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aking a cue from New York City's proposed ban on sugary drinks, one Massachusetts town is looking to pass a similar crackdown to combat obesity and diabetes. Residents of Cambridge may have to sacrifice larger portions of soft drinks in its battle of the bulge, nearly a month after New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made national headlines with his own proposal. Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis submitted the proposal at a city council meeting on Monday night.

Like I said a few weeks ago, this was always the goal of the otherwise dumb soda regs. A restriction on portion sizes makes no sense when it's limited to one kind of beverage and a select few types of vendors except as a way to inure the public to more draconian regulations down the line. Ban big sodas now, let people get used to it, and then if/when the city's obesity rate dips --- for whatever reason(s) --- flog the hell out of those statistics as proof that dietary nannyism works and should be pursued more aggressively. No surprise,...

The basic case against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest crusade, to outlaw the sale of extra- large sugared soft drinks, is Libertarianism 101: In a free country, people should have the right to do what they want, even if it’s bad for them. The major exceptions and complications to this basic principle don’t seem to apply. Unlike secondhand smoke, my consumption of a Pepsi does no direct harm to anyone else. Unlike marijuana, sugary drinks have a perfectly adequate and legal substitute: sugar-free drinks. (Even if you can tell the difference between Coke and Diet Coke, you can’t claim...

Remember when Rolling Stone was cool? Yeah, me neither. But it was once a center of rock ‘n roll rebellion and fighting the system. Now it’s a just another creature of the system. On MSNBC today, RS executive editor Eric Bates came out in favor of a federal ban on large soda sizes. Sounding like a leftist spin doctor, Bates characterized the ban as a “regulation on harmful substances that people take into their bodies, and which cost the government millions and millions of dollars a year in obesity and diabetes.” Others on the panel, which came at the end...

Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to take away big sodas from New Yorkers. He wants restaurants, movie theaters and sports stadiums to be prohibited from selling sodas or other sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces. "All we are trying to do with full sugar drinks is to give people encouragement to do things in moderation," the mayor said on Sunday. What do New Yorkers say? "Fuhgetaboutit." "I really don't think that's like a great thing to do. People got to make up their own mind," says one New Yorker. "I think it's ridiculous. I think he should let people live as...

ALBANY — The New York Police Department, the mayor and the city’s top prosecutors on Monday endorsed a proposal to decriminalize the open possession of small amounts of marijuana, giving an unexpected lift to an effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to cut down on the number of people arrested as a result of police stops...

the accident happened when the 18-wheeler rolled over and lost its trailer near Riverside Drive on the northbound side of the highway just before noon. The truck was carrying a load of soft drink cans, which spilled all over the road.

A follow up to this post...

www.FinancialSurvivalNetwork.com presents: Our favorite whipping boy Little Brother aka Nanny Bloomberg, formally known as Michael Bloomberg, is at it once again. Nanny Bloomberg wants to ban sugary drinks that are sold in containers larger than 16 ounces. As usual he knows better than you, and he wants you to retain your boyish or girlish figure. But don't be too upset, you can still get that 1,000 calorie milk shake from Mickey D's and as of yet refills don't seem to be on his radar. These out of control, wannabe dictators must stay up nights thinking up these looney ideas. There's...

Several weeks ago, as further information and discovery came to the surface the whole framing of the original media narrative began to crumble, I stumbled over a reference to “DXM” in Trayvon’s Facebook history. It’s nagged at me since, at various times popping to the front of my mind when Trayvon’s drug use was mentioned, was quickly lost to other distractions. A couple of evenings ago it again came to the forefront of consideration. This time I decided to dig in, do a little research, and see if there might actually be something to it. What I found was frankly,...

Thanks to byzantine SF permitting processes, it took Juliet Pries almost two years to open the Ice Cream Bar in Cole Valley, the subject of this week's restaurant review. But the delay gave her time to change the focus of the shop, expanding from ice cream into its most distinctive feature: pre-Prohibition sodas. I talked to Pries last week just before filing my review: SFoodie: So how did the Ice Cream Bar come about? Pries: Well, it's a long story. I had been in the bar business (as part-owner of the Kezar Pub in the Haight), but did pastry before....

