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The U.S. attorney's office is making a federal case out of a spilt soda. The Bush administration's top attorney in Idaho is bringing charges against a North Idaho woman for refusing to pay for a Diet Coke and then pouring it out on a counter at a cafeteria at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Boise.

Federal prosecutors have charged a North Idahoan with 2 offenses after a dispute over the price of a pop at the Boise VA hospital. -- SNIP -- Natalie Walters, now facing two counts that each carry a maximum sentence of six months in federal prison, thinks the case is a waste of taxpayer money and plans to fight the charges. -- SNIP -- The 39-year-old North Idaho resident periodically drives her father, a disabled Vietnam veteran, to Boise's VA Medical Center for doctor visits. She brings her own mug and fills it with soda in the hospital's cafeteria. The cafeteria...

In a country, where 80% of schools lack access to drinking water, Pepsi challenges students to stave off obesity while selling them soft drinks. Every day small armies of street vendors gather outside the gates of Mexico's schools to tempt the nation's children. "I don't like drinks without flavour," Raul explained one recent afternoon as he succumbed to the siren's call of a bright red fizzy drink. "I don't know anybody who does." Mexicans down more soft drinks than any other nationality in the world, aside from Americans, and even their traditional diet is filled with fried food and sugar....

Pepsi, Coke rivalry becomes physical Fri Oct 12, 9:46 PM ET The long-standing rivalry between Coke and Pepsi took a physical turn Friday when a Pepsi deliveryman allegedly punched his Coke counterpart in the face at a western Pennsylvania Wal-Mart, state police said. The two deliverymen were "apparently bickering back and forth" while unloading their wares at the Indiana County store, police said. When the Coke deliveryman left the store, his counterpart allegedly punched him in the face three times, breaking his nose and giving him a black eye, police said. No charges have been filed, but police characterized the...

TOKYO - Japanese are staying cool as a cucumber this summer with "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" — a new soda based on the crisp green gourd. The soft drink, which hit stores here on Tuesday, doesn't actually have any cucumber in it — but has been artificially flavored to resemble "the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber," said Aya Takemoto, spokeswoman of Japan's Pepsi distributor, Suntory Ltd. "We wanted a flavor that makes people think of keeping cool in the summer heat," Takemoto said. "We thought the cucumber was just perfect." The mint-colored soda is on sale just for the summer...

You may want to put that soda can down.A common preservative found in drinks such as Coca-Cola, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Fanta and Diet Pepsi may cause serious cell damage, according to a report in Britain's The Independent.  Sodium benzoate has the ability to switch off vital parts of a person's DNA, according to research from a British university.  The problem is usually associated with aging and alcohol abuse, but new findings show that drinking soda with the preservative can eventually lead to of the liver and degenerative diseases such as .  Click here to read the full story in The...

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) - There's no use crying over spilled milk, but spilled soda has been a nightmare for one man. Eric Burns Overstreet was put in jail in September after entering the Mystik Stop & Shop, paying for a fountain drink and spilling three cups of it onto the floor. The first time he spilled the soda, Overstreet went to fetch a mop and began cleaning up the mess. In the process, he spilled a second and a third soft drink. "He clearly appeared to be under the influence of something other than good sense," Chief Assistant District Attorney...

In a letter submitted to me by a student requesting more info on the effects of soda on teeth: "To Whom it May Concern: Hello. My name is LN and I am an 8th grade student in NJ. This year for my science project, I am studying how soda affects teeth. For my research, I was hoping that I would be able to ask a dentist some questions about soda and teeth. I was wondering if you could take a few minutes and answer my questions. I would really appreciate it. My questions are: 1. What is your area of...

Silicon Valley Young Republican Federated Location: Sanborn Skyline County Park 16001 Sanborn Rd, saratoga, CA View Map When: Saturday, August 12, 5:00pm Phone: Svyrfc-408 243 4761 Greetings: The Silicon Valley Young Republicans Federated would like to invite everyone to attend our event to help raise money for the troops on august 12th. We are co-sponsering this event with the California Republican Assembly unit in santa clara county. We would feel honored if you can attend or if you can not attend you can donate. SVYRF Club Socials SVYRFC Annual BBQ Location: Sanborn Skyline County Park, Saratoga When: August 12, 2006...

