting on matter from its companion star in a binary system. Material flows from the star towards the black hole and gathers in a disc, where it is heated up, shining brightly at optical, ultraviolet and X-ray wavelengths before spiralling into the black hole. Part of the disc material does not end up onto the black hole but is ejected the form of two powerful jets of particles. On 15 June 2015, the black-hole binary system V404 Cygni started showing signs of extraordinary activity, something that had not happened since 1989. The system consists...

Why Is Hillary Rodham Clinton Harming The American Composers and Performers She Once Loved? Mrs. Hillary Clinton unabashedly stated to the American public, “For a lot of well-meaning, open-minded white people, the sight of a young black man in a hoodie still evokes a twinge of fear." Mrs. Clinton, in his 2015 Grammy award winning rap performance, "I", American Rap Performance Artist Kendrick Lamar reveals, "I've been dealing with depression ever since an adolescent." In a January 20, 2011 LAWeekly interview (Google search), American rapper and Grammy winner Kendrick Lamar, born in 1987, the same year songwriter Suzanne Vega wrote...

The best line President Obama delivered in his 2015 State of the Union Address was not one written for him by his speechwriters. When he said he would not be on the ballot again, Republicans who had just taken over both Houses of Congress stood and applauded. Good naturedly, but with a bit of sarcasm, Mr. Obama reminded his opponents that he won both times he was on the national ballot. He was the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to achieve back-to-back election victories. We need to acknowledge that he is a formidable political actor. He has defied the...

Michelle serving up her trademark malicious menu of malcontent Okay, we get the picture the mainstream sends. First Lady Michelle Obama is so much in demand as a celebrity that she gets to sip tea at will with Prince Harry at Kensington Palace and merits “an affectionate reunion” with Barack “bro” Prime Minister David Cameron and his Mrs. on the steps of Downing Street. Oh, the powers protocol bestows on the wife, daughter and even the mother-in-law of a president. Just as the rarified gentry of the Victorian era, when matrons waited at home for other mavens to come calling,...