In this week's Appetite food and drink column in the paper, I relished the opportunity to return to a time of delicious handmade fountain drinks at Cole Valley's new Ice Cream Bar (albeit with some innovative contemporary flavor twists). In between sips of wild cherry phosphate, I got to talk to Russell Davis, the bartender who developed the fantastic soda fountain program, about the soda jerk revival -- and got him to share some of his sassafras secrets. SFBG Why is Ice Cream Bar different from other soda fountain revival spots in the US? Russell Davis There are a few...

LYNN — Police arrested a woman at a Lynn Stop & Shop Saturday after she allegedly stole $64 worth of soda cans from the store and attempted to feed them into a digital can return machine in exchange for money, according to a Lynn Police incident report. According to the report, Officer Craig Fountain was watching loss prevention video while on detail at the grocery store, located at 35 Washington St., around 8:45 p.m. when he observed 36-year-old Tina Cafarelli purchase 18 12-packs of assorted soda and pay with a state-issued electronic benefit transfer (EBT) card, which she allegedly also...

When my wife and I were shopping for groceries Saturday we picked up 2 cases of "ThrowBack" sodas(Mountain Dew, Pepsi).

Within the last few years, we have been treated to attempts by government to control our food intake with regulatory “nudges” and legislative edicts. Sugar, salt, trans-fats, fats in general, fast foods, and school lunches are just a few ingredients and food types which have come under assault by sanctimonious busybodies seeking to dictate “healthy” eating to everyone.New York Times food writer  provides the latest in we-know-what’s-best-for-you babble. In a Times op-ed, Bittman complains, “WHAT will it take to get Americans to change our eating habits?”The question itself makes a fundamentally flawed assumption and exhibits arrogance. Why is it anyone’s...

Last fall, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to cut soda and other sugar- and corn-sweetened drinks from the list of “foods” that New Yorkers can buy with federal food-stamp benefits. Lobbyists, from soda makers to grocery stores to minority advocates, have fought the proposal. They say that any restriction would represent an attack both on business and on personal freedom for the poor. That argument is flimsy. As food prices rise, and as the federal government cuts back spending, the mayor’s attempt to safeguard the taxpayer dollar is fiscally and socially sound. Back...

Texas - A Texas lawmaker says a tax on soda is one way the state can get a handle on the massive budget shortfall. The bill would put a one-cent tax per ounce of regular or diet soda sold in retail stores. Supporters say the luxury tax would give the budget a much needed boost. Lawmakers say the bill would also be beneficial because it could cause Texans to drink less soda.

After decades of increasing tobacco taxes at the federal, state, and local levels, some states are beginning to buck this fiscally burdensome and irresponsible trend. On March 17, the New Hampshire House of Representatives passed a bill that would cut the state’s cigarette tax by a dime, to $1.68 per pack. Two other states with high tobacco taxes—New Jersey and Rhode Island—are also considering proposals to reduce taxes on tobacco products to make their state’s tax rates more competitive. This reversal in policy would be fiscally responsible and especially beneficial to low-income people. Many economists have noted that many states’...

Soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages such as fruit drinks are associated with higher blood pressure levels in adults, researchers report in Hypertension: In the International Study of Macro/ Micronutrients and Blood Pressure Micronutrients and Blood Pressure(INTERMAP), for every extra sugar- sweetened beverage drunk per day participants on average had significantly higher systolic blood pressure by 1.6 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure higher by 0.8 mm Hg. This remained statistically significant even after adjusting for differences in body mass, researchers said. mercury (mm Hg) and diastolic blood pressure higher by 0.8 mm Hg. This remained statistically significant...

A California entrepreneur is marketing a new line of medical marijuana soft drinks. Canna Cola contains THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, and will only be sold in legal pot clubs.