Researchers work to shrink technology that harnesses sun's energy to both heat and coolEvery day, the sun bathes the planet in energy--free of charge--yet few systems can take advantage of that source for both heating and cooling. Now, researchers are making progress on a thin-film technology that adheres both solar cells and heat pumps onto surfaces, ultimately turning walls, windows, and maybe even soda bottles into climate control systems. On July 12, 2006, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) researcher Steven Van Dessel and his colleagues will announce their most recent progress--including a computer model to help them simulate the climate within...

Brussels, Belgium (AHN) - Running out of ideas to name their 15th child, a Belgian couple submitted an ad in a local newspaper to get help from the public with ideas. The couple, Brigitte Dillen and Ivo Driessens, from Merksem, have given all their children names ending with 'y' but cannot think of yet another one for their latest addition. The new baby will be a brother or sister for Wendy (20), Cindy (18), Jimmy (17), Brendy (16), Sonny (15), Sandy (14), Purdy (13), Chardy (9), Yorry (8), Yony (6), Britney (5), Yenty (3), Ruby (2) and Xanty (1). According...

The beverage industry is scheduled to announce today that it is voluntarily removing high-calorie soft drinks from all schools. In an agreement to be announced by former president Bill Clinton, Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and the head of the American Heart Association, the industry also will limit the amount of other sugary beverages, such as fruit drinks, in school vending machines. But diet soft drinks will continue to be sold in high schools that allow such products. The agreement sets different rules for elementary schools, middle schools and high schools and comes at a time when the beverage industry...

NEW YORK - The nation's largest beverage distributors have agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to public schools, according to a deal announced Wednesday by the William J. Clinton Foundation. Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools, said Jay Carson, a spokesman for former President Bill Clinton. Diet sodas would be sold only to high schools. Cadbury Schweppes PLC, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the American Beverage Association have all signed onto the deal, Carson said, adding that the companies serve "the vast majority of...

HARTFORD, Conn.,   Connecticut's state legislature voted on Thursday to ban sales of sodas and other sugary beverages in state elementary, middle and high schools as part of an effort to stem teen obesity.Gov. Jodi Rell has pledged to sign the bill, which would make Connecticut the fourth U.S. state with a strong law in schools to trim the growing American teenage waistline. The ban includes all regular and diet sodas, along with "electrolyte replacement beverages" such as Gatorade. The only drinks allowed to go on sale in schools would be bottled water, milk or 100-percent fruit and vegetable drinks. "The...

Trial lawyers who made a fortune from lawsuits against tobacco companies are moving on to a new potential payday: Suing soft drink companies over the sale of sugary beverages in schools. Stephen Gardner, staff lawyer for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and half a dozen other lawyers – several of them veterans of successful tobacco litigation – plan to file a lawsuit in the next few months seeking to ban sales of sugary beverages in schools.

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Sept 15 (Reuters) - California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation on Thursday to ban carbonated soda in state high schools as part of an effort to stem teen obesity. "California is facing an obesity epidemic," said Schwarzenegger, a former Mr. Olympia and longtime health advocate. "Today we are taking some first steps in creating a healthy future for California." He signed the legislation at the start of a daylong summit on health and obesity in the California capital Sacramento. He said that one out of three children in California, the nation's most populous state, is obese. "Obesity-related health...

JACKSONVILLE, FL -- On a hot day, there's nothing like a cool, refreshing soda. And when soda bottles are exploding on an interstate off-ramp, there's nothing like that, either. "I've only been driving about three months on my own so... got to pay attention to all the rules," said driver, Ron Fife. Fife had just picked up a trailer full of sodas from the Southeast Atlantic Beverage Company and was headed to Atlanta. "You gotta pay attention, read those signs," said Fife.

Norwegian homosexuals are set to launch their own soda brand, Homo light, at an upcoming gastronomic festival, in the hope that it will help promote tolerance, one of the authors of the project said today. "The goal is not for us to make money but to make us more visible and accepted," Oeystein Mauritzen said. Pear-flavoured and pink, Homo Light will go on sale as a one-time offer at a stand at a gastronomic festival in the southwestern town of Stavanger between July 27 and 30. Along with the soda, which will be sold in half-litre bottles for 20 kroner...

  It Takes a Village...Of Idiots!June 9, 2005 Even Hillary Clinton realized that, “No government can love a child, and no policy can substitute for a family's care.”  Yet, that is exactly what many elected officials are trying to do in state governments across country.  With real problems drifting unaddressed, many elected state officials are playing political Mommies.  Just where is it constitutionally mandated that politicians are empowered to usurp individual liberties and make lifestyle decisions...including, but not limited to what non-alcoholic beverages your children will, and will not, be allowed to drink? Connecticut, sometimes known as The Land of Steady Habits,...

"Just a few words about our favorite warrior…If you ask her, SGT Ann Olson will tell you she’s from just about anywhere – South Carolina, Virginia, and occasionally, Wisconsin. She joined the United States Army in 2000 at age 21, figuring that life just isn’t complete without an occasional controlled blast or the opportunity to accessorize in green whenever one wants. Duty called on Christmas Eve, 2004…four days later, Ann boarded a plane bound for Kuwait, and found herself in the desert south of the Iraqi border in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Today, SGT Olson is serving with the...

PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia school officials approved a policy banning the sale of carbonated soft drinks in all city schools. Starting in July, only milk, water, fruit juice and the occasional sports drink will be available from most of the district's 740 vending machines and in its cafeterias, according to rules passed Wednesday by the School Reform Commission. The 214,000-student district took the action following a January recommendation by the American Academy of Pediatrics that soft drinks be eliminated from schools as a way of fighting an obesity epidemic among young people.

Sugar and Grains Increase Depression   Depression may be the culprit behind both mental and physical health conditions. According to studies, more than normal rates of depression can be found in patients with clinically manifest type 2 diabetes. Type 2 is the most common form of diabetes and can be characterized by insulin resistance and relative insulin deficiency--either of which can be present at its onset.And, while the relationship between insulin resistance and depression is a vague and contradictory area, a more recent study may have made some headway.Treading New GroundResearchers discovered a positive connection between higher levels of...

It's Snapple or nothing for thousands of thirsty students who attend Brooklyn high schools where a new policy bans kids from carrying outside beverages into school. "It's wrong," said Shabana Mohumad, a freshman at Clara Barton High School who saw her sealed water bottle confiscated last week. "It was insulting." Barton students said they are being bullied into drinking Snapple - the only soft drink available in city schools - but education bosses insist that was not their intention. "It didn't even cross my mind," said Gloria Buckery, superintendent for Region 6 in Brooklyn. The policy was meant to reduce...

In many ways the soft drink industry is better prepared than most others to capitalize on America's perpetual diet. "There's no such thing as a no-calorie hamburger. There's no such thing as a no-calorie doughnut," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest. "But the soft drink industry already has these huge powerful brands" of diet drinks. Last year, regular soda accounted for nearly 73 percent of sales, but that was down nearly 2 percent from the year before, Sicher said. Meanwhile, diet was up more than 6 percent from 2002. Sicher thinks that trend will continue and even accelerate enough...

Yesterday was declared "National No Soda Day" by an activist organization called the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) -- presently unaffiliated with the American Medical Association. The group argued that people should cut soda "out of their diets," and urged medical students around the nation to drop their cans and preach to the rest of us. The only problem for AMSA: its anti-soda statements, and the research that supposedly backs them up, are nothing more than fizz. In a "frequently asked questions" section of AMSA's website, the group notes that soda is just the first step in its anti-food-choice crusade....

Non-Diet Drinks Also Increase Risk of Diabetes, Study Shows Women who drink non-diet soda or fruit punch every day gain weight quickly and face a sharply elevated risk of diabetes, according to a major study released yesterday. The study of more than 50,000 U.S. nurses found that those who drank just one serving of soda or fruit punch a day tended to gain much more weight than those who drank less than one a month, and had more than an 80 percent increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The risk pertained to...

Washington, DC -- Attention parents and teachers! The food police have added whole and two-percent milk to the list of "poor nutritional quality" beverages in their crosshairs, recommending that they be removed from American's schools. This and other ridiculous assertions are contained in a report being circulated by the self-described "food police" at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI). The draft report, rumored to be released this month, bears the name of CSPI's activist coalition, the National Alliance for Nutrition and Activity (NANA). NANA is part of an anti-soda crusade which advocates taxing sodas and restricting their...

Radio report said officals have isolated and are combing a Phoenix to Reagan Nat'l flight on the ground at Sky Harbor. Apparently, someone found (I'm not kidding) a soda can with a wire sticking out of it.

Obesity and lack of exercise will soon overtake smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in the US, scientists from the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. The research prompted the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC's parent, to announce a new national advertising campaign and increased research into obesity and related diseases. "Americans need to understand that [being] overweight and obesity are literally killing us," said Tommy Thompson, HHS secretary. Anti-obesity activists were sceptical that the initiative would make a significant difference. "The government took years to act as aggressively as it might...

HELENA - Money raised through a statewide soda pop tax is needed to stave off an "extreme crisis" in health care facing Montana's growing elderly population, said Charles Aagenes, director of Helena's Rocky Mountain Development Council. The state Department of Public Health and Human Services needs to come up with millions of dollars to cover the impending health care needs of aging baby boomers, said Aagenes and other officials participating in a statewide video conference on senior health care policy Thursday. Over the next 25 years, Montana's population of residents over age 60 is expected to swell from 158,000 people...

<p>Pennsylvania (Reuters) -- Philadelphia officials have banned the sale of sodas throughout the public school system, a move nutrition experts said Thursday would help guard children against obesity.</p> <p>The Philadelphia School District decided late Wednesday to end the sale of carbonated sodas in vending machines and lunch rooms. Starting July 1, schools must sell fruit juice, water, milk and flavored milk drinks instead.</p>

<p>West Salem cheerleader Andrea Boyes holds water bottles she designed to sell as a school fund-raiser. Pepsi, which has an exclusive contract with the school district, nixed the plan.</p> <p>A West Salem cheerleader’s plan to sell water violates a contract.</p>

BAGRAM, Afghanistan (AP) - A soldier accidentally fired a grenade at a shipping container full of Coca-Cola at the Bagram Air Base, the military said Friday. There were no injuries. The soldier may have been fooling around when the incident occurred, Col. Roger King said. It was unclear why the grenade was in the launcher in the first place, he said. The grenade landed next to a shipping container behind the base's PX, or general store, during the night. King did not say when the blast occurred. He said the army was investigating the incident and might punish the soldier....

Irking Coca-Cola with what could become a national trend, Los Angeles school board members plan to vote this week on whether to ban sales of soft drinks throughout the nation's second largest school district. Backed by board members Genethia Hudley Hayes and Julie Korenstein, Marlene Canter has led the groundbreaking and controversial campaign to create an un-Pepsi generation. Instead of soda, kids would be offered water, milk and drinks that have at least 50 percent juice and no added sweeteners. "(Soft drinks) have no nutritional value. They are full of sugar and caffeine," said Canter, who represents the Westside. "There...

A group of dedicated health specialists met again this week to fine-tune its plan to encourage every school in Maine to get rid of sodas, chips and other non-nutritional items. They have put together an information packet warning against soda and chips as major causes of a current epidemic of obesity and tooth decay throughout the country but especially in Maine. The packet includes research articles and fact sheets designed to persuade students, parents, teachers and school administrators that the campaign is one tangible, practical means of improving health and heading off future disease. The committee has met with vending...

<p>SACRAMENTO - With obesity increasingly becoming a problem for California's schoolchildren, one state lawmaker is proposing a tax on soda to discourage consumption and pay for programs intended to guide kids to healthier living.</p> <p>Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, said her legislation will help highlight the growing trouble children have controlling their weight while at the same time offering schools an incentive to drop lucrative contracts to sell certain brands of soda on their campuses.</p>